DPW takeover of Parking Authority is going smoothly

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — With the recent dissolution of the Bloomfield Parking Authority and its functions being assumed by the township, parking enforcement has been passed to the Bloomfield Police Department and maintenance is being done by the Department of Public Works and Parks.
According DPW&P Director Anthony Nesto, his department will be responsible for maintaining parking meters, filling potholes in parking areas, picking up the trash, striping parking areas and maintaining signage for outside parking lots and the parking deck.

Two former BPA maintenance workers, he said, were hired by the township. They now report to Steve Siciliano, the manager of parks and grounds.
Nesto said Siciliano has been a Bloomfield municipal employee for 35 years.

The BPA was an autonomous entity and did not answer to the council but had its own commissioners. But on Sept. 19, the township announced that it would create a parking utility and dissolve the BPA. Mayor Michael Venezia said this is expected to save $200,000 annually for taxpayers.
Both Venezia and Township Administrator Matthew Watkins said the township and the BPA had been providing overlapping services. The elimination of the BPA was approved by the NJ Department of Community Affairs which agreed that $200,000 would be saved annually by the taxpayers.

In the past, the DPW&P provided maintenance assistance to the BPA but never got involved with parking meters or pay stations. That has now changed. Nesto said the two former BPA maintenance workers working for him are invaluable.

“They know me, my style,” he said. “You come in and give a good, honest day of work for Bloomfield and there’s no problem. When the BPA dissolved, they could have been out of work. But we couldn’t get the job done without those two guys. And we haven’t skipped a beat.”

Regarding the parking meters in Bloomfield, he said there are many needing maintenance or repair. His department is actively engaged in this work.

“We had to figure out how many meters needed repair,” Nesto said. “The two guys that transferred are in the grounds department. But we can still use those two guys for leaf and snow removals.”

But he figures once the transition period is over, the BPA transfers will be doing parking-related work 85 percent of the time.
Nesto has 55 workers in his department now. Four are clerical/administrative; 41 are full time supervisory/ maintenance and 10 are part-timers.
“If we don’t have the 10 part-time workers, we fall way behind,” he said. “Every day, there’s four or five part-timers working. It’s a huge help.”

In addition to two new public works employees, the DPW&P has also acquired painting-machine equipment and a pickup truck from the BPA. Nesto said he appreciates the mayor and council, and the township administrator for their support in giving him the tools and personnel to get the job done.

“They very rarely have tied my hands,” he said of the council. “This support translates into a better quality of life for our residents.”