JFK Parkway, looking south, is resurfaced and ready for traffic lines.
Progress in Bloomfield has been extensive over the last year.
In 2024, the engineering department resurfaced 3.3 linear miles of roadway. This year, another 18 streets will be resurfaced.
“Many of these projects include stormwater drainage improvements, installation of new curbing, traffic signal upgrades and installation of ADA compliant handicap ramps at the intersections,” said Paul Lasek, the chief engineer.
Carry-over resurfacing, from last year, is completed, or will be, on JFK Drive, from Liberty Street to Belleville Avenue; State Street, from Broad Street to Belleville Avenue, and Grace, Thornton and Westcott streets.
In 2024, the resurfacing of streets was considerable. Resurfaced were: Chester, Garrabrant and Evergreen avenues; Almira, Davis, Pettit, Thomas, Washington, Pilch, North Spring and Polanski streets; Comely Place and Tomar Court.
Another township priority has been the lead service line replacement program. The Bloomfield water system consists of approximately 11,000 service connections to township watermains. It is estimated approximately 4,000 to 5,500 of the service lines are lead or galvanized.
To date, 3,400 lines have been inventoried and 1,345 lead service lines have been removed or replaced. The work will continue, utilizing I-Bank funding, until the township reaches its goal of total removal by 2031 or sooner in compliance with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s mandate to eliminate all such lines by 2031.
Demolition of the old Department of Public Works building has been recently completed with the contractor to complete the final grading pending inspection.
The engineering department has also implemented artificial intelligence in its road maintenance efforts, in partnership with the public works department.
Street sweepers have been equipped with an advanced AI-powered camera system that maps and assesses every road in town. The AI system scans streets and provides a grading scale to prioritize and help identify road imperfections. It also maps fire hydrants and catch basins.
At the fire department, this year each firefighter received a bailout harness for safety when descending a burning building. Training, as always, is a critical asset, at the department. Twenty-five members of the department received certification by the National Fire Protection Program to identify and address safety concerns while effectively communicating solutions to command authorities.
New building developments OK’ed by the planning board over the last 12 months include:
On Bloomfield Avenue and Farrand Street, a six-story mixed-use building with 30 residential units and 713 square feet of retail and 30 parking spaces on the ground floor;
Near Bloomfield College, on Broad Street, a six story mixed-use building with 125 residential units, 6.500 square feet of ground floor retail and 223 parking spaces in a three-level garage;
At 230 Broad St., a medical office on ground floor and residential unit on the second floor;
At 243 Board St., a Wendy’s & Taco Bell restaurant sharing one building to be constructed.
In Bloomfield Center, restaurants and other businesses have been popping up. Ollyn Lettman, the director of the Bloomfield Center Alliance, said the center is considered the corridor along Bloomfield Avenue, from Veneer Park to Watsessing Avenue.
“Most exciting is the Hometown Arcade,” Lettman said. “It’s a pinball venue and doing very well. Studio Air, a fitness studio, opened last June and Six Points Pizzeria opened last month.”
There were also two cannabis dispensaries, he said, which opened: Night Jar Cannabis, which is female-owned and Public Garden Dispensary.
Lettman said there was also a micro-brewery that opened: Variatage Brewery; a Mediterranean restaurant, Rumi, in the building where the Glenwood Diner resided and Bacio Nero Italian Bakery.
And finally, Lt. Daniel Niekrasz, of the Bloomfield Police Department identified several new items since last year; the department added four new police vehicles, three are Ford Explorers which are used as patrol vehicles.
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