West Paterson loses out to Woodland Park by 29 votes

by: Jason Springer

Mon Nov 09, 2009 at 12:30:00 PM EST

What's in a name? One of the races we didn't talk about following the election last week was the vote over the naming of Woodland Park/West Paterson:

Robert DeBlock, chairman of the Committee to Save West Paterson, congratulated the Committee to Keep Woodland Park on its campaign to keep the borough's name, which culminated Tuesday when residents rejected changing the borough's name back to West Paterson by a vote of 2,226 to 2,197 - a 29-vote margin. Those totals include polling numbers as well as mail-in ballots.
"If the numbers hold - and that remains to be seen - in my mind, this debate that has spanned three decades has come to a conclusion," DeBlock said during the meeting's public comment portion.
DeBlock said it was time for borough residents - who were divided over the name change - to unite and support the town name.

The towns name was changed to Woodland Park just last year and faced a challenge almost immediately. But not everyone was willing to accept the results and name:

Nonetheless, borough resident Chris Laskowich said he planned to collect signatures for another petition to challenge the Woodland Park name.
"This isn't going away," he said.

So while they finish counting the provisional ballots and residents decide what they want to do next, for the time being it appears they will be sticking with Woodland Park and now they have to do the work of making the changes, some of which are costly:

Among the more costly items to change over will be police badges, though the total cost isn't clear yet, said Borough Administrator Kevin Galland. The badges were never changed to "Woodland Park" after last year's referendum.
The borough will continue to use envelopes with "West Paterson" in the address until they run out before ordering "Woodland Park" replacements. Name change or not, some borough infrastructure is scheduled for major maintenance, including the water tower emblazoned with "West Paterson," which hasn't been painted in 13 years.

That doesn't even count the local businesses that have to change their advertisements, signage and collateral. Businesses had been waiting for the issue to be settled to make the changes.

Jason Springer :: West Paterson loses out to Woodland Park by 29 votes