The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 28

LOCAL HEWS TUESDAY.1 L-8 THE RECORD platform, and the parking lot STATION: Wood-Ridge building will reopen dle of old fluorescent lights that had just been removed from the ceiling. "It's like, you're getting me to work on time, however, look what I have to go through to wait for the train. How can you ask people to stand outside and wait for trains? It's crazy." "ItH probably be better maintained than some of our other stations," Coleman said. In July, Haley and DeLibero launched a $1 million program to update nearly a dozen NJ Transit train stations, including installing new roofs, new signs, updating bathrooms, and improving lighting and stairways. DeLibero said the effort recognizes such problems as those faced by Wood-Ridge commuters.

"People appreciate the fact that our service is quality service, but now it's the next step," DeLibero said, walking gingerly over a bun means fewer people will have to drive to Rutherford in search of a warm station a commute that is at best inconvenient and at worst exasperating in rush hour. Commuters are looking forward to having their building back. 'To build that nice building and close it and leave it there was very frustrating," said DresseL who, along with her husband, Jim, has been periodically writing letters and phoning NJ Transit over the last 10 years to reopen the build ing. "And it was very definitely annoying in the rain, where there's just a little bitty overhang, and you'd find 50 people trying to squeeze under it" "Fixing it up, we're all for it," said Douglas John Bowen, president of the New Jersey Associ: ation of Railroad Passengers. "We think stations should be more than bus shelters.

People are exposed to the elements, and that's not conducive to good public transportation, especially with the baby boomers and the Generation X-ers. Comfort expectations have risen dramatically, and if you can't even give them the basics, you have no chance." Bowen said that although his group supports the station reopening, he has raised concerns about its upkeep. NJ Transit spokesman Steve Coleman said the station will have two full-time maintenance workers based inside the building, and that they will also be responsible for the grounds, the From Page L-1 disabled, repaying of the chewed-up platform, new parking lot lighting, and maybe even a coffee vending machine. Workers recently began painting and fixing the plumbing and lighting inside the tiny station building, which sits in a remote area off Route 17 and Moonachie Road. When they pulled off the boards from the windows and opened the door, it wasn't pretty.

The roof had been leaking for years, a graffiti artist had scrawled "Big Guy" -Mil. to! all over the place, and the maroon tile was barely detectable under several layers of grime, "We found a lot of water, a lot of mmoo (DM (mm TTD For 12-full hours tomorrow lo every store. Everything's is prii room, living room, family roo treatments, home off rugs, everything's at buy-no and ends tomorrow 1 si best One Day Sale of all!" BE I AV0MG CDF i OFF 12 DflOILIIRS! stench, and broken toilets, said Don Jones, NJ Transit's supervisor of structures. "We had to open it up and dry it out." NJ Transit pulled its ticket agent from the station in 1981, then closed the building six years later in an attempt to curtail vandalism. At one point the agency gave two commuters a key to open and close the station.

But eventually the building was simply moth-balled. The reason for the shutdown? Lack of money. Wood-Ridge wasn't alone. Stations on other lines, including one in Plainfield on the Raritan Valley Line, were padlocked for years as well. The decision to reopen the Wood-Ridge station building comes after many complaints from riders, and as part of an effort by Transportation Commissioner John J.

Haley Jr. to spruce up train stations. "People were definitely complaining," said NJ Transit Executive Director Shirley DeLibero, who toured the Wood-Ridge station last week to check the progress of the rehabilitation work. "They were standing out there in the snow, and we're asking them to ride trains." Closing the station may have been partly to blame for a significant drop in ridership. In 1990 there were 200 riders using Wood-Ridge, compared with 155 today, said Vincent Olsen, NJ Transit's general superintendent for stations and revenue.

New parking fees accounted for some of the drop. Local leaders also were concerned about the station, which had become an eyesore. Assemblywoman Rose Marie Heck, R-Hasbrouck Heights, brought the complaints to DeLibero's attention about six months ago after receiving a letter from a rider. "This is a blessing for people who've waited and wanted it for so long," Heck said. "Shirley was very responsive.

She moved it very quickly for us because it was the right thing to do, and everyone agreed." Heck said reopening the station DISPATCHER From Page L-1 Loccke said the police have long argued that sworn officers are better equipped to answer and dispatch police calls because they have on-the-street experience. Nevertheless, Loccke said the union was not dead-set against civilian dispatchers. In fact, the majority of towns in Bergen County already use them. "All this ruling says is that they have to sit down and negotiate the issue before they snatch away those jobs," Loccke said. "Bogota took an imperious attitude.

They didn't want to negotiate. They just wanted to dictate all of the terms and conditions and expected us to accept them." A separate ruling by an arbitrator on Sept. 19 granted the officers two consecutive 4.5 percent raises, more than double what the town had requested. The police raises cover 1996 and 1997, and do not apply to the police chief, who makes $82,329 a year. Bogota, a town of 7,900 people, is seven-tenths of a square mile.

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Bernice Edwards pleaded with the school to void the suspensions until the Board of Education holds a hearing, but was turned down. "I'm upset about not being given the time for the (school board to listen and hear what my kids have to say," she said. "Ten days is a long time for thorn to be out of school." This richly finished 6 pc. cherry dining room featuring handsome 18th century styling It accented with brats hardware. Includes Queen Anne oval table, 6 chairs and china.

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