North Bergen-NJ

9 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 6 TOWNSHI P OF NORTH BERGEN of opportunity for people to interact and share their thoughts,” Schwartz asserts. The township’s highly accredited police department also holds meetings at various locations throughout North Bergen, inviting the public to come and share their thoughts and concerns directly. “Thanks to their focus on community policing, cutting-edge technology, and other innovative strategies, we have been listed as among the safest municipalities in the state,” he remarks. “We have got a great chief, a great department, with 130 sworn personnel and 30 more civilian personnel. The mayor implemented a resident- only hiring policy, and what that means is that not just the police officers, but everybody working for the town lives here, so the demographics reflect the community and everyone is fully invested in the township’s progress and success.” Other crucial community partners include the North Bergen School District, North Bergen Free Public Library, and the municipal parking and utilities authorities. “Without those partnerships, I don’t think that we’d be able to function as smoothly as we currently do, and that is because we all share the same vision. Each is an independent entity, they have their own directors and their own boards, but in the end, we all come together, and we share the same vision to improve our community,” Castro conveys. An example of the strength of these collaborations is in the newest branch of the library, a large facility in North Bergen’s downtown, with an attached rec center. “That was a $20 million project. It’s beautiful, it’s a great facility, it has a turf roof, there’s a running track inside, it’s really got everything you could want,” portrays Schwartz. Castro continues, “We collaborate so well with our library that we literally have merged programming. We work amazingly well together, serving and engaging our community.” Looking to the future, the development and revitalization of downtown is an ongoing focus, with the new library just the beginning. Schwartz explains, “Over the past few years, we had a very large development constructed in downtown called Hudson Mews. As part of the