The Borough of North Arlington, New Jersey

THE BOROUGH OF NORTH ARL INGTON, NEW JERSEY of town (on the Passaic River) and we’re talking to developers to entice them to donate trees as they develop in our town.” Mayor Pronti also points to the Borough’s recreation fields as a source of community pride. “Back in 2013, when I was new on the Council, my very first project I set out to accomplish was to overhaul and have lights installed on our soccer field. We had a field that was in a flood prone area and was becoming worn out,” he recounts. “Many days were lost to the weather and lights would have given our young athletes more playing time. The administration that was in place, back then, frowned on my project. I was frustrated, but as the years progressed, I continued to make it one of my priorities. Since Council President Karcic came on the Council, we’ve worked together on enhancements of all of our recreation facilities. Since that time, we not only lit up our soccer field, allowing for night-time use, but we put a state-of-the-art, synthetic turf on our soccer field, our softball field, and our Little League field. Years ago, we were barely able to use our fields and facilities and now the kids are proud to show other teams that come here what a great facility we have. We no longer have fields that umpires deem unsafe. So, it really makes a big difference.” Karcic adds, “Our businesses are very active in the community events, and the recreational sports leagues. It’s good PR for them, because when there’s the name of a new pizza place on a softball jersey, people are going to flock there; people in our town support the businesses that support the town.” Borough Administrator Steve Loiacono is also proud of North Arlington’s financial stability and how it has come about. “The Mayor just went over lighting and turf, which, in total, cost us about $4 million,” he reports “And we’re doing more paving than was ever done before; we’ve