FANWOOD — The borough council on Monday introduced an ordinance that will put Fanwood in compliance with state regulations that establish fees that can be collected by municipalities from filmmakers working in their towns.
A year ago, the council took an initial step toward making Fanwood a “film ready” community by adopting an ordinance that formally sets out a process for television- and movie-production companies to apply to film in the borough. At the time, Mayor Colleen Mahr spoke about the “heavy economic development component” of being a film ready community, with studios and their employees and actors being in town to film and also spending money at local businesses.
At this week’s council meeting, Borough Administrator Jesse Moehlman said Fanwood is “on the two-yard line” toward becoming a film-ready town. Last year, in an effort to make communities more enticing to studios, the state lowered the fees that towns can collect from filmmakers. Incorporating the state fee structure into the local ordinance, which will be voted on at the governing body’s Monday, May 19 meeting, will then lead to the borough being recognized as film-ready, a designation enjoyed by only a handful of communities in the state, Mr. Moehlman said.
In other business, the council entered into a multi-year agreement with Grand Sanitation Service Inc. to collect, transport and dispose of recyclables. The three-year contract, which will take effect next January 1, will amount to $150,000 in 2026, $154,500 in 2027 and $159,000 in 2028. The contract includes two, one-year options to renew. Another contract approved on Monday, this one for $275,000, will authorize ATT Sports Inc. to resurface the tennis courts at La Grande Park and also install new nets and posts and re-do the walkway around the courts.
Another ordinance introduced on Monday will update the borough’s permit fees for firearms. A few years back, the state revised the fees but Lt. Dan Kranz noticed the local ordinance does not include those updated fees and brought it to the administration’s attention.
At its May 19 meeting, the council will hold a public hearing before voting on the 2025 operating budget, which amounts to just over $12.18 million and includes a $90.70 increase in average municipal property-tax bills.
At the start of the meeting, Cassidy Fitzgerald, a high-school junior, spoke to the council about her Girl Scout Gold Award project, which will be the installation at La Grande Park of an inclusive playground communication board that will allow children who might be deaf or autistic or have other special needs to communicate while using the playground. She said there currently are such boards at Ponderosa Park in Scotch Plains and four at parks in Westfield. “It’s an important issue to me,” she told the governing body, which greeted her idea enthusiastically.
In a separate matter, Richard Hawkins was sworn in as public defender by Mayor Mahr, who later read a proclamation declaring May as Mental Health Awareness Month.
