Teaneck—The town council voted Tuesday night to write an ordinance to lower the speed limit to 25 miles per hour and implement traffic calming devices, like speed bumps, in the section of the street parallel to Votee Park.

Councilman Mark J. Schwartz, who is also JLNJ’s co-publisher, once saw a child hit by a car on Palisade during soccer season. “Anything done to slow the speed of cars is much needed,” Schwartz said.

Schwartz would like to see additional parking spaces in the Votee Clubhouse lot to cut down on parking on the far side of Palisade Avenue. Councilman Henry Pruitt recommended that a police car sit in the area to ticket speeders. “We need to put teeth in some of these things,” Pruitt said.

“It is a danger to have people driving at 35 miles per hour,” said Councilman Alan Sohn.

Sohn noted that traffic studies have been done in the past approving the speed limit, but that they had been done at times with minimal pedestrian traffic rather than during the spring or summer when the park is filled with people.

Separately, it was reported that the town council is also moving forward on plans for cameras on police cruisers and body cameras. The state Attorney General’s Office approved a grant of $35,000 to purchase 70 body cameras for Teaneck police officers. The town still needs about $45,000 for back-end software and servers to support data and footage gathered from the body cameras, said Township Manager William Broughton.

Before implementing any body cameras, the council will have to develop a policy on exactly how the data will be used and stored.

By Aliza Chasan