Mayor Colletti outlines 2025 fiscal context, credits ARPA funds for limiting tax impacts

Mayor Robert Colletti used the reorganization meeting to summarize Elmwood Park’s recent fiscal and operational priorities and to set a tone for 2026. He told the council and audience that while the borough experienced its second tax increase in as many years, the $2,000,000 the borough received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) helped avoid even larger increases.

Colletti credited grant funding for much of the borough’s street-paving program and said park upgrades and public-safety investments — including a recently formed paid ambulance department — improved response times. He said Elmwood Park has reduced the number of cannabis licenses the borough had previously approved and noted that four dispensaries now operate on Route 46 between River Road and the Boulevard.

The mayor framed the coming year around cooperation and steady stewardship: he said leaders should leave partisan divisions outside the dais and focus on delivering services and protecting taxpayers. Colletti closed by thanking municipal professionals and volunteers and asking the council to work in unity to move the borough forward in 2026.

No formal budget votes were taken at the meeting; the mayor’s remarks provided context for previously passed appropriations and the contracts and appointments the council approved during the session.