Loved Larry going to miss him.. He was a very Generous Man!!!

Sounds like the new owners are not starting out on the right foot..

Farewell to the hut! New owners should get a medal for removing it! Wish the new owners the same success as Larry. What a wonderful man! He will be missed!

So sorry to hear about new owners at Vila.... I did not know Larry personally but shopped at the store. Am also very disappointed to see the Fotomat hut gone... Used that for 10 years as a landmark when I lived off of Park Ave. I think towns need stiffer fines for people who take it upon themselves to demolish without proper permits.

Larry, we are going to miss you dearly. Thank you so much for all the years of donations to the WCFD. Your name will be enshrined in our memories forever. The best butcher this side of the hudson. God bless you in your retirement.

Sounds like another building going to close to the Ave. I can not believe these people took it down the photo booth without asking anyone????

Oh great. Now where am I going to get my Cuban cigars?

I hope that the new owners keep the quality,pricing,and knowing what people want in their sights to the community. Vila Meats was a great stable,lets hope that it stays as good as it was.

I think we should boycott the new owner just for him taking down the photo booth. That just really irks me. I loved that cute little thing. The Mayor decorated it and we could have had it there for years being decorated and a mascott for our town. It truly saddened me when it came down.

I liked the hut, but I would tell the town to go screw. If it's their property, they pay the taxes, the town does nothing to help business owners... well, of course unless you're connected and have tons of money, than you can be the Rib Wizard of Oz and cut down hundreds of trees without so much as a blink. Trees that serve a purpose? rotting hut you pay taxes on!?! hmmm, seems like we have our priorities screwed up in Caldwell. To whomever ownes Vila Meats, I would advise you to offer a few shrubs over by the police station and provide free deli meats to the building dept. Thats all it really takes to get a large misplaced structure built in Caldwell, remember you are dealing with Libs. and R.H.I.N.O.'s In Caldwell, check how many pockets they have. Also use one of the Council or Mayor's family or friends that are in construction, don't be shy to ask, family members and friends of a previous Mayor did very well before he skipped off to another town to decimate. Another thing to remember is politicians are out for the greater good...(of themselves), So get slicing and chopping if you want to hang a new sign on your new building, it's going to cost you. P.S. Don't expect much help on the parking situation so make the new building really small so you can have parking, it would be unwise to put a large building unless of course you are of the same caliber as the Platinum Cake Wizard.

the Fotomat booth...who cares..new owners,new building,no more screwed up parking lot...what can you expect from a town that buys a black hole in the cedars and now the Kof C property.....

When I hear that the mayor of Caldwell is concerned about and old eyesore being taken down and then running to the building inspectors office to issue a summons is ridiculous. She should be more concerned about the business community and their success versus trying to punish them....maybe that is why there are so many empty stores in town since the elected officials are more concerned about what is considered "Icons" or whether there are people shopping and spending money in town. Maybe someone should have put another "Nail Salon" there and revive that "Icon" and would have made the Mayor happy along with the other history experts that complain........good for the person that took it down and got rid of it........Jim the "Golf Pro"

I have to say that although I liked that booth when I was younger, I am happy to see that booth go and know that a brand new building is coming to our downtown. That is growth. That is moving forward. That is exactly what Caldwell needs. We should all buy from our local vendors and support our local businesses and economy. Good luck to the new owners - I will be one of your customers.

Never really thought of the old booth as an "icon". It was more like a bulletin board for events happening in town. Sad that this is what our mayor considers a Caldwell "icon". I agree with the person above .... the business pays taxes and if it wants to get rid of the old run down booth on their property, more power to them. The only reason the town cares that the booth is down is because they didn't get money for a permit.

I agree with the Mayor. There are some things in towns that can no be replaced and lately we are losing them all. The jail which should have somehow been saved or used for the townhomes. The tree that had to be cut down at the church. The Mayor did the right thing by finding out why this photo booth was taken down. People can not just do what the want and frankly I do not understand them taking it down without asking someone???? Now the building is going to take up the parking lot. Just imagine that end of Park Ave with everyone parking where there is no parking. The might have been better taking over the DeMarie store.

CJ next time you cut your lawn, you better call the town, or I'm going to tell the Mayor.

That Fotomat booth created a parking nightmare and was an eyesre that was out of place. Have you ever watched the cottontops that frequented Vila Meats trying to negotiate around that thing? A three piont turn turned into a 1/2 hour ordeal for them. Good riddance!

You are right WCaldwelldweller it was not the best parking arrangment but imagine what it is going to be now. NO parking if they are making that building that much bigger. People will be illegally parked all over Park AVe just like they are doing on Brookside now. That street is a nightmare at night with people using the restaurant.
Never mind I just wonder if this town is trying to put Jacks out of business. Seems like it with no parking and now a bigger food store across the street.
Jack has been wonderful to this town just like Villa and should not be hurt by all this.

there was a photo hut there?

Thank you Larry for your generosity to our veterans we wish you well.

It's amazing to me that most of the feedback is against the mayor enforcing rules of the town. The photo booth was Iconic is this town. That's the problem with society today. So quick to take down the old and put up new without any regard for history. Rules are rules and if they are broken its the job of our mayor to enforce them. Having said that; I wish Larry the best. It was always a pleasure to shop at Villa Meats. I also wish the new owners many years of success.

Oh my word, you just don't get it. People are tired of paying taxes and having NO rights. The tax payer that took down the old, eyesore hut that was blocking all of the parking in their parking lot, had every right to do so. The town is only upset because they didn't get money for a permit. "Iconic" does not describe an old booth that was only used as a billboard for upcoming events. The government is choking the people. After all of that ... good luck to the new owner, all the best to Larry.

Again I applaud the Mayor. More needs to be done in this respect. You would not want me as Mayor. I would be ticketing everyone for not following the ordinance's of the town. That is how these towns become like the citys. I have watched recently two of my neighbors not shoveling the snow from their walks. Not once have they picked the shovel up. One never did their own walks. If I were the mailman they wouldnt get mail. I have watched while the new house they are building on Wakefield were working on Sundays and Holidays. I watch while garbage cans float around the streets because people are to lazy to pick them up after the garbage is collected. I have watched while people put piles of leaves in the street when we clearly have certain weeks for leaf collection. I watched while some "illegals" were building what could have been an apartment in a garage. I am thankful for the ordinance's we have and appreciate when the Mayor does follow them or just imagine what this town would look like. If I were Mayor and I found out any of this was happening and I had to tell someone a second time. That second time would be a ticket in their hands

CJ you really are not thinking clearly... the sidewalk is the towns property, so yes if you don't shovel it you should be fined, the garbage cans blowing around on public property is diiferent than blowing around on private property, The mailman does have the option of not delivering under unsafe conditions. We are talking about Private Property rights to take down a small structure.

I guess you are right Michael but then where do you draw the line? What is a private property owner allowed to take down? There has got to be some kind of ordinance's regarding this even on private property or the town will really go down hill.
I can not believe you are in favor of this building be extended towards the Avenue. Imagine the parking there. Everyone thinks that parking lot is horrible. Well just imagine when they extend the building and there is NO parking. You think people will park in lots. NEver .They will be parking illegally all over Park ave and Bloomfield. Just like Brookside right now. Its horrible. Cars were parked there Friday night illegally all over that street. They need to do something about that street.

If they are adding or building a new structure, of course permits would have to be pulled as the new structure would need to meet current regulations. Had someone proposed to build that photo hut exactly where it stood a few weeks back, it would never had been approved for several reasons. I have offered ideas to the town, but obviously I don't have the credentials nor does Caldwell really listen to anyone not connected with political or financial power, so It's really not about making drastic changes for Caldwell, for these people it's how do we work with what we have and appease just the handful that really benefit(usually the politically connected). If you are upset about a town proposal, you go to the town meetings, If you show up with an obvious amount of citizens against it, most times they hold you off a few hours to get you bored and worn down, then they postpone the proposal for some cooked up reason so that you have to keep on your toes and go to every minute of every meeting, until finally they widdle away the group against to a small few, this works because as busy people we are trying to provide for our families and can't spend every waking minute watching what these clowns are passing. So most likely if the building is going to be moved, the new owner would have to have some clout in town, or jump through hoops to appease those with the almighty power of Government.

Cj you are right about the parking conditions, and these could have been corrected years ago, but ignored. The old repair shop on Bloomfield and Roseland was pushed out to make way for another bank, it could have been a stratigic municipal parking lot and used for the church when needed instead of the Diners lot. Personette st. should be an entrance to municipal parking and not connect all the way through so only west bound bloomfield can make a right into it for parking, east bound would have to make the left onto smull to access the parking, Personette itself would connect the lots together without pass through traffic interfering and prevents left turns from east bound bloomfield to avoid the backup by the intersection that always occurs. The exit for the diner should be on westville and brookside, and change Brookside to one way towards bloomfield ave, of course you would have to add a light so a left turn onto the Ave can be made as well as right, by doing this, you connect the diner lot to the foodtown lot,"if you go down the diner lot and it is full, you can exit westville, come up Brookside,and enter the foodtown lot, traffic wishing to exit the diner wanting to just go to the ave, can use the small access driveway that leads to Brookside, either way, the bloomfield entrance to parking would be entrance only and the lot would have 2 exits.

the foodtown lot would have 2 entrances and 2 exits, 1 exit now being between the body shop and 1 entrance at the lower end on brookside, Gould would have the 2 existing. West bound ave traffic would have roseland/westville or gould for access to south stores, forest, personnette, and smull for north stores. East bound would have gould, caldwell diner for south stores, and smull and forest for north stores. I would like to see stores chip in for valet parking on or off the ave whichever is safest for loading and unloading, and I would eliminate most bloomfield ave meters, in favor of meters possibly on Westville, Smull, Brookside, Gould, and forest. It's been awhile since I have been down those streets but i believe westville is wide enough to do that without causing a danger to the exit of the diner lot but would double check that.

of course the main focus while trying to implement something like this, would be to try to focus money's to buy property for municipal parking, instead of lots in the middle of the woods that serve no purpose. If you can get the ave to thrive again you can raise rents and taxes, right now these stores get nothing for their rent/tax dollars, and all these meters on the ave cause traffic congestion and visually block these stores.

27 personnette although maybe to far down might be utilized as the valet parking lot, I believe the town owns that building but not sure. If so knock it down for all day parking or valet parking.

21 Smull is commercial property for sale very close to the existing parking.

does that property back up against the parking lot ?

how about the american legion building? whats going on with that ghost?

I alway's thought that the photo booth could have been utilized by; the Police as an info booth and an officer presence in the 'downtown' area or the Chamber of Commerce info center