Halfway through my 3rd month as Committeeman I could say "the honeymoon is over".. or the optimistic side of me would say "this is why you were elected to office, now get to it".
This week a good portion of the time was dedicated to the defeated fire district budget and the 3/11 public hearing. I met with several fire officials on Tuesday and throughout the week exchanged emails and face to face discussions with various citizens about the fire district.
At the public hearing I counted 26 separate public testimonies; some in favor of the budget, others opposed, and others with opinions that had no exact bearing to the budget discussion. To my estimate there were about 75 people present- what a turn out- but not to my surprise, once the fire budget issue was decided, we took a quick break and the entire public audience left except for about 7 folks- most whom I kindly refer to as our "season ticket holders".
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On with the weekly wrap-up:
Tuesday March 9 I met with the officials from the fire district to discuss their budget. My questions were answered in a satisfactory manner, and my concerns were duly noted. Overall it was a fine meeting. After this meeting I headed on to the Municipal Building for our Recreation Commission meeting. There were not enough members present for a quorum but I did have a nice chat with member Sherrie Peterson who told me about her involvement with the county 4-H program. Not to waste a fine night out I stopped by our Construction Official's office and our Zoning Officer to see how things were going.
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Wednesday March 10 was our Land Use Board meeting- workshop session. The Board adopted our Natural Resource Inventory (NRI)- a document which to have on the township website shortly. The NRI documents and describes the natural resource characteristics and environmental features of a community utilizing text, maps, and geographical information system (GIS) data. The NRI provides guidance for the protection, preservation and conservation of these resources.
The only other business item was a presentation of the County prepared Wastewater Management Plan / septic build out for Franklin Township.
http://www.co.hunterdon.nj.us/planning/stormwater/Roundtable/HCWMPPresentation.pdf
Our township engineer Rick Roseberry of Maser Consultants provided us with an update on the county study and how it effects Franklin Township. He interpreted the summary of build out numbers generated through the NJDEP Model Builder. The county provided map had some notable errors, and there were many questions about how dilution rates were calculated. The study also brought home the ugly fact that Franklin is not an island and the impact of the watershed knows no municipal boundaries.. we can zone our land in an environmentally sensitive manner but if adjoining municipalities do not share the same interests, the watersheds can still be polluted. Regardless, the study left us with more questions than answers and we will have to have a county planner in to one of our meetings to further discuss this study and the impacts it will have on Franklin.
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March 11 was the Township Committee meeting. The first 1.5 hours was dedicated to hearing comments from the public about the fire district budget. At the end of public comment, the Committee discussed their positions and decided to reduce the $305,000 budget by $5,000 resulting in a $300,000 budget. I also volunteered to attend a Firefighters Grant Workshop on March 18 being held by Congressman Rush Holt's office to inform fire companies in his district about federal grant opportunities. Hopefully we will be able to ascertain some grant money to make up the $5,000 difference and more.
After the fire district hearing we approved the payment of bills between February 25 and March 11 totaling $1,494,425.67. Why so much? The top 2 items were $822,374.17 for the Franklin Board of Education, and $546,372.46 to North Hunterdon/Voorhees school district.
Our public works department and police director gave their monthly reports for February. We approved final payment to improvements made to Matthew drive, including a maintenance bond.. so if the improvements aren't up to snuff, the work is bonded.
The Committee approved Resolution 2010-24 supporting Governor Christie in efforts to reduce state spending.. and the respective subcommittee members gave reports on the Open Space, Land Use Board, Environmental Commission, and Recreation Commission.
If you haven't done so yet, go to the township website at http://www.franklin-twp.org/ and sign up to have meeting agendas and minutes sent directly to the email address of your choice. Don't let local government blow by you, become involved and be informed.
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On Saturday March 13 I attended a Board of Education meeting. Members of the Board provided citizens with an update on the school addition. The meeting was informative and I hope they continue to host such meetings and keep their website up to date in order to keep us all informed on our investment- the school addition.
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This coming week I get off easy.. we have a budget workshop session on Monday night and I will be attending that grant workshop on Thursday. As always you can reach me at scottsbauman@gmail.com or by telephone at 908-797-4140.
Scott
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