Leftover News & Notes from Monday's Council Meeting

Township council had a lot to talk about Monday night, with more discussion regarding the municipal complex, revaluation, and meeting schedules for 2012. They also heard from residents concerned about the possibility the police department could be placed outside the downtown in the latest incarnation of the municipal complex project.

Not everything on the agenda can make it into a full story though, so here are a few tidbits from Monday’s meeting:

• Recently retired fire chief William Ruggiano received a proclamation from council for his years of service with the fire department—though out of modesty, he declined an invitation from council to accept it publicly. Mayor John Button said Ruggiano joined when he was 16 years old, serving for nearly 50 years, 35 of them as chief. “That’s way, way over the call of duty,” said Button.

• Council declared this week as and presented proclamations to all the volunteers who have served on township committees for three years or more. The list included: Jeffrey Tait, Robert Kenney, Judith Shaw, William Wesolowski, Phil Garwood, Cindy Britton, Jeffrey Harding, Veronica Hughes, William Banks, Julie Kligerman, Doug Sell, Kenneth Miller, Kathy Carswell, Barry O’Donnell, Brian Sattinger, Steven Ems, Tami Jones, Anthony Severino, Wendy Dougherty, Joseph Murphy, and Robin Sterling.

• Council approved an ordinance appropriating another $1.5 million in bonds for planning expenses associated with the municipal complex. Township manager Scott Carew said the township only had about $200,000 left from the last bond appropriation and needed this latest appropriation to move the project forward. “This bond would allow us to take the next step, which is the engineering phase,” he said. Ideally, the $1.5 million will carry the township through to the start of construction next year, Carew said.

• Councilwoman Stacey Jordan expressed a desire to return to council’s previous meeting format in 2012: Regular meetings every other week, with workshops scheduled in between regular meetings. She said scheduling it that way would be easier than trying to schedule special meetings, which council has been doing a lot of lately. If a workshop isn’t necessary, they can just cancel it, Jordan said. “I think it’s easier to cancel a meeting than schedule one.” But Button said he was “not in favor of having more meetings than we have to have.” Council will vote on a meeting schedule for 2012 at its reorganization meeting on Jan. 9.

• Carew told council they would have to decide in January whether to move forward with a in order for the new assessments to become effective in 2013. Council discussed holding a special meeting in January, but did not take action to schedule one.

• A few residents told council they were concerned about the possibility the new municipal complex would not include a location for the downtown. Carew has suggested the possibility of placing a (with several surrounding towns) and police station somewhere outside the downtown, perhaps in an industrial zone, because the number of municipalities using the shared court would significantly increase traffic, potentially creating a headache if it were downtown. “(Police director) Harry Johnson uses the analogy that the police department is like a beehive,” Carew said. “Wherever the hive is, the bees are out working.” But resident Monique Begg was one of a handful of residents who expressed reservations, saying, “When the police department was in town, we had better control of what’s going on … You don’t take what’s needed in town and put it somewhere else, on a highway, unless it’s temporary.”

• At a recent special meeting, council directed Ragan Design Group to pursue grant opportunities for improvements to the (as part of the municipal complex project). The total estimated cost of refurbishing the Church Street complex is between $350,000-360,000, which includes roughly $90,000-95,000 to replace the gym floor and $75,000 to replace the windows. Rick Ragan, principal of the design group, said the floor has been damaged because water has gotten into it.