COURT HOUSE — Middle Township officials told business leaders that while the economic future of the township remains uncertain, residents and business owners in this community have a lot too be proud of.
Mayor F. Nathan Doughty delivered his State of the Township address at the Middle Township Chamber of Commerce’s general membership meeting Tuesday, Feb. 10 at the Bellevue Tavern on South Main Street.
Doughty began his address with news on an agreement that would allow the township to complete its bike path from Goshen Road to Shell Bay Avenue, which he called the “longest bike path in the world.”
Doughty continued by noting some cost-cutting measures the township was implementing due to the recent economic downturn, which has affected government at all levels.
He lauded the township’s agreement with Dennis Township to share municipal court services. He said the township would be looking to look for similar agreements to cut expenditures and save money.
Doughty said the township is also looking to cut costs by reducing its workforce through retirements and attrition. He said the township was down to 147 full-time employees from 153 in 2007. He expects to lose two or three more by the end of the year, he said.
The mayor said he was proud of both the Recreation and Police departments, which were both very busy last year.
“Middle’s Rec Department is the best in Cape May County,” he said about the department run by director Chuck McDonnell. He said the athletic programs had jumped by nearly 100 kids each. Chamber President Bob Noel, of State Farm Insurance, also noted the Recreation staff had done an excellent job with the Christmas in Middle festivities.
Doughty said the township’s police department also did a wonderful job under difficult circumstances. Police responded to over 46,000 calls for service last year throughout the 72-square-mile municipality.
As far as the budget, Doughty said the township tax rate would remain a mystery until the state municipal aid figures were determined.
Township Administrator Mark Mallett, who recently replaced James Alexis in the post, followed Doughty’s address.
Mallett said that while the township is indeed looking to cut costs, it does so while trying to maintain the current level of service in three particular areas — public safety, infrastructure and recreation.
Under public safety, Mallett said the township would replace patrol cars and install in-car video systems.
Regarding infrastructure, he cited the upcoming Whitesboro sewer project as well as a list of other shovel-ready road projects for which the township would be seeking federal economic stimulus money.
Finally, he noted the township’s hockey rink project in Rio Grande as a popular improvement for the Recreation Department.
Following these addresses Noel snuck a friendly jab in on township officials.
As the township looks to save and make money, he told them to keep in mind that the business community would not look favorably on business registration fees, which some municipalities are considering to increase revenue.
Noel and township Engineer then gave the business leaders an update on the township’s master plan report. The two tried to demystify this ongoing land use, development and planning project, which many township residents and business owners don’t understand.
As Master Plan Committee Chairman for the past two years, Noel laid out the township’s progress. He lined up (literally on the floor in front of the podium) half a dozen documents scores of pages each with names the draft master plan, plan endorsement petition, center designation, national resource inventory, affordable housing study and finally the nitrate dilution model.
He said every time the township thinks it’s close to having an accepted plan, the state changes its mind and gives the township a new study to complete.
“It’s been very frustrating,” he said having to deal with multiple state beaurocracies including the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Community Affairs, Office of Smart Growth and the Department of Transportation which all have hands in the process.
Mayor F. Nathan Doughty concurred.
“I went there (Trenton) once (to meet with the various officials) and it took half a day for everyone to introduce themselves and nothing ever got done,” Doughty said. Needless to say, he never went back leaving subsequent meetings up to Orlando, Noel and Councilman Steve Barry.
Orlando agreed with Noel. He said he’s been dealing with the issue for 14 years when the state first implemented a development plan.
He said the state and township have different ideas about what a “town center” should be. The state, Orlando said, thinks that commercial and dense residential development should be confined in small areas so people can walk from home to work and shopping. Middle Township, however, has grown through the years with the automobile in mind.
There’d been haggling back and forth over the centers for the past few years, Orlando said, but just recently the state and township had reached an agreement paving the way for the process to finally move on.
Noel said they had turned a corner and have been more cooperative in recent months.
He said the master plan committee hopes to have a finished project to hand off to the township planning board by the end of this year for zoning changes and public hearings, it could be sent to the state for approval by the end of 2010.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com
