Many hurdles for Milltown in 2000 Mayor and council now receive annual stipend

Staff Writer

By nicole c. vaccaro

Many hurdles for Milltown in 2000
Mayor and council now receive annual stipend

MILLTOWN — The new year started off with a bang as Mayor Gloria Bradford appointed an ad hoc committee to explore the possibility of paying borough officials.

Those borough residents chosen to sit on the bipartisan board were announced during the Jan. 10, 2000 Borough Council meeting and were expected to return with a decision within 30 days.

By June, an ordinance had been adopted by the governing body which authorized the mayor to receive compensation of $2,000 per year and council members, $1,500 per year. The payment would be retroactive to the first of the year.

On Feb. 1, Board of Education President Tom Zorn announced his resignation after fellow board member Christine Rinaldi asked him to do so during the Jan. 31 board meeting.

Rinaldi had said Zorn no longer lived in the borough.

Zorn, who had served on the board for six years, was in his last term when he resigned with no intentions of running for re-election.

School board Vice President Liz Marquez was selected to serve as acting president until Feb. 22, when board members appointed Lois Jessen to fill the remaining two months of Zorn’s unexpired term.

Zorn’s surprise resignation came only one month after Superintendent of Schools Walter Boright, also serving as principal of Parkview School, announced that he would be stepping down.

Then, on Feb. 2, Joyce Kilmer School Principal Bertram Nussbaum announced his retirement, leaving the board to fill three major jobs in the district.

On March 21, borough officials teamed up with officials in Old Bridge and Edison to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition against Cablevision of Raritan Valley.

The primary issue of discontent voiced by all three towns had to do with switching local access programming from Channel 34 to 71.

Officials feared this change would affect those residents with converters that went only as high as Channel 36.

In May, the Middlesex Access Coalition was formed, with Sayreville, North Brunswick and Metuchen joining the fight.

In August, however, the borough’s own Local Access Channel Committee seemed to be making the best of the situation, as the mayor and council agreed to allow their meetings to be aired live on Milltown’s Cable Access Channel 71 every Monday night.

This fall the borough received word that its crime rate had gone up, which officers speculated was related to the opening of Ryder’s Crossing, a new shopping mall.

The state’s annual crime report tracked a 107 percent growth in reported burglaries between 1998 and 1999, resulting in a 38.09 percent increase over 15 years.

Furthermore, larceny increased 29 percent this year, 88 percent since 1985.

Since then the Milltown Police Department has been applying for grants to assist with the hiring of additional officers.

On Nov. 19, the borough was hit with more misfortune as the Chicopee diaper plant on Ford Avenue burst into flames.

The blaze took nearly 24 hours to extinguish, requiring fire fighters from throughout Middlesex County to be called out for assistance.

Luckily no serious injuries were reported; however, fighting the blaze was costly.

While a cause of the fire has yet to be determined by the assistant county prosecutor’s office, borough officials will continue to pursue reimbursement of fees from the factory’s owner, Lawrence Berger.

Despite everything, the borough has managed to end the year on a positive note, as officials have agreed to consider the possibility of constructing a skate park in town.

A motion to look into the matter was passed during the Nov. 13 council meeting only a month or so after 9-year-old resident Ricky Snell wrote a letter to council members begging them for a place to skate.

Currently, Ricky’s mom, Kathy, allows approximately 30 to 40 children to skate on small ramps outside her home.

On Dec. 13, Ricky spoke during the regular council meeting, once again pleading for their prompt attention to the matter.

At that point, resident Bob Gillespie volunteered to investigate insurance costs and other details from neighboring towns so that the council could make an informed decision in the new year.