Sees belt-tightening ahead as township holds reorganization meeting.
By: David Campbell
Louise Wilson was selected for a second year as Montgomery Township’s mayor at the municipality’s annual reorganization meeting Monday night.
The Township Committee voted 4-1, with Committeewoman Sondra Moylan dissenting, to select Ms. Wilson.
Prior to the vote, Ms. Moylan, a Republican, nominated the only other Republican on the Township Committee, Donald Matthews, for mayor and said her dissenting vote was one for Mr. Matthews, not against Ms. Wilson. Mr. Matthews said he was casting his vote for Ms. Wilson to show support for the government.
Karen Wintress was sworn in to her first full three-year term on the Township Committee, and was then nominated to serve another year as deputy mayor, which was supported by a 5-0 vote by the committee.
In November, Ms. Wintress reprised her election victory of 2001 by beating Republican Mark Caliguire by a close margin, thereby retaining her seat on the five-member Township Committee.
In 2001, Ms. Wintress was elected to the committee to finish the final year of departed Committeeman Jim Irish’s unexpired term. That year, Ms. Wintress’ victory and those of her running mates Ms. Wilson and Jennifer Wall, catapulted the Democratic Party into power in the township for the first time in nearly a decade.
In her state-of-the-township address, Mayor Wilson said the coming year would be one of "belt-tightening" in order to reduce taxes.
"The Township Committee will hold the line again on municipal taxes," the mayor said. "We will move to consolidate debt, taking advantage of historically low interest rates and clean up some very old loose ends by canceling or reallocating old debt."
Mayor Wilson went on to discuss initiatives for the coming year in the areas of roadway improvement, planning to alleviate congestion on township roads and land conservation.
The township will continue to seek state and federal funding to help implement the traffic-relief plan adopted in the summer, the mayor said, and recommended the creation of a developer-funded transportation trust fund to help pay for needed road connections and intersection improvements.
In addition, Mayor Wilson said she will ask the Budget and Finance Review Committee to work with the Open Space Committee to recommend financing strategies to preserve the largest remaining tracts of undeveloped land, and announced the creation of an Agricultural Advisory Committee to preserve the township’s remaining farms.
The mayor also expressed interest in new strategies to purchase and bank development rights to existing undeveloped land to better control future development. She also said 2003 will be the year that a deal for ownership of the North Princeton Developmental Center property will be negotiated with the state.
Mr. Matthews said it would be "obscene and immoral" for the state to relinquish control of the development center property without first cleaning up the site.
Ms. Wintress called for "fine tuning" of planning efforts in the coming year, and greater communication on the committee, and the community, staff and boards and commissions, and with the school board.