By kathy baratta
Staff Writer
Open space is in, garbage collection is out. The Howell Township Coun-cil has approved placing an open space referendum question on the November ballot, but a proposal to ask voters whether garbage collection should be a municipal service has been trashed.
The open space ballot question will ask voters to approve an addition of 1 cent to Howell’s open space tax. At present, property owners pay 1 cent per $100 of assessed valuation for open space and farmland preservation purposes. The owner of a home assessed at $200,000 pays $20 per year into the fund.
The new proposal, if approved, would also give local government the ability to purchase land for recreation purposes. The open space assessment would total 2 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That means the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would pay $40 per year into the fund.
Before the open space proposal was approved, Preservation Task Force Chairman John Costigan told the council he was concerned that adding a recreational component into the open space fund would dilute the money that would ultimately go toward farmland preservation.
Costigan, noting that proposed changes in the parameters governing farmland eligibility may mean that towns such as Howell, with smaller farms, may have to contribute more toward land acquisition, said, "We need that penny.
"I have no problem with money for recreation; I just don’t think it should be mixed in with this," Costigan added.
Deputy Mayor Peter Tobasco said the proposed ordinance states that the open space money can only be used to purchase the land, not develop it.
"It doesn’t talk about bricks and mortar," he said.
As for the garbage proposal, Tobasco and Councilman Juan Malave expressed concern that the language in the proposed ordinance — where it talks about calculating the cost based on the assessed property value — was too ambiguous. The proposal could not be reworked in time to place it on the November ballot, officials said.
Also on the ballot in November is a referendum question asking voters to approve a pension program for emergency service volunteers. The plan is known as the Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP).