PLUMSTED — The township has been picked as the winner of the 2004 “Innovation in Governance” award by the New Jersey League of Municipalities and the state Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
Mayor Ronald S. Dancer said the theme for this year’s award was “Shared Services.”
Dancer said Plumsted and neighboring Upper Freehold Township were expected to have been honored on Nov. 17 at the New Jer-sey League of Munic-ipalities Convention in Atlantic City.
Dancer said both towns received the award due to their efforts to work together to save taxpayers money by sharing the services of an animal control officer as well as the cost of purchasing the vehicle for animal transport.
According to Dancer, who is also a state assemblyman, new state regulations went into effect that require climate-controlled animal transport vehicles for the well being of animals, especially in the heat of summer.
Dancer said rather than having each town purchase a new animal transport vehicle to conform with the requirements, the Plumsted and Upper Freehold governing bodies approved a shared service agreement that allows them to share the expenses.
According to Dancer, a new vehicle would have cost each town about $30,000. Sharing cut the cost to each municipality in half.
In other business, Dancer said the Township Committee authorized the filing of a $1 million grant application to the DCA for the Neighborhood Preser-vation Program.
Dancer said under terms of the grant, Plumsted could receive $200,000 per year for five years toward revitalizing the downtown New Egypt business district.
He said if the grant is awarded, the $1 million could be used for property rehabilitation, public facility and infrastructure improvements.
He said the township qualifies for the grant due to a newly adopted redevelopment plan ordinance that designated the commercial zone of downtown New Egypt as a redevelopment area and “town center” designation.