A warm welcome

John Warms returns to Montgomery board after nine-year absence.

By: Kara Fitzpatrick
   MONTGOMERY — After a nine-year absence, John Warms has returned to the Township Committee following his recent election with plenty of ideas to put on the table.
   Some of his objectives look distinctly like those of yesteryear; others are distinctly unlike the issues the township encountered in the past.
   Mr. Warms, a Montgomery resident for more than 30 years, was elected as a Republican in 1990 and served as mayor in 1992. In 1993, he was re-elected as an independent. He left the Township Committee in 1996 because of the pressure it imposed on his schedule.
   But this fall, he was again elected to the five-member committee. This time he pledged allegiance to the Democrats — an affiliation that Mr. Warms said he was partial to even before his days as a Republican committeeman.
   "I’ve always been a Democrat," he said. "I was a Democrat when the Republicans asked me to run in the 1990s."
   Deciding at that time to change his party affiliation to the GOP, Mr. Warms accepted the challenge. And later, he became party-free, running as an independent.
   "In 1993 and 1994, the Democratic Party (in Montgomery) wasn’t even close to what it is today," said Mr. Warms, adding that, at that time, Democrats were "very disorganized."
   Regardless of the label, Mr. Warms is ready to plunge into local issues — and tackling traffic is high up on his to-do list, as it was in the 1990s.
   In the early 1990s, with the state proposing to widen Route 206 to a four-lane highway, the Township Committee successfully negotiated itself out of the plan. The state’s plan for expansion presented a number of problems for the township, including the relocation of the Harlingen Reformed Church, Mr. Warms said.
   "It was an absolute disaster as far as we were concerned," he recalled.
   These days, traffic conflicts are centered around the planned bypass on Route 206.
   As it is currently designed, a portion of the bypass — which the state Department of Transportation says it plans to construct in 2008 or 2009 — will run from Doctors Way in Hillsborough south to the intersection of Belle Mead-Griggstown Road and Route 206, bisecting the Pike Run development in the process.
   Mr. Warms said he believes the current design needs to be revised to avoid the Pike Run development. "That design just won’t work," he said.
   Mr. Warms said he would like to see additional roads constructed to move traffic through a capillary system. "We need to get the developers to build some roads," he said.
   Development is another issue that’s familiar from his former terms on the committee. But back then, he said, it was an even more pressing issue than it is today.
   Not all of the agenda items Mr. Warms likely will confront in his new term will be familiar, however.
   Acquiring the former North Princeton Developmental Center, a 250-acre state-owned tract that has been abandoned since 1998, is a key goal for the governing body this year.
   "NPDC is going to be a big thing if we can obtain it," Mr. Warms said. But he admits the transfer may not come soon.
   "Now that we filed a suit, we’re going to play chess a little bit," he said, adding that he is "looking forward" to a time when the state and township can return to the negotiating table.
   Mr. Warms spent 32 years working for the New Jersey Education Association, primarily managing a legal services program before his 1999 retirement. So, naturally, he has an interest in local education.
   "We’ve got a school district that doesn’t get any state aid. What is happening to our school district is grossly unfair," he said. He said he wants the township to work alongside the Board of Education to obtain more state funding.
   As a longtime resident, Mr. Warms is able to bring an important perspective to the committee, said Mayor Louise Wilson.
   "He has watched the township grow incredibly and is really aware first-hand of the changes, and the impacts that (those changes) have brought," said the mayor.
   Mr. Warms is the kind of person "who can hit the ground running — he already has," said Mayor Wilson.
   With no familiar faces from the committee he was a part of a decade ago, Mr. Warms sees the new Township Committee as wishing to "control costs without eliminating services."
   He adds, "This committee is very much concerned with the opinions of the folks who live in town."
   This time around, Mr. Warms doesn’t know how long he will be in politics. "Hopefully for a while. … I may do it for the next 20 years," he said, adding that it depends on his health.
   "Local politics is very interesting. There has got to be a strong voice to protect the interests of the people," he said.