Mayors earn thumbs-up for their efforts
Numbers can sometimes be deceiving.
Other times, they’re hard to argue with.
The latter is the case when it comes to the numbers relating to East Windsor’s open space initiatives.
As reported in the Herald last week, of the 2,500 acres of preserved land in the township, close to half has been saved during Janice Mironov’s 11-year tenure as mayor. And that includes 567 acres in the last three and a half years.
Here are some impressive numbers:
Since 1994, Mercer County has awarded East Windsor $1.6 million to buy open space.
Since 1999, the state Department of Environmental Protection has given the township $3.4 million.
Developers have given the township $2 million for its open space programs and more than $3.5 million in donated land.
Balancing the needs for tax ratables and open space is often a tough task. East Windsor, and specifically Mayor Mironov, seem to know exactly how to do it.
And for that, we offer an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
Another thumbs-up goes to Hightstown Mayor Bob Patten for his effort in trying to reach a deal with Washington Township for that municipality to provide emergency medical services to the borough.
This is a more cautious thumbs-up because we don’t know how "tentative" this deal is and whether the governing bodies of the two towns will find it acceptable.
This praise may seem contradictory, given last week’s editorial which criticized Mayor Patten’s efforts toward sharing services with East Windsor, but we don’t see it that way. Those efforts have yielded no results over many months and the mayor’s comments on the value of shared services have been unclear, at best.
His latest comments and, more importantly, his actions indicate his understanding of the borough’s dire need to find cost savings.