Area towns taking lead in shared services
By Mae Rhine, Managing Editor
Although the state has failed to take steps to encourage governments at all levels to share or consolidate services, it’s heartening to see municipalities and school districts in this area take the lead.
Two elementary schools, Lambertville Public School and West Amwell Elementary School, are sharing a superintendent. Now they plan to look into sharing a business administrator as well.
And Lambertville and West Amwell are looking into sharing the cost of trash pickup and recycling.
These are just a few of the examples of how towns in southern Hunterdon County are trying to save money.
In the meantime, despite a report released last year, the state is dragging its feet. The report found neighboring towns paid different rates for everything from garbage collection to street cleaning; school districts spent more money to purchase items separately than they would have if they had purchased them jointly; and counties were wasting opportunities to share or combine efforts to provide more efficient and cost-effective services.
The report offered 18 specific recommendations aimed at reducing what it called “redundancy and inefficiency.”
Among them were moving school board elections to November and eliminating the April budget vote, except for budgets that exceed the cap, and streamlining the process for sharing services and municipal consolidation.
The committee’s report made the observation it was time for state government to take the lead in promoting shared municipal and school services.
But many municipalities, including those in southern Hunterdon, are tired of waiting for the state to do something and are coming up with their own ways to save money.
There are things the state could do. For example, a state law governing shared services provides grants only when school districts share services with towns, not with each other. That’s one thing the state could change to encourage districts such as Lambertville and West Amwell to keep working together.
We’re encouraged by the efforts made by the municipalities in our area. We hope the state follows their lead.

