2007: A dozen tracked stories from a dozen packed months

   For area residents, the news in 2007 ran the gamut from the familiar to the strange and sad.
   In the nothing-new category, life became more expensive for East Windsor and Hightstown denizens. And the tale of the rug mill in Hightstown started to take on “War and Peace” for its length, but with no final chapter in sight.
   On the mysterious and sorrowful side, there was the disappearance of a local woman two days after her baby was left outside an out-of-state hospital by the boy’s father, who is married to another woman.
   Here are our choices for the top local stories of 2007:
No reunion for mother, child
   On June 9, then 11-month-old Michael DiGirolamo was found abandoned outside the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del. It was soon determined that his single mother, Amy Giordano, of Hightstown, was missing – having last been seen June 7 at the Shop-Rite in East Windsor with her son and her married boyfriend, Rosario DiGirolamo, of Millstone.
   Left behind in her Mercer Street apartment were many of her and the boy’s personal belongings including her credit cards and identification.
   On June 11, it was Mr. DiGirolamo who disappeared locally. Soon after, it was revealed that the 32-year-old employee of Conair in East Windsor had jumped on a flight to Italy.
   Surprisingly, Mr. DiGirolamo returned to the States in early August to face charges of child abandonment and reckless endangering. In the interim, his wife had filed for divorce.
   Mr. DiGirolamo’s attorney claimed Ms. Giordano, 27, disappeared on her own accord and said he believed she was alive and well. Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini — who had labeled Mr. DiGirolamo a person of interest in his girlfriend’s disappearance but lacked evidence to charge him locally — expressed skepticism at that comment.
   In October, Delaware offered Mr. DiGirolamo a plea agreement. The following month he accepted that deal and was handed 18 months of probation.
   The fate of Ms. Giordano remains unknown more than six months after her disappearance.
From bad to worse for mill project
   Another year ended with Hightstown officials unable to accomplish anything toward redeveloping the former rug mill property on Bank Street, and with prospects bleaker than ever.
   This year’s mill news began in May when the Borough Council asked the Planning Board to drop a requirement that the mill redeveloper rebuild or rehab the nearby municipal building.
   The following month it was learned that the mill owner and potential redeveloper, John Wolfington, had offered the borough $350,000 in lieu of that borough hall construction. But toward the end of June, the Plan- ning Board rejected the council’s wish to exclude the construction requirement.
   Nonetheless, in September Mayor Bob Patten broke a council tie, which allowed the council to introduce an ordinance that would drop the municipal hall mandate. And two weeks later the mayor broke another tie as the council named Mr. Wolfington the redeveloper of the project with a 90-day deadline for reaching a developer’s agreement.
   However, after the expiration of that designation, a petition with 100 names opposing the ordinance and word from the local Economic Development Committee that the ordinance represented a “lost vision” for downtown revitalization, the council voted 4-2 to reject it.
   Mr. Wolfington has said there’s no way he can afford the municipal hall work. And Councilman Dave Schneider said earlier this month that the borough should begin ignoring the state’s voluntary call for affordable housing units, which has increased the number of total units planned at the mill to 130.
District budget OK’d, but…
   While the East Windsor Regional school board was able to have its $77.4 million 2007-2008 budget approved, the first one to get the nod in three years, voters soundly rejected a separate budget question setting aside $1.5 million for an all-day kindergarten program.
   That question, and another that was narrowly defeated to restore 13 teaching positions, went to both municipal councils for passage.
   Hightstown overturned the voters’ will with a split decision of its own, where Mayor Bob Patten broke the tie. But East Windsor unanimously voted down the two questions, making the borough vote moot.
   To make matters worse for the school district, a new law that changed how the spending cap left it $4 million short. The new law changed the base budget calculation from expenditures to the tax levy.
   Two identical bills in the state Legislature would allow districts affected by the change to replenish their budgets, but their fates are uncertain since they were introduced by lame ducks Sen. Ellen Karcher and Assemblyman Michael Panter.
Twin Rivers board gains court victory
   The Twin Rivers Homeowners Association got a huge victory for its policies when the state Supreme Court ruled in July that it does not violate residents’ rights of free expression.
   New Jersey Justice John E. Wallace decreed that the association’s policies are not governed by Article 1 of the state constitution and residents relinquish certain rights when entering into the agreement to live in the planned-unit development.
   The six-and-a-half-year court battle began in December 2000 when five residents formed the Committee for a Better Twin Rivers and alleged their civil rights were being violated by policies that restrict the number of political signs they can have on their properties, restrict access to the Community Room, and limit authorship in the community newsletter, “Twin Rivers Today.” The suit went through two courts before it finally landed in the state’s top bench this year.
   Association President Scott Pohl said he was “thrilled” by the decision. The attorney for the residents, Rutgers University law professor Frank Askin, surprisingly said the decision still put New Jersey ahead of the pack regarding residents’ rights because the court restricted its decision to just a few regulations.
   He said in July he had no plans to appeal.
Plans revealed for Minute Maid site
   July was a busy month when it came to news surrounding the former Minute Maid site, which lies in the borough and township.
   First, the borough Planning Board reviewed a conceptual plan for 246 condominiums and townhouses and 60,515 square feet of retail space on the 16 acres of the 37-acre site that lie in the borough. That presentation was surprisingly met that night with strong opposition from East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov, who criticized the development group for refusing to communicate with her. She also said the township opposes one of the plan’s central concepts – multifamily, multistory buildings, and specifically residential units above retail space.
   The Minute Maid land is zoned industrial in the borough, and the Planning Board began in 2007 and is continuing discussions aimed at rezoning the property for a mixed use.
   Meanwhile, the Herald learned later in July that the new owners of the property had filed a tax appeal seeking an assessment reduction from about $8.79 million to $3.85 million. If that appeal were successful, the borough would collect about $65,000 a year less in taxes, which is equal to about 3 cents on the local tax rate.
   The Minute Maid plant was the borough’s top tax generator when it closed in late 2003. The land on which it sits is one of only two significant developable parcels in the borough, the other being the former rug mill tract.
Borough votes for police study
   With the pressure of a burgeoning municipal tax rate attributed in part to $1.6 million in annual police-related expenditures, the Borough Council voted in August to seek proposals from companies to study the feasibility of having East Windsor provide its police services. The action was taken despite a lone no vote from Councilman Dave Schneider along with criticism from Mayor Bob Patten, who said the wording of the approved resolution was “insulting.”
   The township department has about 50 members, while the borough force is comprised of about 13 men.
   In October, it was learned that seven firms had applied to perform the study, which a committee of the two towns hopes to fund with a state grant yet to be applied for.
   Last week, East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov said the committee plans to interview at least three of those firms in January.
   Ironically on the same night the council approved the study, it also gave its OK to establishing a police K-9 unit. And in September the council approved a four-year contract for Police Chief James Eufemia, putting him over the $100,000 salary mark.
   When asked, Borough Administrator Candace Gallagher explained that the borough would not be responsible for his annual salaries, just pension contributions, should the force be dissolved during the four years of the chief’s new contract, which is retroactive to January 2007.
Tax revaluations delayed a year
   Tax revaluations for East Windsor and Hightstown, ordered by Mercer County in the spring of 2006, were both delayed a year until January 2009.
   In the spring, the firm hired by the borough asked the county for a delay because the state had yet to approve its contract. That request was approved.
   The delay for the township was revealed in the summer when county Tax Administrator Martin Guhl blamed a state backlog in approving local documents including the township’s tax maps.
   In general, revaluations result in one-third of taxes rising, one-third staying the same and one-third falling.
   When the county originally ordered the revaluations, township assessments were below 50 percent of fair market value and the assessments lacked uniformity, Mr. Guhl had said. In the borough, the average assessment had fallen to about 44 percent of fair market value.
   The last full-scale revaluation in East Windsor was done in 1989.
Two men stabbed; woman says they killed sister
   On Sept. 21 two men were the victims of nonfatal stabbings on the corner of Rogers Avenue and Outcalt Street in Hightstown.
   Police called it an “isolated incident” in a statement released five days later. But a borough native and Army sergeant now living in Colorado, Kian Picquet, said the stabbings were vengeance for the November 2006 murder of her sister, Kirston Greenwood, in Hamilton. She contended that the stabbing victims were the same men who killed Ms. Greenwood nearly a year earlier.
   A source in the Hamilton Police Department confirmed a connection between the stabbings and Ms. Greenwood’s November 2006 murder. But borough Detective Ben Miller repeatedly maintained that there was nothing to indicate such a connection.
   Borough police closed the stabbing case Oct. 17 citing “very uncooperative victims.”
   Ms. Greenwood’s murder case in Hamilton remains open, and Hamilton police sources say they are confident they know who the murderers are, but don’t have enough evidence to prosecute them.
Taxes, fees continue to rise
   Life got more expensive for people living in the area in 2007.
   If you’re one of the 5,000 people living in Hightstown, you received a 12-cent tax rate hike bringing your municipal taxes to $1.44 per $100 of assessed home valuation. For a home assessed at the borough average of $120,000, that’s a bill of $1,728, up $156 from 2006.
   In East Windsor, the 25,000 residents there got a 3-cent tax rate hike, bringing municipal taxes to 51 cents per $100 of assessed home valuation. For a home assessed at the township of average of $132,500, that’s a bill of $677, an increase of $41.
   For the 15,000 township residents who get a trash collection bill, that price went up too. The average cost of the fee rose $13 to $265 for a home assessed at the township average.
   Residents in Twin Rivers don’t pay township trash collection fees. Still, their association fees rose with the new budget. Residents of the 10,000-person planned unit development saw their fees go up from 50 cents to $10.20.
One newcomer tabbed for local councils
   The new year will bring a new member to the Hightstown Borough Council and four more years of a familiar team on East Windsor’s governing council.
   The chairman of the borough’s Economic Development Committee, Democrat Jeff Bond, won the most votes on Election Day in earning a three-year seat on the council. The downtown businessman and former Planning Board member will be alongside fellow Democrat and incumbent Council President Walter Sikorski, who garnered second place and won his re-election bid.
   Lone Republican and political newcomer Mike Theokas, owner of Theo’s Lakeside Tavern on Main Street, came in third in the two-seat race. Democrat Patrick Thompson did not seek re-election.
   Moving forward in some way with plans to redevelop the former rug mill site on Bank Street along with consolidation of services with neighboring East Windsor dominated the borough campaign.
   In the township, Mayor Janice Mironov, Deputy Mayor Walter Daniels Jr., and council members Marc Lippman and Marsha Weinstein were re-elected to a fourth consecutive term on the council in November. They defeated the Republican slate of retired electrician Nick DiDia, Realtor Carol Higgins, and certified public accountant and Twin Rivers board of directors Treasurer Aaron Sears by about a 2-1 margin.
   There also was a slate of three write-in Democrats — Clifford Mintz, Carolyn Garcia and Eric Thomas — which garnered less than a dozen votes each.
   While the Republicans tried to make an issue of rising taxes and what they saw as the mayor crushing any dissent, it held little resonance with voters. They chose the incumbents who spent the campaign touting their record of securing grants for township improvements and bringing new businesses and services to East Windsor.
   After the election Ms. Mironov indicated the council will continue on the same course it has been on for the past dozen years, highlighting the construction of a new YMCA building as one of her priorities.
Turnpike plan threatens properties
   The New Jersey Turnpike Authority said in September that the $2 billion plan to widen a 25-mile stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike between Interchanges 6 and 8 could include the demolition of three houses and four commercial properties in the township.
   In addition, a portion of 14 more properties, split evenly between residential and commercial, will likely be affected by the project, Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando added at the time.
   That prompted a number of worried residents to fill the township Holiday Inn’s conference room to speculate about their property values decreasing. Some business owners were anxious that the plan could destroy their livelihoods.
   Richardson Lane off Route 33 would be particularly affected, with the entire west side of the street possibly coming down to make way for a new sound barrier. In addition to some residential homes, an engineering firm and a group home owned by the Eden Institute may be on the chopping block.
What about Bob?
   In recent years the relationship between Hightstown and East Windsor has been, at best, never better than lukewarm. But in 2007, it grew much cooler, as did the relationship between Hightstown Mayor Bob Patten, a Republican, and some members of the all-Democratic Borough Council.
   On Jan. 24, East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov, Deputy Mayor Walter Daniels Jr. and Councilman Marc Lippman wrote a letter to Mayor Patten saying they were “sick and tired” of him and some borough staff members for the way they had handled the borough’s requests for shared services, and for attempting to “blame East Windsor for your financial difficulties.”
   That letter came a week after borough Public Works Director Larry Blake criticized Ms. Mironov for the way she was communicating with the borough.
   On Feb. 7, Mayor Patten quickly walked out of a meeting of the committee studying possible consolidation of the two towns’ police departments after an argument with Councilman Lippman. Mr. Patten never returned to the ongoing committee meetings.
   Two days later, Mayor Patten apparently angered some members of the local volunteer Fire Company when, during budget meetings, he said he’d like to see the company’s financial books.
   In the fall it was Borough Council President Walter Sikorski who was upset with the mayor when Mr. Patten refused to allow him to attend a meeting with officials of the New Jersey Turnpike, who are planning a major widening project.
   And just two weeks ago, usually calm Borough Councilman Ryan Rosenberg was the one angry with Mr. Patten for duping him into missing an important Economic Development Committee meeting by asking him if he’d agree to stay away if the mayor did likewise. Mr. Rosenberg agreed but the mayor attended the meeting.
   During all of this, Mayor Patten maintained his popularity with many in the local Hispanic community as he took part in an international media tour touting the borough’s 2005 no-questions-asked policy when it comes to routine police dealing with undocumented immigrants.