By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — The Township Committee recently concluded that budgets for its public works and engineering departments should be significantly lower than what the department heads had requested.
Both departments are seeing larger cuts in their capital budgets for 2008 than any other township departments due to market constraints with increasing energy costs generating higher prices for most construction materials, Mayor Cecilia Birge said.
Public Works is also one of the township’s two departments seeing the largest cuts in its operating budget, with the police department being the other, according to the mayor. These cuts stem from the 3.5-percent operating budget cap and the 4-percent property tax cap mandated by the state this year, she said.
”What people will see is it will take longer to do road repairs, parks may not be maintained as well and snow removal may not be as quick and clean as people expect it,” Mayor Birge said.
During the March 20 Township Committee meeting, the engineering department’s proposed capital budget was unofficially reduced to $2.3 million. The Township Committee also recommended approvals to reductions in the capital and operating budgets for several areas of public works, during the meeting.
For the Public Works Department, a smaller operating budget means it may not be able to do as much work on township roads and parks during the summer as usual, according to public works superintendent Art Villano.
He said the department’s 2008 budget is 10- to 12-percent smaller than the already tight budget the department had proposed to the township.
”We’re definitely going to be working under some really tough constraints and we’ll still try to do everything we normally do but it’s going to be hard,” Mr. Villano said.
Snow plowing is one specific function of the department that has been allocated less money this year than it requested. According to Mayor Birge, the Township Committee has only budgeted for two major snow storms.
”Let’s say you start with $300,000. If you had a lot of snow storms all coming out of $300,000, by the time you get to summer projects, like road pavings, the $300,000 will have come way down because of the snow storms,” Mr. Villano said.
”We’ve only had two major snowstorms this year, but we had plenty of ice conditions,” Mr. Villano added. “We’ve been out a lot salting, because of the cold temperatures we’ve experienced. We’ve just as much material going out for the ice conditions as we’ve had for a lot of little storms, so we’ve had a pretty good hit toward that part of the budget already and still have to plan for November and December. After we pay out all our snow costs, we’ll be lucky if we’re able to pave through August.”
He added, “I think not having as much money to do paving is going to be a big concern this year, because of the type of winter we had. Between the combination of frost and warm temperatures which breaks up the road, and a lot of rain, I think there’s a little more repair work to do than normal this year.”
Another disappointment for the Public Works Department is that it will not have enough money to hire the part-time secretary it requested.
”Everybody has to pitch in a little bit more,” Mr. Villano said. “We’ll work as a team and do as much as we can.”
An asphalt-making truck, which Mr. Villano said he thought would have been a huge help for the township, is among the items cut from the department’s proposed capital budget.
For the Engineering Department, cuts to its capital budget will delay several roads projects.
The township’s engineer, Gail Smith, said the reconstruction of Spring Hill Road was the only capital project the department will have the money to complete this year.
According to Mayor Birge, without the $200,000 state Department of Transportation local aid grant the township received for reconstructing Spring Hill Road, this project also would have been put on hold. The approximately 2½-mile two-lane road has undergone several rounds of chip sealing and paving in various segments. Because of the road’s dirt base, improving the safety of the road would require a full reconstruction, Ms. Smith said.
The $2.2 million project is primarily being paid for by the township, but East Amwell will be contributing approximately $200,000 to cover the costs of improving the portion of the road under its jurisdiction, Ms. Smith said. The project will probably be released for bids in the next couple of months.
Priority road projects for the engineering department that had to be pushed to upcoming years include reconstructing Orchard Road, Fairview Road, East Mount View Road, Rutland Road and Wiggins Road and creating the Route 518-206 northwest inner connector road, often called the Tiger’s Tale loop road. The new road would begin at the west property line of National Auto Parts on Route 518, run behind the Tiger’s Tale restaurant and connect to Route 206 between the Tiger’s Tale and a Public Service Electric & Gas Co. substation.
”One of the results down the road is we will not be able to get started sooner on the design phases of some of these projects like Orchard Road, putting off the actual reconstruction of these roads until several years down the road,” Ms. Smith said.
Mayor Birge said cuts to the police department’s proposed budget, which were made during a February budget session, included shrinking the maximum number of officers from 34 to 30, meaning the department will only be able to maintain the number of officers currently working for the department this year.
She added that withdrawing the two Montgomery Township school resource officers from the high school and middle schools in September may be a result of the budget cuts.
Throughout the township, four positions are likely to be eliminated, Mayor Birge said.
The township’s total budget should be introduced later this spring.
