BORDENTOWN CITY: Funding for 2009 projects uncertain

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
BORDENTOWN CITY — While the City Commission would like to continue with its normal infrastructure projects throughout the year, Mayor John Collom has said the economy may put things on hold in 2009.
    “Sure there are lots and lots of things we would like to do, but given the way the economy is going and the limited ability we have to raise funds, either independent of taxes or by taxes, it’s kind of difficult to say (what we’ll do),” he said Friday.
    “We really don’t know what we’ll be able to do until pretty late in the year when the budget starts to take form and we know what the state’s doing to us,” he said.
    Among the projects he said are to be carried over from last year are completing a shared services agreement with Bordentown Township for ambulance services.
    He said the two Bordentowns’ Public Works departments are also looking at sharing the city’s in-house mechanic for automobile repairs.
    Mayor Collom said that while the city would like to do its usual repair work, including water utility and street paving projects, “much of what we do is done by grants, so given the economic situation we don’t expect there to be a lot of grant money out there.”
    “It’s going to put a crimp in our style,” he added. “We don’t really have too many opportunities to find funds, other than taxation money, but whenever we have an opportunity to we try to.”
    Since the city already uses most available avenues of nontax revenue, such as selling scrap metal collected along with garbage and giving space for antennas on water towers, he said, there aren’t a lot of options left. But, he said, the city is “looking all the time.”