By Kristine Snodgrass, Staff Writer
PLAINSBORO — A feasibility study will be conducted into a possible shared services agreement for emergency services between Plainsboro and three other municipalities, administered by Middlesex County.
At its meeting Wednesday night, the township Committee passed a resolution to accept a state grant that will fund a study of a consolidation along with three other municipalities.
The township employs six full-time dispatchers for fire, rescue and police calls, township administrator Bob Sheehan said. They work under the direction of the Plainsboro Police Department.
Mr. Sheehan said the study is the result of ongoing discussions with Middlesex County officials on a possible consolidation. The township, he said, applied for and received the $61,500 grant to collectively seek professional consulting services with three other south county municipalities: South Brunswick, Monroe and Jamesburg.
The study, which is expected to take several months, will assess the logistics of transferring all of the municipalities’ emergency dispatch services to the county, he said.
”The thinking is, given that this is really technology based, the duplication does not seem to necessarily make sense, but we’re going to figure all that out now,” he said.
Mr. Sheehan said he could not yet estimate possible cost savings associated with a consolidation, pending the results of the study.
It is not the township’s first move towards such shared service agreements. For instance, the township recently reorganized its social services, transferring one service to the county and others to the township Recreation Department.
”We’ve been pretty aggressive on exploring a variety of ways that we share services, and we have partnerships with many of our neighbors,” Mr. Sheehan said.
In other business at the meeting, the committee introduced its 2009 municipal budget, which calls for a tax rate increase of 1.9 cents per $100 of assessed value. For the average assessed home, valued at $395,000, this would translate into a $75 increase.
The increase would bring the total municipal tax rate to 33.5 cents per $100 of assessed value.
The $22 million budget is dependent on approval of the township’s participation in the pension deferral program, which would save the township nearly $550,000, or 1.5 cents in the municipal tax rate.
The program, signed into law by the governor last month, allows towns and counties to defer half of their required payments into the public employees’ pension fund. The deferred amount would be paid back over 15 years with interest.
The state Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board must approve the township’s application. Township officials are scheduled to appear before the board May 13.
The committee is expected to vote on the budget at its May 27 meeting.
Also at the meeting, the committee introduced a bond ordinance for improvements to George Davidson Road, a $1.2 million project.
ksnodgrass@centraljersey.com
