The forum can be seen on Comcast Channel 19 and Verizon Channel 32 Mondays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at noon until the election
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
The Hopewell Valley League of Women Voters held its annual Candidates Night at Central High School’s television studio Oct. 15.
About 15 people attended the event at which candidates for the Valley’s three governing bodies answered questions submitted anonymously in writing by members of the audience.
For the benefit of the many who did not attend, the forum can be seen on Comcast Channel 19 and Verizon Channel 32 Mondays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at noon until the election.
There are races in all three Valley towns this year.
Vying for one open position on the five-seat Hopewell Township Committee are Democratic incumbent David Dafilou and Republican challenger Kim Johnson.
There are three candidates for two of the six seats on the Hopewell Borough Council. Running are Republican incumbents Mark Samse and David Knights and Democratic challenger Debra Horowitz.
There are four candidates for two of the six seats on the Pennington Borough Council. Running for re-election are Democratic incumbents Joseph Lawver and Eileen Heinzel. Opposing them are Republicans Eva Kaplan and Lance Lewis.
Mr. Lewis was the only candidate not to attend Candidates Night.
One question posed to candidates was if they thought the municipalities should share more services. This question also asked the candidates to address the issue of municipal consolidation, which could see one or both boroughs absorbed by the township.
Mr. Knights answered first.
”I’m opposed to consolidation,” he said. “We share a lot of services already.”
He said recreation is one area that could be improved in the realm of service-sharing. He noted Hopewell Borough already does a significant amount of work independently — maintenance of the train station, for example. The borough purchased and renovated the station years ago. It is regularly used for Valley-wide activities, such as the meeting last week at which a report on the proposed senior center was delivered (see Page 1A story this week).
Mr. Samse also said he is opposed to consolidation. He thinks the “needs of a 1-square-mile town (Hopewell Borough) would be lost in the myriad issues facing Hopewell Township.”
He added sharing services is an issue the municipalities should constantly be investigating.
”We share police, fire and school services already,” he said. “I think we’ve done a good job” in sharing services.
Hopewell Township police cover Hopewell Borough. Pennington still has its own police department.
The two borough fire departments — Hopewell Fire Department and Pennington Fire Company — each cover about one-third of the township as does Union Fire Company, which is located in Titusville. All three municipalities belong to the regional school district formed in 1965.
”Service-sharing seems to work fairly well” now, Ms. Horowitz said. “It needs to be constantly re-evaluated.”
She, too, was quite wary of consolidation.
”It would be a slippery slope,” she said. “It would blur the line between our small, compact community” and the much larger township, which still is quite rural in many areas.
Ms. Johnson said, “We share a lot of services. I’m not in favor of mandated consolidation, but I think we need to share more services” and be more efficient administratively.
Mr. Dafilou said he agreed “sharing services is an excellent way to reduce costs, but it needs to work for both parties. Hopewell Township could become a buyer as well as a seller of services. I’m open to the idea consolidation, but not necessarily in favor of it. All parties would have to be in favor of it.”
Ms. Kaplan said, “Fire services already are shared. That’s an excellent value.”
She noted school services already are shared and added, “I’m in favor of Pennington keeping its own police department.”
As for consolidation, she said: “I’m not in favor of any forced merger” of the Valley’s towns.