By John Tredrea, Special Writer
What must doubtless be one of the most eagerly anticipated special elections in the history of Hopewell Valley, in general, and Hopewell Township, in particular, is set for Tuesday, May 8.
Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the usual polling places.
At the polls, Hopewell Township’s registered voters will decide the fate of an intensely controversial Ewing-Lawrence Sewerage Authority sewer bond issue ordinance.
Nov. 28, 2011, the Township Committee adopted a bond ordinance, providing for the acquisition of sewer treatment capacity from ELSA.
The bond ordinance reserved 267,000 gallons of daily sewage treatment capacity from ELSA, appropriated $4,100,000 and authorized the issuance of that amount in bonds or notes of the township to finance part of the cost.
The capacity could have been used for businesses and homes in the south-central township that want sewers, affordable housing and new development.
Within 20 days of that ordinance taking effect, a protest petition was filed.
Township Clerk Laurie Gompf “examined the protest petition and determined that it was sufficient,” she said.
She then took the steps necessary to schedule an election on the ordinance. The election was set for May 8.
According to the interpretative statement on the ballot “The purpose of the ordinance was to raise money to purchase sewer service capacity from ELSA. Obtaining sewer service capacity from ELSA would allow the township to provide sewer service to certain areas of the township in the future.
The ordinance required the bonds and interest to be repaid as a “general improvement,” meaning the bonds would be repaid from the general taxes collected from all municipal taxpayers. The ordinance also stated the township could determine in the future whether some or all of the cost of the improvement would be repaid by those property owners that specially benefited from the improvement.”
Those who go to the polls will be asked for a “yes” or a “no” vote.
A “yes” vote would allow the township to sell the bonds. A “no” vote would prevent the sale of the bonds.
Two grassroots groups are asking for votes Tuesday:
Citizens For Tax Choice (www.elsareferendum.org) is the organization that got the anti-ordinance forces together to force the referendum on the ordinance.
In early December 2011, the nonprofit citizen’s group said, in a news release, that it wanted a referendum on the new bond ordinance.
A petition “to place the ordinance to a referendum” was available, said CFTC Chairman Robert Kecskes. The deadline to get the petition to township officials was Dec. 19.
”Approximately 700 signatures from authorized Hopewell Township voters” were “needed to ensure that the issue is put before voters,” he said.
The CTFC collected nearly triple the amount of signatures required to force the referendum.
The CFTC wants voters to say no Tuesday. For more about what this group thinks, see www.elsareferendum.org.
SOFT (Save Our Future Today), led by William M. Connolly III and Dori Anderson, is the group that favors the ordinance and wants voters to help them “preserve our way of life in Hopewell Township.”
This group was formed in opposition to the CFTC. This group asks voters to say yes Tuesday.
For more about SOFT’s point of view, see saveourfuturetoday.info.
