By Amy Batista, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — The Borough Council passed two resolutions pertaining to the Borough Hall on June 4.
Councilwoman Gail Doran made a motion to amend the agenda on June 4 to add Resolution 2012-153, which addressed the location of the Borough Hall.
Resolution 2012-153 later passed with a 5-1 voted. Council President Larry Quattrone voted against the measure.
The second item, Resolution 2012-154, added to the agenda, by Councilwoman Susan Bluth, unanimously passed 6-0, and it requires that the Borough Council be kept informed on all matters related to the Borough Hall.
This action followed months of inaction and questioning over the future of the Borough Hall and its adjacent police station. Both facilities have remained closed since Hurricane Irene flooded downtown at the end of August.
Councilman Doran said of Resolution 2012-153, “This to establish a sense of the council that the council believes that there is an undue focus on one site,” in reference to Lucas Electric being mentioned as an option to move municipal staff temporarily at the May 30 workshop meeting on Borough Hall. “We would like to see options considered within the central part of the borough.”
Eugene Sarafin of Hightstown at that point shouted an explicative.
”I’d appreciate it if folks in the audience would keep their comments down,” Mayor Steven Kirson replied.
Ms. Doran then continued, “This expresses a sense of the council at this point.”
Members of the audience suggested that no action be taken — yet.
”Think about the vision of this community. What is the vision of this community? Consolidation because this town is not sustainable,” Bill Gilmore of Hightstown, and a member of Greater Hightstown East Windsor Improvement Project.
Mr. Gilmore’s later comments regarding inevitable consolidation between Hightstown and East Windsor received applause from the audience.
Former councilman Dimitri Musing of Hightstown was also not happy with the proposed resolution by Councilwoman Doran.
”I cannot tell you how much the resolution that Ms. Doran put together is distasteful to me,” said Mr. Musing as he shook the resolution paper work at the councilwoman from the podium.
Mr. Musing continued, “To me it’s just a slap in the face to the people who came here and voiced their opinions (at the special workshop meeting). You all requested a special meeting to hear from the public.”
Members representing GHEWHIP, Downtown Hightstown, the Historic Preservation Commission, Meadow Lakes, the chair of the Planning Board, Mike Vanderbeck, also a former councilman, and business owners attended the Ma workshop.
”This shows to me that you do not care one iota what the public of Hightstown thinks,” Mr. Musing said.
”This is a disgrace and I say it to you,” Mr. Musing said to Councilwoman Doran. “Shame on you. Shame on you.”
Further, Mr. Musing said, “As you can see, I’m not happy with this,” which was followed by chuckles from the audience.
”Why the rush?” Mr. Musing asked.
Said George Serrano of Hightstown, who is running for council in November, “You think that mayor of East Windsor wants us with all of our problems. No way,” Mr. Serrano said. “She don’t want nothing to do with us. You know and I know it.”
”You have a really big decision in front of you and you’ve got a community that’s already getting divided, you’ve got a council that’s upset because they don’t have enough information yet,” said former councilwoman Skye Gilmartin of Hightstown.
”I don’t think that until you all have your questions answered, until you have all the numbers in front of you, that you should be backing yourselves into a corner by a resolution pinpointing you into any one location whether it be on the outskirts of town or in town. You guys are very premature if you pass this resolution and you do need to listen to all of your community speaking pretty loudly,” Ms. Gilmartin said.
”I salute you,” said Hightstown resident Scott Castor.
”I suggest up until now we haven’t had a direction. This may be the first direction,” Mr. Castor said.
”This is at least steering us in some forward positive direction that still has a way out,” he continued.
Mr. Castor contradicted previous speakers that Hightstown was not sustainable and said that “we have made it before.”
”I was stunned when the mayor ended his comments by basically saying he was not sure how much vacant properties there were in the Borough of Hightstown because he didn’t know what options were available other than Lucas and maybe Shangle & Hunt,” said J.P. Gibbons of Hightstown.
He said since then he was able to locate 75 parcels of vacant properties in town.
Mr. Gibbons noted that the resolution to put the Borough Hall downtown somewhere was “fantastic.”
Dan Buriak of Hightstown, chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, discussed the meaning of a town center.
”There are three official designated town centers in Mercer County,” said Mr. Buriak.
”Hightstown Borough is one of them. It gives you a unique status as a local in Mercer County,” Mr. Buriak said.
”People throw the word town center around, planners use the word town center in their planning models, but the State designation as town center, Hightstown is designated as a town center,” Mr. Buriak said.
”I just don’t want to get involved in anything if you’re not going to listen to the public so if you don’t want the people to come, don’t ask because I am so damn busy so I don’t need to do this,” Mr. Buriak said.
Further, “Just don’t ask for the input and ignore it because you obviously made up your mind beforehand because 90 percent of the people that came here have the exact opposite opinion,” Mr. Buriak said. “You’re entitled to your opinion.”
After the first public session closed, the council went on to discuss the resolutions further.
”I expected to take some heat on this and I’m willing to because if I didn’t believe in it I wouldn’t have put it forward,” Councilwoman Doran of Resolution 2012-153.
”This is very carefully worded so it does not restrict options and I think if you take a deep breath and read what it is what we are resolving here it’s that all the options should’ve been considered. We’re concern that there’s a runaway train towards Lucas and we wanna put the brakes on and look at some options and that’s what this resolution is doing,” Ms. Doran said.
She emphasized, “It’s not eliminating Lucas. It’s preserving other options.”
”We do need to take a look at the options in the central part of town and that’s my intention here,” Ms. Doran said.
Councilman Rob Thibault echoed Councilwoman Doran’s words.
”If you look at it closer, it says, all options should be considered, reviewed and analyzed, the consensus at this time that Borough Hall is best located in the central part of town not must be not even should be,” he said.
It was at this point that members in the audience started walking out of the meeting.
”We heard from 24 people at the last meeting when I looked at my notes and it was almost split 50/50 with people saying it should either go to Lucas or somewhere else other than downtown and then half saying downtown somewhere,” Councilman Thibault said.
”We’re not going to ignore financial analysis in favor of blindly putting it downtown,” Councilman Thibault said. “I think this is a strong statement but at the same time leaves options open.”
”I think it also gives us a direction to go in but we need to stop kind of going in circles and I think that we have done a lot of reading, discussing, researching,” said Lynne Woods, a member of Borough Council.
”This is not something that has been made in haste. A good deal of thought has gone into this and discussions and I think this is long overdue and I am in support of this resolution,” Councilwoman Woods said.
”We’ve been force fed Lucas that that’s what everyone wants and we were guaranteed back in Sept. that that location was temporary and I think people lost sight of that as a temporary establishment,” said Selena Bibens, council member.
”We have been given a job to make the best decisions for the borough community, our Borough of Hightstown, not East Windsor . . . we are currently Hightstown Borough,” Councilwoman Bibens said.
”The Lucas property has been decided upon by a lot of others that aren’t the key players that don’t make the decisions,” she said. “We’re at a loss if we move further out.”
”I’m looking downtown and I’m saying where can we go,” said Council President Quattrone. “I listen to the people in the audience, about the vision of Hightstown, the mill property . . . There are a lot of opinions there, a lot of respected people.”
Further, “I’m afraid I’m going to vote no to this,” Mr. Quattrone said of Resolution 2012-153.
”If you were at the meeting last Wednesday I think you could see that every member of council was frustrated by the lack of information,” Councilman Thibault said after Councilwoman Suan Bluth completed the first reading of Resolution 2012-154, which requires that council be kept informed on all matters related to Borough Hall.
”This kind of formalizes that frustration,” Councilman Thibault said. “Again, we are looking to do what is best for the borough and the borough residents.”
”I see it as a way of organizing our communication with the council. I think it forces a structure,” Councilwoman Doran said.
”I think it will increase the level of detail in reporting to the council and I think that is important,” Councilwoman Woods said.
”Sometimes when we have surprises of information that we find out the day of the council meeting (it) is not very beneficial to us,” Councilwoman Bibens said. “And we need all the puzzle pieces at the end of the day to be able to make decisions and choices or recommendations.”
Also last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency delivered Hightstown $190,000 in aid money relating to Hurricane Irene incurred expenses.

