MANVILLE: Campaigns, ceremonies spice week

   A week without Hillsborough school board or Township Committee meetings grew busy.
   It began quietly enough, with a press release about a video the township Democrats produced to question “why” their Republican opponents hadn’t done this or that. The video blames the long-sitting GOP majority for not pursuing policies to reduce traffic and ease the way for businesses to locate and succeed in Hillsborough.
   The Democrats didn’t offer many specific alternatives, other than to suggest forming a task force — not a study group, we’ve had too many of them — to draft an action plan.
   The Democrats’ campaign managers broadened the question-raising to ask whether other “best practices” were followed in other decisions, like hiring a former Township Committeeman to replace the retiring township administrator without extending the job search too far.
   A GOP response fired back with its own rhetorical question: If you’re so all-fired concerned about local government, why don’t you come to a Township Committee meeting once in a while?
   We’ll consider the campaign officially heated up, and look forward a little more eagerly to the face-to-face joint appearance on Monday night, Oct. 29, at the Auten Road School.
   ’A busy Tuesday could probably be demonstrated by Assemblywoman Donna Simon’s day. She attended Somerset County’s ceremony at its new Sourland Mountain land preservation purchase in Hillsborough, drove to Manville to tour flood-prone areas with local residents and the mayor, had a late lunch and returned to Manville for the early-evening ceremony welcoming the borough library into the countywide system.
   Manville’s cake and comments was one of those nice, small-town ceremonies where people get reacquainted with their facilities, leaders, volunteers and hard-working employees. We’re confident that the Manville library transition will be a smashing success as residents discover and take advantage of more goodies than more DVDs and books at their disposal.
   It’ll be good for Hillsborough, too. There’s a neck of the township that juts up against Manville, and those residents may find it easier to use the Manville library than fight the traffic on Route 206.
   Oops, maybe the Democrats have hit on something there.