WEST AMWELL: Farming may get OK for a town land parcel

By John Tredrea, Special Writer
   WEST AMWELL — The Township Committee is working on drafting a contract under which about half of the 105-acre township-owned tract on which the municipal building is located could be farmed, township Clerk Lora Olsen said.
   ”The committee discussed the matter at our Feb. 11 meeting,” she said.
   She said committee members have heard presentations from several parties interested in farming the land, but no final decision has been made on selecting any of them.
   The municipal building is at 150 Lambertville-Rocktown Road, near South Hunterdon Regional High School.
   OTHER ITEMS of business included:
   — A dinner for the volunteer members of the township’s boards, committees and commissions will be held again this year, on March 8 at the West Amwell Firehouse.
   It will be a pot-luck dinner, to which each invitee will bring a dish for the guests.
   Members of the Planning Board, Environmental Commission and other such groups will be invited to attend.
   — The committee also is considering, Ms. Olsen said, fueling its police vehicles at a county facility rather than in the township, as it does at present. The equipment at the county facility is more up-to-date, officials said.
   — The committee is weighing whether to form a third voting district in the township, Ms. Olsen said, in order to reduce the times voters have to wait in line on election days. Adding more voting machines to the existing two polling places (that serve the two districts) is another possibility, she said.
   — On the agenda of the Feb. 11 meeting was discussion of a three-year contract (2013-2015) with the township Police Department. That discussions was postponed.
   — The township needs to fill a vacancy — that of municipal housing liaison. Whoever takes the job would be the township’s administrative agent on matters pertaining to state requirements to provide housing for low- and moderate-income residents.
   — The committee voted to oppose state Assembly bill 1196, which pertains to workers compensation. Ms. Olsen said the committee is concerned that, if that bill becomes law, it could have a severe financial impact on the township.