Township will sell off preserved farm, with restrictions
By John Tredrea, Special Writer
WEST AMWELL — George Fisher was appointed deputy mayor of West Amwell Township at the Oct. 29 Township Committee meeting, Township Clerk Lora Olsen said.
Mr. Fisher replaces Tom Molnar as deputy mayor, who resigned from the Committee recently because he moved out of the township. Replacing Mr. Molnar on the three-member governing body was John Dale.
Zach Rich remains the township mayor. All three are Republicans.
The committee discussed the upcoming auction of a 150-acre tract of township-owned land off Route 179.
”The auction may be in March, but no definite date has been set yet,” Ms. Olsen said. The property, known as the former Toll tract, has been permanently preserved as open space.
”There is one house on the property that can be occupied, but if the tract is bought, there can be no further development of it,” Ms. Olsen said. The land could be farmed, she added.
The Committee also discussed the findings of a traffic study on county Route 579, or Harbourton-Linvale Road. Ms. Olsen said there have been some complaints from residents that cars have been speeding on the road.
The speed limit on the road is 45 mph. A Speed Sentry device placed on the road for four weeks showed that, overall, drivers averaged between 41 and 50 mph and that the average speed of passing vehicles was 40 mph. Less than one percent of the vehicles exceeded 55 mph.
The county agency HART Commuter Information Services loaned West Amwell the Speed Sentry machine that produced the data on drivers on the road. A HART report recommended installing more speed limit signs on the road. The signs should be large ones, the report added.
Additional police presence during morning and afternoon rush hour periods should also curtail speeding, the HART report said.