UPPER FREEHOLD: Town looking for ways to share services

By Jane Meggitt, Special Writer
UPPER FREEHOLD — Various forms of shared services were on the agenda at the Oct. 2 Township Committee meeting.
The governing body agreed to renew its shared services agreement with neighboring Plumsted Township, in which employees of Upper Freehold’s Department of Public Works (DPW) did some maintenance work for Plumsted and the two municipalities shared the purchase of road salt.
DPW supervisor Sal Fiorenzo said the agreement "worked out fine" the previous year. Township Administrator Dianne Kelly said that Plumsted must discuss the agreement at one of its future township meetings.
Municipal clerk Dana Tyler brought up the creation of a shared services agreement with the county for the replacement of signs along the 24-mile Upper Freehold Historic Farmland Byway. These signs, featuring a horse’s head, start in Allentown and end at the Monmouth County Park System’s Historic Walnford.
Under a shared services agreement, any signs that are knocked down or destroyed would be replaced by the county, according to Ms. Tyler. Township Attorney Dennis Collins said that the township is currently responsible for sign replacement. Ms. Kelly said the county wants the township to send a shared services agreement.
Mayor Lorisue Horsnall Mount and Mr. Fiorenzo attended a shared services meeting with the county earlier in the day. Mayor Mount said she learned more about what the county can provide for the town.
"There’s a lot we can take advantage of with the county that will ultimately be a good cost savings for the town," according to Mayor Mount.
Ms. Tyler said that another shared services agreement concerned the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education in regard to emergency radio communication frequencies and relocating the existing communications tower. Mr. Fiorenzo said that during emergencies, the radio frequency allowed DPW personnel to communicate with each other in township vehicles, along with the New Jersey State Police and the township’s Office of Emergency Management. He said a shared services agreement with the county might be a cheaper way to purchase the radios.
Mayor Mount said that, after attending the county meeting, she wanted to hold the issue until the township receives a greater definition of what the agreement involved.