By John Tredrea, Special Writer
West Amwell Township will save about $83,000 over the next 10 years, thanks to a refinancing of $1,975,000 municipal bonds.
The action was approved by the Township Committee on Sept. 24, township Chief Financial Officer Tom Carro said.
"It’s better to give this money to the taxpayers than to the banks," Mr. Carro said. "Thanks to the refinancing this ordinance allows, we’re going to pay 2.6 percent interest on this debt instead of 4.3 percent. The $83,000 in savings this will bring us will accrue over a 10-year period of time."
Also adopted by the Committee Sept. 24 was an ordinance providing for the refunding of the West Amwell School District’s $999,000 in deferred tax levy.
"There are no savings to the town there," Mr. Levy said. "This needs to be done because the West Amwell district has been merged with the Lambertville, Stockton and South Hunterdon Regional High School districts to form one district. What this bond refunding ordinance basically does is provide a loan to the township in order to replenish its surplus. As I said, there are no savings to the town in this case. This measure just needed to be enacted because of the regionalization."This school year is the first for the South Hunterdon Regional School District, which merged elementary and high school districts in the three constituent towns of Lambertville, Stockton and West Amwell, following a referendum last September. There is an elementary school in each of those towns. The high school, which serves grades seven through 12, is in West Amwell.

