By John Tredrea, Special Writer
Two proposed Hopewell Township bond ordinances, both scheduled for public hearings and adoption votes during the Township Committee’s June 8 meeting, will authorize spending $3,025,863 in equipment purchases and $1,120,803 for repairs and curbing work on township roads and streets and for work guide rails on those streets and roads if the ordinances are adopted.
Both ordinances had been scheduled for public hearings and adoption votes at the committee’s May 21 meeting. Only three of the five committee members were present at that session. Present were Mayor Harvey Lester, Deputy Mayor Todd Brant and committee member John Hart. Absent were Vanessa Sandom and Kevin Kuchinski. Those present voted unanimously to postpone the public hearing and adoption votes on the two bond measures until June 8.
If adopted, the proposed $3,025,863 ordinance would authorize the issuance of $2,874,569 in bonds for equipment purchases with down payments covering the balance.
Among items covered by the measure are $544,500 for the purchase of dump trucks, a pickup truck with a lift gate and an SUV. The expected useful life of all these items, the proposed ordinance states, is five years.
Another $105,000 would go for the purchase of a car video system and live scan fingerprint system. Its expected useful life is 10 years.
Another $2,177,163 would go for street repairs and curbing and improvements to Wilfred Avenue in the Titusville section of the township. The expected useful life of this work is 10 years, the proposed ordinance states.
Finally, this measure, if adopted, will authorize spending $199,000 for various items of equipment, the expected useful life of which is 15 years. Included are heat pumps, a leaf collector, a boom mower an asphalt roller.
The $1,120,803 bond ordinance would, the text of the measure states, in part, reappropriate “proceeds of obligations not needed for their original purpose in order to provide for the guide rail program and street repairs/curbing.”
If adopted, this bond ordinance would reappropriate expenditures that were authorized by eight previously adopted bond ordinances. Those ordinances, adopted between 2005 and 2011, covered a variety of equipment purchases and roadwork.
