By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — Township Committee introduced a $4.69 million bond ordinance last week that would allocate money for the 2015 road program, as well as the replacement of assorted Department of Public Works trucks and equipment.
Township Committee also issued a proclamation declaring June 15 as Magna Carta Day in Montgomery Township, in recognition of the 800th anniversary of the document’s signing by King John on June 15, 1215.
Meanwhile, the bond ordinance, which was introduced at Township Committee’s June 4 meeting, includes money to purchase several dump trucks with snowplow attachments and a snow blower, plus a mower and pickup trucks with snowplow attachments for the Department of Public Works.
The Police Department is in line to receive new mobile data terminals in the patrol cars, plus in-car video cameras in the patrol cars, body armor and a new sport utility vehicle.
And there is funding in the bond ordinance to undertake an assortment of road projects, including the reconstruction of an approximately 2,000-foot stretch of Cherry Valley Road, east of Cherry Hill Road to the area of Jefferson’s Curve. Reading Boulevard, off Route 601/Belle Mead-Blawenburg Road, also is slated for reconstruction.
Several streets are slated for an overlay, which means removing the top layer of asphalt and putting down a new layer of asphalt. Among the streets that will receive an overlay are Bridgepoint Road, between Dead Tree Run Road and Updikes Mill Road.
Also, Duncan Lane, off Rolling Hill Road, and Dogwood Lane, off Pin Oak Road, are on the list for an overlay of new asphalt. A section of Hollow Road, between Route 518 and Camp Meeting Avenue, will be given an overlay.
Burnt Hill Road, between Schoolhouse Corner Road and Main Boulevard; Platz Drive, off Route 206, and Hillcrest Court, off Spring Hill Road, are included on the list of streets slated for an overlay of new asphalt.
The bond ordinance also earmarks money for various improvements to township-owned buildings, including parking lot repairs and window replacements at the Municipal Building, and a renovation study of the Otto Kaufmann Community Center.
A public hearing on the bond ordinance will be held at Township Committee’s June 18 meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. The meeting will be held in the courtroom at the Municipal Building.
In other business, Township Committee issued a proclamation declaring June 15 as Magna Carta Day in Montgomery Township in honor of the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. It was granted by King John at Runnymede, on the banks of the River Thames near Windsor, on June 15, 1215.
Michael T. Bates, who lives in Belle Mead, and T. Jeffrey Clarke, who lives in Princeton, requested that the mayor and Township Committee recognize the anniversary. They are members of the Somerset Chapter Magna Carta Barons, or descendants of the 25 English barons who forced the king to sign the document and who ensured that its provisions were carried out.
“It’s a big year for us. The thing I find most interesting is that we in the United States are perhaps more excited than they are in England,” Mr. Bates told the Township Committee. Many members of the organization are traveling to England to take part in the celebration, but neither he nor Mr. Clarke will attend.
Mr. Clarke said that some elements of the Magna Carta, such as the right to due process, have been incorporated into the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Most of the elements of the Magna Carta were eventually written out of later versions.
Township Committee’s proclamation stated that “the Magna Carta was exceptional in its prolonged influence on legal and constitutional thought in England as a statement of fundamental law, enshrining principles of human freedom and liberty.”
The proclamation also stated the Magna Carta inspired English settlers in the American colonies to create colonial charters to protect individual liberties, which eventually made their way into the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
“Promoting the understanding of the roots of our freedom is an important component in the civic education of the diverse citizenry of our township, and it is therefore fitting and desirable that we commemorate this great and transformative event of 800 years ago,” the proclamation said.
