The new year is normally a time of renewal and hope. Many often take the opportunity to leave the shortcomings of the past in the past and renew their goals and enthusiasm for the coming year.
Unfortunately, the borough’s annual reorganization on Jan. 1 was a clear sounding bell that in South River, 2011 will be another year of politics as usual.
For some time I have contended that Mayor Raymond Eppinger’s administration spends too much. Each time, the response has been to ask where we could cut spending. Those challenges now ring hollow.
During the reorganization meeting, the mayor was presented with a crystal-clear example of where the borough has already wasted tens of thousands of dollars by way of a professional appointment. Presented with the option to correct the course in this regard, the mayor decided to stick to his guns on that appointment and committed to squander even more. Why would he do that? Well, it’s politics as usual. Now it’s certain that the governing organizations of the borough of South River will authorize $20 million in borough spending on public facilities this year. On the heels of the residents’ decision to fund half the $14 million renovation to the public high school building, the governing body will be throwing in a $3 million expansion to the public library and $10 million or more for a new firehouse. The difference between the $14 million the school board is to spend and the $13 million the governing body will spend (besides $1 million) is that the citizens of South River were allowed to decide whether the school should be renovated. When asked why that was, the mayor indicated that the school board had to go to the public. Squashing the public’s ability to voice its input on such big issues … just another example of politics as usual. Even something as promising as a partnership between the borough and a private company to install a solar-panel array in South River is an opportunity for the mayor to show his stripes. As we now know, the mayor sat on this potential partnership for longer than half a year. This was something so momentous, and the mayor kept it from at least a couple of the Borough Council members until it was essentially a done deal. Why didn’t he give his colleagues on the governing body any advance notice on this initiative prior to announcing it during his annual address on Jan. 1? Because Mr. Eppinger knows he’s up for re-election, andwhat better way to kick off a campaign than with something like this?
That’s just politics as usual.
Rui M. Almeida Member South River Borough Council