By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
ROCKY HILL — The Borough Council announced Wednesday that it will be receiving police services from South Bound Brook for another month and likely will sign a long-term police contract with the municipality in the near future.
A resolution authorizing the contract renewal which will provide Rocky Hill with South Bound Brook Police Department services until March 31, was passed at the Wednesday council meeting.
Negotiations for a “multiple-year” contract with South Bound Brook was discussed during an executive session of the meeting, but no action was taken.
”Negotiations with South Bound Brook are going well,” Mayor Ed Zimmerman said during the meeting. “There’ve been no deal stoppers.”
During an interview following the meeting, Mayor Zimmerman said the Rocky Hill Council extended the short-term contract for 31 days to allow enough time to complete the paperwork necessary for establishing the long-term contract. Mayor Zimmerman added that the multi-year contract negotiations were close to completion, but declined to provide how many years the contract would extend. Rocky Hill also uses State Police to assist with enforcement.
In other business, the council passed a motion authorizing its staff to draft a resolution stating support for permitting local police to enforce the state Department of Transportation’s new regulations for 102-inch-wide trucks and double-trailer truck combinations. While these regulations, which went into effect Jan. 22, permit such large trucks to travel on Route 206 and Route 27, they make it illegal for them to use Route 518 unless they are making deliveries to places on the road or have no other way of accessing their destination.
The resolution also expresses the council’s support for the creation of financial incentives to offset the impact of toll increases in the state’s toll roads.
The resolution will give authority to South Brunswick officers to stop trucks traveling on Route 518, which is Rocky Hill’s main street, that shouldn’t be there because of their size, Mayor Ed Zimmerman said. Granting this ability to other local police departments is also important to Rocky Hill, he added. Rocky Hill’s resolution will be modeled after one that was adopted by Hopewell Township on Jan. 28.
The Borough Council also approved Tom Licker’s request to use Rocky Hill roads for the second Rocky Hill Classic Bike Race.
