By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
ROCKY HILL — All 50 seats in the Borough Hall meeting room were filled Thursday night. Part of the standing crowd of about 15 spilled into the hallway and not a single parking space was vacant in the Borough Hall parking lot.
It was an unusually large crowd for a town meeting in Rocky Hill, which has less than 700 residents. The mayor and Borough Council took advantage of the opportunity to share their concerns about the governor’s proposed budget in-person to such a large percentage of their population, urging residents to tell state officials how they feel about cuts in state aid and a new fee for State Police protection.
”We need some help,” Mayor Ed Zimmerman said. “We need you to make some noise. We need you to keep the pressure on your state representatives.”
Losing $42,648 in state aid, a 37 percent decrease from last year, paying more than $200,000 for State Police services that are currently free and being forced to merge with Montgomery are what Mayor Zimmerman said he perceived as the most threatening outcomes of the proposed 2009 state budget.
”We’re pretty much in agreement with Montgomery that it may not be in the best interest for either of us to merge,” Mayor Zimmerman said.
Citing the differences between Rocky Hill and Montgomery’s forms of government, sizes and characters, Mr. Zimmerman said even if the two municipalities were to merge, the process would take months if not years to complete and that Rocky Hill residents’ property taxes would go up.
”We are not big enough to lower Montgomery’s taxes if we were to merge,” he added. “The only difference (you’d see) is ours would rise to their level.”
Residents seemed generally against the idea of merging and anxious to write letters, make anti-merging signs and do whatever else they could to help the Borough Council fight the state.
When Mayor Zimmerman asked those who thought merging might be a good idea to raise their hands, not a single person in the meeting room responded.
”In the worst possible scenario that you’ve laid out, in the end, we will not merge, said Alexander Ackley, a resident of Rocky Hill.
Despite the absence of hands raised when Mayor Zimmerman asked if anybody thought merging might be a good idea, not all residents are convinced that merging is the wrong way to go.
Albert Robotti, former Rocky Hill mayor and councilman, is one of those residents. When he asked the Borough Council if the costs for both Rocky Hill and Montgomery of merging and not merging had been calculated, Mayor Zimmerman responded that an official study had not been completed.
”I don’t see how they can make a decision,” said Mr. Robotti, during an interview following the meeting.
”I want to study it. If I found out there were benefits I would really, really consider it (merging with Montgomery),” he said. “A lot of these small towns don’t want to lose their identity. The bottom line is how is Rocky Hill going to benefit.
”It can’t be about identity anymore, not when your state has decided to hit your pocketbook,” Mr. Robotti added.
During a phone interview Friday, Mayor Zimmerman said residents demonstrated that they were willing to set aside personal issues with each other to work together for the good of the borough during the meeting.
”That we don’t want to merge and don’t see any value in merging became very clear,” he added.
