Editorial
Congratulations, Hillsborough residents, you have survived a cold and nasty February and a March that stubbornly resisted yielding to spring.
Maybe the back-to-back months with a Friday the 13th should have foreshadowed our foul luck.
In retrospect, at its start the winter didn’t appear to bode so ornery.
In passing conversation in mid-January, township Public Works Director Rich Resavy noted that he was amazed at how little snow had fallen through the first part of the winter. He hesitated to mention it, for fear of invoking the jinx. He looked for some wood to knock on.
His fears were proven founded. It wasn’t long before township crews were out a lot, with costs in overtime and materials piling up as fast as the snow. On Monday morning, the Township Committee moved another $50,000 for materials into the temporary budget, moving total costs for the season ahead of last year.
It’s sure to be a consideration when the township budget is introduced later this month. In 2014, the total snow budget was $605,000; in 2015, it’s projected at closer to $700,000.
Meteorologically, February was ranked by the N.J. Weather and Climate Network as one of the coldest months on record in the Garden State. The average temperature of 22 degrees tied as the sixth coldest of any month since statewide records began to be kept in 1895. Overall it was the coldest winter since 1993–94.
Rain and melted snow/ice amounted to 11.97 inches statewide during the three winter months, with February being a half-inch below its norm, believe it or not.
And even though we have passed the solstice, it’s still cooler than normal, don’t you think? Certainly nippy to “play ball” on opening day on Monday!
As sure as nature will surely get around to signs of arousal, it’s time for residents to poke their heads into the business of the day in the township.
The biggest question with the local school budget has been the potential of Hillsborough seeing see its vaunted high school theater director, B.J. Solomon, leave to find a fulltime job.
You cannot argue with his position that, no matter how much he loves his job, he can’t survive with a combination of the six parttime theater stipends that amount to $12,287 a year, according to the association contract.
With costs and requirements outstripping revenues, the school says it has limited its budget hires to those absolutely necessary — in special education and world language — said Superintendent Jorden Schiff.
If the schools are to keep its widely applauded theater impresario, it’ll have to get creative, either before the budget is voted on April 27, or some time before school starts next fall.
The prospect of staff reductions (maintenance workers, custodians and a technology teacher trainer) haven’t generated any outbursts. That’s in comparison to last year’s chorus of discontent over the proposed farming out the hiring of nighttime custodians and long-term classroom substitute teachers.
It’s interesting that virtually no one has mentioned the tax levy increase, which is projected to be 3.8 percent, almost twice what most people believe to be the law in New Jersey. For the second year in a row, the school board appears ready to cash in on unused amounts of past cap space, and avail itself of putting some health costs outside the cap rules.
There has been some cursory talk of expanding kindergarten to a full-day program, but that would be significantly expensive. With all the budget strictures, that idea would have to go on the ballot as a special question asking permission to raise more taxes to pay for it. Not this year, at least.
Just a few short years ago, the prospect of a public referendum on the tax levy might have given the school board pause at risking losing a respected employee. It doesn’t appear that way this year.