By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
The boroughs of Pennington and Hopewell are each providing $5,000 as part of a shared services agreement with Hopewell Township for a senior services coordinator for 2016.
At the Township Committee meeting May 9, Township Administrator Paul Pogorzelski announced receiving commitments for the funds from both the boroughs.
Recently, representatives of the Hopewell Valley Senior Advisory Board have been intensifying their appeals to Hopewell Township and the two other municipalities to fill the position, which has remained vacant for the last few years.
The last person to hold that job was hired as an employee of Hopewell Township. Salary and benefits were financed through grant money that the senior advisory board was instrumental in securing from Princeton Hospital. However, the grant money became unavailable around 2013.
After the grant money wasn’t renewed a coordinator was no longer employed, Hopewell Township started financing the senior services program itself with support from Pennington and Hopewell boroughs, each of which began contributing $5,000 annually.
Because there is no senior services coordinator currently in place, the combined $10,000 being contributed for 2016 by the two boroughs is paying for “workload“ previously performed by the coordinator but now being “managed by existing staff,“ according to Mr. Pogorzelski.
“We’re using (township) health department staff and recreation department staff to keep the (seniors) program going,” he said on May 9.
The annual compensation for the coordinator had been $56,941 in salary plus $9,450 in benefits, as reported in the Hopewell Valley News in April 2013.
Both Mr. Pogorzelski and Mayor Kevin Kuchinski also talked about the possibility of entering into a public-private partnership with an area hospital to furnish some of the “social” services the former senior coordinator had provided.
Township Deputy Mayor Vanessa Sandom said she felt the contributions from the two boroughs “was not sufficient and not representative of their involvement.”
“I do think that the township needs to decide how it is going to go forward with hiring a senior services coordinator with or without the boroughs,” Ms. Sandom said on May 9. “A decision is going to have to be made sooner rather than later.”
Mr. Kuchinski recently met with Hopewell Borough Mayor Paul Anzano and Pennington Mayor Anthony Persichilli to discuss services for seniors. They also talked about the possibility of finding a larger center for senior citizens in the three towns to replace the relatively small center on Reading Avenue in Pennington, or to expand that facility.
“We had a concrete discussion about this year,” Mr. Kuchinski said. “We said we are going to work towards solutions for 2017 and beyond both on the senior services coordinator and whether that would be a wholly dedicated role or a public-private partnership, in terms of allocation of cost. Also for allocation of the senior center, whatever path that takes to move forward.”
At the Hopewell Borough Council meeting on May 5, Larry and Madeleine Mansier of the Hopewell Valley Senior Advisory Board expressed their frustration over the delay in hiring a new senior services coordinator and finalizing a plan for a senior center.
“You are not the only organization expressing frustration,” Mayor Anzano said. “It’s a process.”
Describing his discussions with other mayors, Mr. Anzano said, “We agreed to find the best senior center for you.”
