Taxes

Contracts for goods and services worth $289,723 were approved at the Jan. 7 Township Council meeting. The council approved the $39,918 purchase of a pick-up truck with snow plow from Beyer Brothers Corp. of Fairview. The money comes from the 2013 capital spending plan.

Agreeing that commissioners should appear at a meeting and explain why they feel they need a more than $100 a year raise, the Township Council Jan. 7 tabled approval for the proposed 2014 salaries for Fire District 3’s five commissioners. The council did, however, approve proposed raises for commissioners in fire districts 1, 2 and 4.

There’s a new portrait hanging among the presidents in the Township Council chambers, that of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Julia Presley was re-elected president of the Board of Education and Eva Nagy was elected vice president during the board’s rescheduled reorganization meeting. Presley and newly elected board members Christine Danielsen and Nancy LaCorte were sworn into their terms during the meeting.

Two hectic days of meetings and negotiations – highlighted by an apparent revolt by bus drivers against their former company – ended Jan. 6 with the Board of Education transferring the contract for the bulk of the district’s school bus routes to a new company.

Sparks flew at the Township Council reorganization meeting Jan. 1 when the all-Democrat Council refused to place Republican Mayor Brian Levine on a key township committee. The refusal sparked a rare show of public anger from Levine, who accused teh council members of playing politics.

It’s not uncommon to have special guess show up at municipal reorganization meetings. But it is a bit unusual to have a sitting U.S. Senator and Congressman appear at the sessions.

The school district is in search of a temporary personnel director. The former director, Gail Reicheg, left earlier this month to accept a similar position in the Moorestown, Burlington County, school system.

School district officials are waiting to see what happens in the bankruptcy proceedings of the Staten Island, N.Y. based bus company that transports nearly half of the district’s 8,000 students. Atlantic Express Transportation Corp., which has an office in New Brunswick, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month. The company is offering itself up for sale, but, according to …

Schools Superintendent Edward Seto on Dec. 19 was given the green light to study privatizing the school district’s 125 paraprofessionals next year. The approval came in the form of a Board of Education resolution which also included direction to study all other possible cost-cutting measures, including limiting the use of consultants.