Township Council Taxes

Contracts totaling nearly $2 million for goods and services were awarded at the July 13 Township Council meeting. Included in that amount was $678,572 for the purchase of vehicles and software:

Three township parks’ playgrounds will get new equipment and playground surfaces under a series of contracts awarded by the Township Council at its June 22 virtual meeting. The playgrounds are in the Rutgers Heights, Kingston School, and Dunham Lebed parks.

The Township Council introduced its proposed 2021 budget at its April 13 meeting. Update: The Township Council adopted the budget, with a slight modification, at its May 25 meeting. Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said that the township anticipated being able to use $581,000 of a federal CARES grant to offset losses in revenue from hotel taxes.

New vehicles and equipment for the township police and public works departments, improvements to parks and upgrades in software and hardware systems highlighted the Township Council’s second 2021 budget hearing on March 10. The nearly three-hour session featured mostly capital improvement requests, the big-ticket items in the yearly spending plan.

Spring is in the air, and young public works’ employees’ minds turn to filling potholes. The annual pothole repair program is underway, and township officials are asking for help from residents in finding them.

The Township Council held a virtual budget hearing on March 2. There were no shocks or surprises in the first hearing for the 2021 township budget, something for which township officials were thankful. The majority of the 18 or so departments that presented their funding asks were either flat from last year or had decreases.

Contracts worth more than $120,000 were approved February 9 by the Township Council. The Council approved contracts to provide employee health services, and for maintenance for the township 9-1-1 system.

Township Councilman Will Galtieri announces that he will no longer pursue the proposed “Grandparents’ park” project at the virtual January 26 Township Council meeting. The push to build a pocket park on Willow Avenue formally ended on January 26, with Township Councilman Will Galtieri publicly pulling the plug on his brainchild. “I have heard you loud and clear and at …

Township Councilwoman Kimberly Francois said during the January 25 Redevelopment Agency meeting that the Council is “not going forward” on the proposed Grandparent’s Park project. A controversial plan to build a small park on Willow Avenue, near New Brunswick Road, appears to be dead, according to a comment made by a Township Councilwoman. Councilwoman Kimberly Francois (D-At Large) made the …

The Township Council heard from residents on January 12 during a virtual hearing involving a proposed park at Willow Avenue and New Brunswick Road. Residents opposed to a proposed “Grandparents’ Park” in Somerset spent more than two hours January 12 expressing their feelings about the plan to the Township Council. The Council held a special hearing on the plan, necessitated …