Swedesboro to Focus on
Water and Budgetary Issues in 2009
by Katherine Harrison
SWEDESBORO - At the Jan. 5 town council meeting, Mayor
Thomas Fromm said that Swedesboro has a lot of decisions to make in 2009,
including some major issues dealing with the water system and the library
that will need to be addressed soon.
Borough Clerk Dolores Conners also said there have been
a couple of letters and inquiries from local residents about the possibility
of paying their water bills in smaller installments due to increases in
their bills.
She explained that many of the meters in town are stuck
and in need of replacing. When new meters are installed they start giving
more accurate readings, and some residents then find that their bills are
consequently higher.
Council President David Flaherty said that as the new
meters go in, this problem of higher water bills will probably be happening
more, so it wouldn't be a good idea to make any exceptions yet to the
payment schedule.
He added that it would be a good idea to budget money
in the coming year to comprehensively fix the problem of the outdated
meters.
“Not that you want people to have to pay excess money,”
he said, “but we're using more water than we're actually getting paid for.”
Fromm agreed, and added that they had decided last year
to keep everyone on the same payment schedule regardless of meter changes,
because the situation had become extremely complicated from an
administrative standpoint when everyone was on different plans.
“It's not an easy decision, but we have decided that
there would have to be some unbelievably extraordinary circumstance for us
to break our new rule,” he said.
He also said that from a financial standpoint, they
couldn't start making exceptions and letting people spread out their
payments over long periods of time.
“We pay to treat that water through the year. We don't
have any mechanism to stretch out our costs, so if you use the water, we
need to get paid for the water,” said Fromm.
The rest of the council agreed, and they also discussed
the possibility of looking into the idea of breaking everyone's bill into
smaller installments in the future after all of the new meters are
installed.
Another major decision that Swedesboro will have to
make this year, said Fromm, is whether or not to go ahead with the library
expansion. Fromm said that he personally would like to move forward with the
project, but that everyone still has to decide as a whole whether or not
they would want to do that.
In addition, he mentioned that they will have to
continue to discuss what's going to happen with the redevelopment project
for the downtown area.
Fromm also said that a deal had been negotiated with
Verizon. The company will give Swedesboro $140,000 dollars in an upfront
payment which the town may use in whatever way they see fit. There has also
been a $14,000 annual lease payment by Verizon for some time in return for
being able to place their antennas in town.
Fromm said that this money would all be a big help in
getting some of these projects completed in the coming year, since the town
will probably face some financial difficulties due to reductions in state
money.
“We have some great challenges and some great
opportunities, and we're going to need the effort and the support of a lot
of people,” he said. “I think we have an excellent council to address these
issues and we'll be reaching out to the residents, trying to keep you all
informed.”
Fromm said that with these budget challenges in mind,
they are continuing discussions about some possible shared services with
Woolwich, such as the police department.
“The idea for this town is not just to survive, but we
want to thrive and we want to do it in a smart way, and we're just going to
have to be creative,” said Fromm.
In other news, Lois Stanley and Russell Shiveler
presented the Swedesboro Council with a signed copy of their new book:
Swedesboro and Woolwich Township. Stanley said that 400 copies have been
sold so far since Dec. 2.
The book can be purchased at Barnes and Noble, online
booksellers, or by contacting the authors directly. Proceeds from the copies
sold by Stanley are contributed to the historical society.
“I have received my own copy and I have read it cover
to cover,” said Fromm. “I think it's extraordinary and I appreciate what you
did. It's a really excellent story about how this town became what it is.”
In fire department news, Councilman Sam Casella said
that in a couple of years the Woolwich Fire Company would be needing a new
fire truck. He said that it could end up costing around $700,000, and he
will be attending a meeting soon with Representative Frank Lobiondo to see
if there are any grants available to offset the cost of that.
Councilman George Weeks said that he got some
information from Recycle Bank which indicated that there are quite a few
people in town who aren't doing any recycling. He said that it is
cost-effective for the town when people recycle, because it costs the town
$75 per ton to dispose of regular trash, and only $12 per ton for recycled
trash.
“It does help us save quite a bit of money,” he said.
Fromm also welcomed two new members to the council,
Steve Ayers and Joanna Gahrs, and he congratulated Larry and Deborah
Phillips on being appointed to the new environmental commission.
