I am still tired from the Council meetings – both conference and regular – which took place on 2/28. The most notable item on the agenda was the final hearing on an ordinance to amend some zoning issues with a number of lots. The lots, which were split zoned (i.e., zoned both residential and business), were being rezoned to business to reflect the facts on the ground. Quite a number of citizens turned out to contest the rezoning – which, in my opinion, was the wrong thing to contest. What this ordinance was doing was just recognizing the current usage of the properties in question and zoning the lot to reflect that usage. Passing or not passing this ordinance does not change anything; those businesses would just continue to operate on split zoned lots.
What I think that most of the residents who showed up realized is that there is a ‘slippery slope’ here. But that slippery slope needs to be dealt with at the Zoning Board level – by the time it gets to the Town Council, the ‘dirty deeds’ have already been perpetrated. It was, however, useful for the residents to come in as they did have complaints about their business neighbors and the Town Manager was able to give them direction as to where to get assistance.
At the conference meeting, before the regular one, we heard from Rich Calbi, Township Engineer, regarding the proposed Geographic Information System – for which a $189,000 bid is up for award and which is part of a $250,000 proposed capital item. At the meeting on 2/14, both Mike Rieber and I had questions with regard to this item and Rich was at the meeting on 2/28 to answer those questions. Unfortunately, there was insufficient time to really understand why we are being asked to spend this money. The other council members seem to be in favor of it but I – and Mike Rieber – are not convinced. I will be meeting with Rich Calbi and Michele Meade on Friday, 3/4 to discuss this further. If we are going to do this at all, we must apparently do this NOW before the leaves are back on the trees as the $189,000 is for a fly over to contour map our township!
Finally, we resumed the conference meeting after the regular meeting was adjourned and discussed the proposed budget as presented by Michele Meade. I am not happy that the proposal calls again for a 2% increase in property taxes! I raised several possibilities, e.g., asking township employees to contribute more toward their health benefits, holding off on some capital improvement items, but none seems to have traction with the other members of the Council. My goal, as stated in the meeting, is to have a 0% increase. I am not sure the other Council members agree with me. As also stated in the meeting, they are convinced that citizens will live with the increase as long as they don’t have to deal with any reductions in service. I believe that we can hold services steady and still not increase taxes. It’s going to be an interesting next several weeks while this is being discussed.
So – the challenge to anyone who is listening/reading out there! Send me your suggestions on how we can hold the line on taxes. Or better yet, come to the meetings and make yourself heard!
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