At last Tuesday's Town Council Workshop, we discussed several items;
PROPERTY MAINTENANCE & ORDINANCE REVIEW
This year the Township Council chose not to commit to the Master Plan of the Highlands Council. This would be a regional plan for development. While there were many attractive environmental protections in the plan, there was still too much uncertainty. We can still evaluate joining the plan over the next several years, I believe it was a good decision to not commit to a State run plan just yet.
instead, we must apply many of those planning principals for ourselves to govern. We have asked our Township Planner to re-evaluate our ordinances. Last Tuesday was the first discussion of some of his suggestions. While I oppose over-bearing government and regulations, I believe it is important for the Township of Denville to have a framework to rectify extreme situations where property maintenance is clearly an health and safety concern. As well, we will also tighten our lighting ordinances and more environmental ordinances. I plan to support these ordinance revisions at introduction and further.
DENVILLE'S POLICE STATION
We also discussed the ongoing issues of our Police Station. While it was determined that the mold in the police headquarters was not threatening, there is no doubt that the building is in bad shape. My position has remained the same, I could not yet support a 1.8 Million renovation of the headquarters. As well others on the council were rethinking their positions. Because there was no longer 5 council members in support of the full renovation, a new consensus was taken on fixing the current issues and expanding the locker room for a much less price tag of $500,000. This money would be bonded over time and will have much less impact on the taxpayer. Most importantly the Police Station desperately needs it and is several years overdue. We can not allow our officers to work in the unacceptable conditions any longer. As well, our Building Manager will look at cost-effective ways to improve the conditions and press harder for other measures that can be accommodated for the lesser price tag. This was just a consensus that will now proceed down the governmental process of issuing an introduction, applying for bonding then final approval.
