Your Weekly Update: A Week in Review of the WW Town Council, by Supriya Mamidi

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On August 14, the WW Township Council meeting started with comments from the Board of Health and then the Council approved six ordinances and eleven resolutions.

The Councilmembers approved Resolution 2023-R153, which allows the addition of funds received from the State of New Jersey Enhancing Local Public Health Infrastructure Grant to the 2023 Budget. This grant supports “the development or expansion of long-term health infrastructure improvements with a key emphasis on health equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.”

The Councilmembers also approved Ordinances 2023-05, 2023-06, 2023-07, 2023-08, 2023-09, and 2023-10.

Township resident John Church offered his opinion about Ordinance 2023-10: Bond Ordinance Providing for Sewer Collection System and Pump Station Improvements in and by the Township of West Windsor, in the County of Mercer, New Jersey, Appropriating $6,000,000 Therefor and Authorizing the Issuance of $3,100,000 Bonds or Notes of the Township to Finance Part of the Cost Thereof. Church said, “Earlier today, I sent Council and the administration my extended remarks on this ordinance. I'll just go over the major points now. I'm not opposed to most of the sewer work that would be financed by these bonds. However, I do have major doubts about the plan to run a long sewer dry line along the part of Princeton-Hightstown Road or County 571 that would extend from near McCaffrey's to the township border with East Windsor. This line would be about 4700 feet long. The County, DEP, and other outside agencies would have to approve the work along Route 571. An additional right-of-way or easements might be needed. The purpose would mostly be to service potential future affordable housing on several parcels, for example, the golf driving range. No housing activity is taking place there now and in fact may never happen for reasons related to the economy. If this turns out to be the case then this expensive dry line would serve no real purpose. Of course if new housing is actually built, then it would have to be sewered. Who pays for this? In the past, property owners have been assessed for sewer line extensions benefiting their own properties. This was the reason that the proposed recent sewer extensions in Princeton Oaks did not happen, as not enough property owners wanted it. The town was not about to finance this expensive work itself. Now, the Fair Housing Act specifically states that municipalities are not required to raise or expend Municipal revenues in order to provide low and moderate income housing. This would include any required new infrastructure such as sewers. In other words, towns can pay for this if they want to, but they don't have to, who actually pays for it would be a matter of negotiation between towns and developers. Yet, here the taxpayers are being asked to help finance this upfront against the possibility that developers of affordable housing might or might not reimburse West Windsor for the sunk cost of having to provide the long dry line. Separately, the federal government has already provided West Windsor with approximately 2.9 million dollars as part of the American Rescue Plan. This is being applied to this particular bond ordinance with the result that taxpayers are only being asked to fund about 3.1 million dollars to make up the total of 6 million dollars. I know that the funds from the American Rescue Plan could perhaps more reasonably have been applied to ordinance 2023-09, which would leave taxpayers obligated to cover all of the sewer expenses, including the long extension along County 571. Now we all know this country as a whole is laboring under a cumulative 18% general inflation in the last three years, much of which was actually caused by programs such as the American Rescue Plan itself. Interest rates have also risen substantially and this will be reflected in the rates. We will have to pay to borrow this money. In some sense, the country is attempting to duplicate the effects of the man who tried to lift himself up by his own bootstraps. Thank you for your attention. I just want to add one more thing. You can amend the capital budget anytime you like if you want to. You don't actually have to issue contracts for this dry sewer line if you feel, in some future time, that it's not justified. However I do think you should go ahead and adopt this bond ordinance that will give you the funds that you may need for this and perhaps other work as well, but you can amend the capital budget later if you so desire. ”

Councilmember Geevers recapped the August 2nd, WW Planning Board meeting. During the public comment period, Stacey Fox spoke up to shine a light on something that Geevers said at the last planning board meeting. In response to Penns Neck residents’ complaints, Council looked into the excessive quantity of dump trucks going up and down Washington Road, as early in the morning as 6:00 am. The result was that the Township cannot do anything about this truck traffic, because it is not only a County road, it's a truck route. When it's a County road and a truck route, the Township’s hands are tied. The parallel Stacey drew was that Clarksville Road is also a County road and a truck route. In reference to the proposed Bridge Point 8 warehouse complex, Clarksville Road leads straight through a residential area, past Maurice Hawk Elementary School and WW-P High School South. Last year, the Mayor repeatedly stated you can restrict curb cuts, control truck flow through town, but at the end of the day, our hands are tied. There is nothing anyone can do to stop trucks from using a truck route. Nothing to stop trucks from driving past our homes and schools by the hundreds per hour. It's not over ‘til it's over. Stacey urged the Township Council to put the Bridge Point 8 proposal back before the WW v. Planning Board for another review in the interest of public health and safety. “You've got your loophole,” she said. “The new Inland Flood Protection Rule justifies calling this back for review and it’s the right thing to do.”

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