Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Fair Lawn and Saddle Brook are set to discuss a shared service agreement that would provide township residents access to the Fair Lawn Community Center.
- GOVERNMENT
- Zak Koeske
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Officials from Fair Lawn and Saddle Brook have engaged in shared service discussions on a multitude of issues in recent weeks, but none as potentially impactful to residents as a plan that would provide township residents access to the Fair Lawn Community Center. Details of any potential arrangement have yet to be hammered out, but on its face, joint use of the community center should prove a boon for both towns. Saddle Brook residents would gain access to much-needed recreational space and Fair Lawn would bring in revenue and appease folks who consider the $12-plus million community center an underutilized boondoggle. Deputy Mayor John Cosgrove recently gave township officials a tour of the 42,000 square foot facility that left Saddle …
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Fair Lawn School District has struck a verbal agreement with the borough for maintenance of its vehicles.
The school district and the borough have reached a tentative shared service agreement on vehicle maintenance that is expected to benefit both town bodies and save taxpayers money, superintendent Bruce Watson said Tuesday. Rather than contract with a private garage for school bus maintenance as it has in recent years, the district is prepared to send its fleet to the borough's garage instead. "We are going to work with them and give it a try," said Watson, who expects the agreement with the borough to be formalized by September. "If it benefits the taxpayer then clearly we both need to roll up our sleeves and try it out and see if it makes sense." Watson wouldn't commit to a level of expected cost savings until the agreement is up-and-…
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
With bill before lawmakers, anything we do to curb ‘municipal madness’ is good for NJ
- OPINION
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012
By Lucy Vandenburg, NJ Spotlight A bill making it easier for New Jersey’s municipalities to merge by identifying funding sources that can be used for consolidation expenses was recently passed by the NJ Senate and introduced in the Assembly last week. Various efforts have been made by the Legislature over the years to encourage municipal consolidation, including the Municipal Consolidation Act of 1978, the Sparsely Populated Municipal Consolidation Act of 1995, and the Local Option Municipal Consolidation Act of 2007. Each of these laws has created new incentives or more flexibility to encourage municipal consolidation. Since reaching a peak of 568 municipalities in 1957, however, only two sets of municipalities have merged, with the …
Monday, February 13, 2012
Consolidation initiatives are sweeping the state, with governor and legislature adding bipartisan backing
- GOVERNMENT
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Monday, February 13, 2012
By Mark Magyar, NJ Spotlight Spending caps, rising property tax appeals, and a sluggish economy are spurring elected officials to push for police department consolidation, school district regionalization, and other shared services in a movement that promises to reshape the way government services are provided in New Jersey. "The idea of merging police forces or school districts used to be the third rail of politics,” said Hunterdon County Freeholder Rob Walton. “That’s no longer true. It's now part of the everyday discourse on how we govern ourselves as counties, municipalities, and school districts. It's a big step forward.” Hunterdon County is now debating a groundbreaking proposal to merge the county’s 30 school districts -- and their …
Friday, August 26, 2011
The Fair Lawn Board of Education approved a proposal at Thursday's meeting to take over business administration duties for the Rochelle Park School District
The Fair Lawn Board of Education unanimously approved a proposal Thursday to take over school business operations for the township of Rochelle Park. Under the shared services agreement, Rochelle Park will pay Fair Lawn $65,000 to handle its finances. Fair Lawn Schools Superintendent Bruce Watson called the agreement a “win-win situation.” “They’re gonna save some tax dollars for their district -- their one-school operation -- and we’re going to bring some additional revenue into Fair Lawn Schools,” he said. Watson said the revenue coming into the district will be used for personnel. Assistant school business administrator John DiPaola, who will serve as the point person for the Rochelle Park account, will be paid $16,000 on top of his …
Thursday, August 25, 2011
The Board of Education will vote tonight to take over the business side of the Rochelle Park School District
The Fair Lawn Board of Education will vote tonight on a shared service proposal with the Rochelle Park School District. If approved, Fair Lawn would become the business administrator for Rochelle Park, a one-school district. “They’re gonna save some tax dollars for their district -- their one-school operation -- and we’re going to bring some additional revenue into Fair Lawn Schools,” Superintendent Bruce Watson said. “It’s a win-win for both schools. That’s the only way it would work.” Watson said this would be the first time that Fair Lawn would help run another school district on the business side. “We’ve got to run schools differently than we ever ran them before,” he said. “The outside world continues to change and school systems are …
Tommy P
8:15 am on Friday, September 21, 2012
Remember all that money we took in with the pool? Actually, it was 100s of thousands paid for by tax payers. The senior center boasts non-paying out of town members, we lose there again. The SB@Community Center project is going to be a high fee to SB residents, few will pay it and the community center will STILL cost the taxpayers 100s of thousands a year, many times over. more ›