First The Library, Now Poricy Park ?

Not sure how many people have heard of this and i'm just throwing it out there as food for thought and wondering what the thinking was.

Every year the Township gives the Poricy Park Conservatory (overseers of Poricy Park) an allotment of dollars towards its annual budget. This money goes to support the Poricy Park Conservatory's operating expenses. This year's $25,000 allotment instead  was placed by the Township in the Capital Improvements budget, not the operations budget. This caused a deficit in  PPC's FY 2014 budget since they were not told about it until last moment.

So, let's think about this a minute and speculate a little.

Why would the township suddenly place money that is earmarked yearly for operating expenses into the capital improvements budget? One, it saves the town $25K in current cash. Two, assuming that "capital improvements" equates to debt issue, it allows an additional $25K to be raised in debt and moved outside of the 2% cap.

"Capital Improvements" may not mean debt issue, though. it could mean the delegation of town staff to do work at Poricy Park. Or it could mean that the township pays contractors of its own choosing in lieu of letting PPC decide. This puts control of the spending in township hands.

 Meanwhile the Middletown Arts Center keeps getting more money.....

Middletown Township Committee Meeting 6/04/12

This video is of the June 4th,2012 Middletown Township Workshop Meeting.

Opening the meeting was a discussion that pertained to a new ordinance that would outline  rules for the installation of home generators and how far they need to be recessed from homes. The meeting then moved quickly to the discussion items on the agenda which included:

Fireworks for Navesink Country Club & Riverview Medical Foundation 

Estimated Tax Bills and the budget

Township Capital Improvements and how those improvements will effect the budget

Referral to the Planning Board for Swim Club Project

Be sure to watch the Public Comments portion of the meeting which starts at the 30 minute mark of the video, as always they are enlightening  and shows what is on the minds of residents who have taken the time to attend the meeting.

As a companion to the video, you can download a copy of the meeting agenda that contains the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.