Upcoming Township Committee Meeting: Shared Services, 25 Hewitt, Audits, $800K Bond
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
The next West Amwell Township Committee Meeting is scheduled for September 2nd, 2026, 7pm at the Township Municipal Building. The agenda is shown below.
Items of interest include:
Ordinance 11, 2026 "Stormwater Quality" Introduction. This is a continuation of the discussions about the Township adopting ordinances to align with the NJDEP's new storm water quality standards. I have no idea why this is called "Stormwater Quality" and not "Stormwater Management", because the latter is what it is really about.
Ordinance 15, 2026, Bond Ordinance Introduction. The Township wants to issue $881,270 in muniicpal bonds. We don't have the ordinance text, so no idea what the $800K is designagted for.
Ordinance 16, 20-26, OPRA Ordinance (my interpretation). This appears to be an ordinance to bring the Township code in alignment with changes to the Open Public Records Act law in 2024. If I had to guess, the Township is going to formalize making it harder for people to make general requests for emails. One of the major changes in the 2024 OPRA update was to require OPRA request to specify job titles of individuals or classes of individuals when requesting emails or similar records. So you cannot ask for "All emails regarding 25 Hewitt Road from January to June of 2026" or something similar. You have to indicate the role of the people sending or receiving the emails. There could be other changes too of course. Impossible to say without seeing the ordinance.
Annual Audit. The Township Financial Audit will be ceritified by the Township. This could be interesting.
Emergency Septic Repair at Hewitt Park. A resolution authorizing emergency repairs to the septic system at Hewitt Park, which has been busted for quite some time now. Lack of bathroom facilities is a real hamper to getting enthustistic use of the Park for things like baseball games.
Route 31N Urban Renewal. Redevelopment and Financial Agreements regarding potential developments along Route 31.
Shared Construction Services with East Amwell. You'll recall that earlier this year Mayor Deal told East Amwell she was terminating the shared construction services contract going forward. This is a "Status Update" on that.
Shared Public Works with Lambertville. We seem to be shunning East Amwell more and more, and at the same time you can't turn around at the municipal building without bumping into Lambertville Mayor Norwick. It is no coincidence that East Amwell leans more conservative, and Lambertville aligns with our current Democratic Majority on the Township Committee. I used to joke that South Hunterdon Regional School District should be called Trenton North because of all the Trenton students we accept. I feel like the Township Committee wants to rename Wests Amwell to "East Lambertville".
Stormwater Coloring book. They want to print a coloring book about Stormwater. I don't know why, but it seems to be a ridiculous use of funds. Especially in 2026. Coloring books Township Committee? Every kid down to toddlers have Chromebooks now. Please stop wasting Township money printing things.
25 Hewitt Road. A "Status Update" on "Runoff from Property". This should be interesting.
It is hard to go in-depth into any of these items, because the Township Committee doesn't share any of the details. This is not the fault of the current committee, this has been a practice since time immemorial as far as I can tell. It would be enormously beneficial if the Township actually shared the propposed documents and resolutions and ordinances and what have you to the public before hand, preferably in electronic form. We sometimes get paper handouts at the meeting, but that is very last-minute, and they usually run out. This happened at the Stormwater workshop in the beginning of the audience, where most of us were left trying to peek over neighbor's shoulders to see what was being discussed, because they only made limited copies.
It would be of enormous benefit to the public if they published these things. There may be legal issues to be addressed to make sure this was kosher, but I'm sure it can be done - slap "draft" all over the documents or what have you. As it is, you have to be a speed reader at the meeting and have a dose of luck snagging a paper copy to have any chance of understanding what is going on.
Comments