SCOTCH PLAINS — The township council will hold public hearings on Tuesday, April 18, on the municipal operating budget for 2023 as well as separate capital bond ordinances for Brookside Park upgrades and for the purchase of various equipment for municipal departments.
At last week’s council meeting, Township Manager Al Mirabella prefaced the operating budget’s introduction by saying that, “after eight years of relatively flat budgets,” this year’s will see an increase in expenditures due to several factors: a $400,000 increase in contributions to the state pension plan; a 9-percent, or $279,000, increase in health-insurance premiums; inflation-related boosts in fuel and utility costs; higher police salaries; increased costs at the public works department; and $500,000 in start-up expenditures from the new ambulance service that will be run by the fire department.
Deputy Fire Chief Skip Paal briefed the council about the new service, which will serve as a backup to the rescue squad in instances where the squad is unavailable to respond to an emergency call. He said the new service, which is using a loaner ambulance until the new one is manufactured for delivery next year, is expected to be operational at the end of this month. Mr. Paal said the program was developed to be “fiscally prudent for our residents” and said, “revenues for the new service will come from insurance payments, not from residents’ tax bills or checkbooks.” Anyone unable to pay for any reason will not be charged, he said.
Mr. Mirabella said the increase in operating-budget expenditures will result in an average increase in the municipal portion of property-tax bills of about $85 per household, and he noted that other area towns are “struggling” to keep their own increases to less than $300 per household. He also pointed out that the municipal portion of property-tax bills in Scotch Plains is about 14.1 percent of the total tax levy, one of the lowest ratios in the state.
The $3.819-million bond ordinance for Brookside Park will pay for the installation of artificial turf at the baseball field as well as new dugouts, fence upgrades and drainage upgrades at the field, along with renovations to the pickleball courts, shading over the playground and improvements to the park’s walking trails, including a new footbridge. The other bond ordinance will appropriate $2.18 million for the purchase of various equipment, vehicles and a new fire truck.
In other business at last week’s meeting, Mr. Mirabella said the township is soliciting bids for recycling pickup services. Earlier this month, a contractual dispute with the recycling service led to the normal pick-up schedule being pushed back, with Grand Sanitation filling in and switching pickups to a biweekly basis. Mr. Mirabella said last week that bids will be requested for both weekly and biweekly collection, although he cautioned that a weekly schedule “could be extremely costly.”
The council last week also approved an ordinance establishing zoning regulations for the installation of electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations and parking areas. As downtown redevelopment moves forward, with new apartment and other buildings being constructed, EV stations will be required as part of any new parking plans.
