Mayor’s Message: Embracing Unfinished Borough Business

Conundrums

If there is anything to mark a capital” C “in conundrum, it would clearly be issues like Heather Lane, damage to Lake Creighton, the legacy landfill, re-use of the former Presbyterian Church , the need for senior housing, flood control and other initiatives. So many of these public projects are interlaced with a myriad of issues that unfortunately stall progress on them. This dynamic is uncommon in the business world. Funded projects usually incorporate a distinct alpha and omega paradigm.

Progress

On the flip side, progress has been made with other projects. These include improving our parks and playgrounds with new trees, recreational equipment and soon, a full replacement (drop in place) bathroom at Mountain View Park. The Borough has benefited from an extensive road paving program this year. And the streetscape work along Route 28 is close to completion. The Borough is also planning to sell surplus property in order to yield much-needed revenue. And a historic move was the successful purchase of a former service station with the vision of expanding and enhancing our beloved Victor Crowell Park. In addition, the new grocery supermarket, Superfresh, opened its doors recently which provides a good fit where the previous Pathmark occupied. New sanitary pump/ lift stations have also been installed around town.

Substantial progress has been made regarding the elimination of our sanitary sampling station on South Ave. with the goal of a permanent pump station on Baekeland Ave for the Borough to collect the sanitary fees directly from the industrial and commercial users rather than the revenue going to Piscataway Township.

We have hired and already in the process of hiring more police officers to get to the budgeted number of 32 officers, the number Chief Geist determined as “full employment,“ all this in the name of public safety.

After much fanfare by the EPA along with other environmental organizations, the Borough finally received the previous Middlesex Sampling Plant parcel back from its contaminated Superfund days. It is now cleaned to “residential standards”, the highest in living quality standards. The purchase price was one dollar. However, we are restricted to use the property only for municipal support and emergency purposes. Si planning is under way to relocate our Public Works, Emergency Management, Fire Department offices and our fueling station, which is currently behind Borough Hall. Post-land transfer testing will be conducted and independent testing will be encouraged.

On the Drawing Board

Among some other projects worth mentioning which have not yet gotten off the drawing board or are in the initial stages are the community garden to be located at Mountain View Park, updating Borough Hall and seeking grants for such areas as historical, cultural and environmental opportunities around town.

Lastly, we are mandated by the state (best practices) to install an Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station which must be on municipal property. This may be a great time to make this a grant priority.

It’s All About Our Residents

Working together with Borough staff, the Borough Council, and all our vendors has been such a wonderful experience all these years knowing that the collective benefit is for our residents. The common denominator is good communication and hard work.

Thank you.
Mayor John L Madden