11/08/01
Mendham backs library merger
© Excerpts from 11/09/01 Observer Tribune Story
The Borough Council voted unanimously Monday to support plans to merge the libraries in the Mendhams.
The resolution, which was also adopted by the Mendham Township Committee at its Oct. 23 meeting, said the two municipalities will develop a funding formula to build the merged library along with providing for its yearly operating budget . ''This library is very much needed by the community,'' said Borough Councilman Gerard Dolan. ''It is incumbent on us to come up with something that is workable for both communities.'' Members of the merger steering committee said they were pleased the towns ha d moved forward with the resolutions....
Open Space Money
© Excerpts from 11/08/01 Daily Record Story
....This year saw the second-most applications since the inception of the county open space tax in 1993, which raises about $16 million a year. Of that sum, about 45 percent goes to towns and nonprofits, 25 percent goes to farmland preservation and about 12.5 percent each goes to the Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority and the Morris County Park Commission.
Countywide, open space money has protected 6,140 acres from development. Another 3,214 acres are pending. Adding to that are five closings in the next two weeks to purchase the development rights to various farmland tracts, Krich said.
.... Also among this year’s proposals is an additional funding request of $1.15 million for Randolph and Mendham townships to preserve about 905 acres around the Clyde Potts Reservoir. Last year, $600,000 was approved to purchase the development rights to some of the privately owned land surrounding the reservoir. That area - fewer than 60 acres - had been slated for hundreds of multifamily homes....
Most Morris candidates display poor voting habits
© Excerpts from 11/04/01 Daily Record Story
....An analysis of a Morris County database of voting records found that fewer than a third of 140 candidates for local and county offices and the state Legislature have voted in all of the last 12 elections - primary and general elections from the 1996 primary through last June’s primary and the 2001 school election. Eleven candidates (8 percent) voted only half the time. ...
Morris Schools
© Excerpts from 11/02/01 Daily Record Story
....The new process started Monday, when the Dover K-12 district instituted strict regulations for opening mail. At each school, when mail arrives, it is immediately brought to a storage room or area not used for instruction. The mail remains untouched until after dismissal time, when a staff member opens and sorts all mail, except personal correspondence. ...
....Mendham Township surveyed parents about the district’s traditional eighth-grade trips -- one to Washington and another to New York, where students visit Ellis Island and Radio City Music Hall and take a walk down Fifth Avenue. The results of the survey now have the K-8 district looking for alternative sites, said Superintendent Gerald Vernotica. ...
Gerard Dolan and John Andrus, "win" unopposed.
© From the Observer Tribune
Dolan, 69, a Dean Road resident, is retired from First Fidelity Bank. He has been on the council since 1984 and is a member of the Public Safety Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Public Works Committee. Andrus, of Hillcrest Avenue, works in the trust department for Chase Bank and wins a third term on the council. He has served on the Zoning Board of Adjustment, the Open Space Committee, and as chairman of the borough Recreation Committee. More added 11/19/01 Observer Tribune Story
Dolan received 1,312 votes and Andrus garnered 1,283 votes. Out of 3,706 voters in the borough, 1,855 or 50 percent went to the polls...
Hunters get OK to use bow and arrow against deer
© Excerpts from 11/01/01 Observer Tribune Story
Several employees of the borough's Department of Public Works will be culling during the regular hunting season on borough-owned land including property behind the borough's public work's facility off Ironia Road, Borough Administrator Ralph Blakeslee said on Monday. The employees will be allowed to keep whatever they shoot. Blakeslee also said several residents from the Florie Farm Road area have be en granted permission to allow bowhunters to cull within 450 feet of their residences on borough-owned land between Florie Farm Road and Valley Way. ... ....Kathy Franco of Florie Farm Road said 19 residents in the neighborhood have granted permission to bowhunters to hunt within 450 feet of their properties. She said residents on Valley Way, which borders the other side of the borough- owned property, are also considering granting permission to the bowhunters.
''We are not trying to do this culling on residential properties,'' said Franco. ''Most of the culling will be done on the borough-owned property from portable tree stands with the hunters pointing down at the deer or the ground. We have been assured that it is safe.'' Franco said six experienced hunters from around Morris County would be involved in the culling. She said deer were often spotted in her neighborhood. She said she took an informal survey of residents and found that there had been 19 cases of Lyme disease on her street. ....
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