FANWOOD — SCOTCH PLAINS
SHARED SERVICES INITIATIVE
Press Release

Scotch Plains-Fanwood Times   June 25, 2009
Merging Depts. and Services

By FRED T. ROSSI
Specially Written for The Scotch Plains-Fanwood Times

SCOTCH PLAINS — Mayors Nancy Malool of Scotch Plains and Colleen Mahr of Fanwood said last week that, while the shared services study committee should not be seen as a vehicle to merge the two towns, the group will look into whether the adjoining towns’ departments and services can be combined in an effort to save taxpayer dollars.

“It’s time to raise the ante because we are all tax-weary,” Mayor Mahr said at last Thursday’s 90-minute public meeting at Scotch Plains- Fanwood High School that was designed to allow residents to offer recommendations to the eight-member group that was formed at the start of this year. Assisted by Cranford-based consultant Jersey Professional Management (JPM), the group will meet throughout the year before JPM issues a final report with recommendations at year’s end. Any formal action to implement the recommendations will have to be taken by the governing bodies of the two towns.

The two towns, along with the joint Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education, have engaged in various shared services arrangements — such as equipment purchasing and ballfield development — since 2000, but Mayor Malool said the new committee will be “taking it up a couple of notches.”

Both mayors promised further public meetings as the committee’s work moves along, with Mrs. Mahr vowing “an open and transparent process.”

JPM’s Dan Mason said the municipal departments to be included in the study include police, fire and ambulance, public works, recreation, library, courts, tax assessors and collection, finance, construction code, the administrative aspect of zoning and planning, recycling, trash and garbage and public facilities. In response to a resident’s question, Mr. Mason said a number of New Jersey municipalities have successfully merged large departments,  including Middlesex and Dunellen, which merged public works departments; five Hudson County communities that formed a joint fire department, and Sayreville and South Amboy, which formed a joint court system, as did Belmar and Lake Como.  He said that in the early stages of the committee’s discussions, “we’ve had excellent cooperation” from department heads and employees in both towns.”

The eight members of the study committee, which meets every two weeks, include Mayors Malool and Mahr, Fanwood Council President Donna Dolce and Councilman David Valian, Fanwood Borough Administrator Eleanor McGovern, Scotch Plains Deputy Mayor Jeffrey Strauss, Township Construction Official Robert LaCosta and Township Chief Financial Officer Lori Majeski.