Friends of Lake Neepaulin sue Wantage Township

No surprise, say township officials, By Tom Hoffman WANTAGE — After losing the support of Wantage Township to conduct a special tax assessment to pay for repairs to the Lake Neepaulin dam, the Friends of Lake Neepaulin (FOLN) have filed a lawsuit against the town seeking to reverse its position. The lawsuit, filed in State Superior Court in Newton on Aug. 6, is aimed at reversing a recent decision by the Wantage Township Committee in which the three-person body rescinded an ordinance it had passed last October to authorize a special tax assessment for 720 residents of the lake community. After the committee passed the ordinance and began exploring various tax assessment options — including the possibility of a townwide tax — some Wantage residents regularly protested the decision at committee meetings. After holding a special public meeting at High Point Regional High School on June 1 attended by about 150 people, the Township Committee decided to rescind the ordinance, deciding it was in the best interest of the township to take no position on repairs to the dam. Engineers hired by FOLN have estimated that dam repairs could run as high as $700,000 or more. The lawsuit filed by FOLN isn’t surprising, since Wantage Township Attorney Michael Garofalo has said repeatedly throughout the course of public discussions on the Lake Neepaulin situation that any