Last step before poll on whether to join towns

Uncertainties, rancor cloud municipal consolidation deliberations as vote nears WANTAGE — A 90-minute presentation by members of the Sussex-Wantage Municipal Consolidation Study Commission, which summarized the results of 16 studies on the pros and cons of a possible merger between the two towns, did little to quell the fears and doubts among some of the 100-plus residents of the two communities who turned out for the last public meeting being held on the matter before it’s put to a vote on Nov. 3. The meeting, which was held in the auditorium at High Point Regional High School on Oct. 19, drew negative responses from about a dozen residents of Sussex Borough and Wantage Township who spoke up during the three and a half hour forum. While that’s hardly a statistically valid sampling of the opinions for the 15,000 people who make up the two communities, it does reflect the reservations that at least some people have regarding a possible municipal marriage. If residents from one of the towns vote against consolidation, it won’t happen, at least not now. First a slideshow Two members of the 10-person study commission — Sal Lagattuta and Wayne Dunn — opened the meeting with a slideshow presentation about the potential benefits and downsides of a municipal merger based on 11 months of research conducted by the study group and a consulting firm it hired using state aid. For instance, the study group determined that Sussex Borough homeowners would get $483 in reductions to their annual municipal tax bill while the average Wantage resident would see $57 in annual savings based on the assessed value of properties in each town. Wantage residents would also receive a smaller tax cut partly because they’re already paying a smaller portion of their local taxes to support municipal government, said Dunn. For instance, about $2 out of every $10 paid in local taxes by Sussex Borough homeowners is used to fund its municipal government. In Wantage, only $1 out of each $10 in tax payments goes towards running its government operations, said Dunn. After examining all of the information it had gathered and compiled into a 200-page report, an overwhelming majority of the study group voted in August to recommend the municipal consolidation to residents of both towns, which would be called Sussex-Wantage. The lone dissenting voter was Wantage resident Art Jacobs. Saving money During their presentations Monday night, Lagattuta and Dunn outlined what the interim municipal government would look like and some of the cost savings that could be achieved, including $585,025 in estimated tax savings for residents of both towns. The new government, which if voted for, would be put into place Jan. 1, 2011, would be in council manager form with an elected mayor and six council members. Each council member would be elected to serve a four-year term. The interim form of government would have to remain in place for three years under state law, at which time the elected officials could decide to create a new form of government if they choose, said Dunn. Elected officials would not be compensated for their work and they would not receive healthcare insurance, said study commission member Sharon Hosking. The equivalent of four full-time government positions would be eliminated between the two towns as the result of municipal consolidations, said Dunn. However, the existing Department of Public Works workforce for the two towns would remain intact, he added. Township laws would be combined from the two towns and their master plans would be harmonized. Next year, 2010, would be a transition year for the two towns. Schools, public safety The K-8 Sussex-Wantage Regional School District would become a Unified Type II district in which all of the board members would be voted at-large without mandatory representation from either of the two existing towns. The respective fire departments and emergency medical services teams would remain the same. Challenges to the findings Some residents who attended the meeting challenged some of the potential cost savings presented by the study commission. These include assertions by the study group that one of two scenarios would occur: Each homeowner would receive a tax credit for any tax increase that results from consolidation as long as that person owns their house. The alternative to that approach is that the new town would receive $500,000 from the State of New Jersey to defray debt costs or any one-time expenses if the newly-combined towns create a budget with no new tax increases, said Lagattuta. “What about re-evaluation (of property values) and how that will affect us?” asked Wilfried Meinhold of Wantage. “That has to make one helluva difference” on the amount of taxes paid by homeowners in both towns, he added. Wantage Township recently concluded property re-evaluations. Sussex Borough conducted its last one in 1999, said Wantage resident Bill Gettler. Study commission chairman Earl Snook said he was informed by Sussex County officials that the earliest they could conduct a re-evaluation would be in 2012, due to their current backlog. He added that the state would instead permit a consolidated township to conduct a property re-assessment. There were also several questions and concerns raised by Wantage residents as to whether they’d become responsible for paying part of the $6.8 million in debt service owed by the Sussex Borough water and sewer utility as of June. Study commission member Ed Meyer repeatedly stated that any debt owed by the utility would be the responsibility of utility customers and not imposed upon taxpayers. Hosking said Sussex Borough has $98,712 in debt to be paid off while Wantage Township has $680,906 in debt. Sussex Borough’s municipal debt does not include the debt service being paid off by its utility customers. The municipal debt would be combined. Kathy Gorman of Wantage asked whether members of the study commission had seen two reports issued by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in July which classified the Lake Rutherford reservoir with a Hazard 1 designation in need of repair. Gorman contended that the cost to repair the dam could be millions of dollars and asked who would pay for the repairs. Although he said he hadn’t seen the DEP reports, Snook said any repairs to the dams for Lake Rutherford and Colesville reservoirs would be paid for by water utility customers and not by Wantage and Sussex taxpayers. Jacobs told attendees that he doesn’t believe that the state can be counted on to come through with $500,000 in incentive funding. He also thinks that taxpayers from a merged community would have to bear millions of dollars in repairs to Sussex Borough’s sewer lines since those costs “can’t all be absorbed by users.” Not all Wantage residents were opposed to the merger idea. One man told the crowd that with escalating taxes in Wantage Township, “blowing up (the) government and starting all over sounds like a good thing.” The question of whether to consolidate municipalities must be approved by a majority from both towns.