The Township Council has introduced a $4.7 million bond ordinance to be used toward capital improvements. A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, September 7.
Although the bond ordinance is for $4.7 million, the township will issue $4.5 million in bonds or notes for the capital improvements. The township is expecting $225,000 in grants from the state Department of Transportation.
According to Business Administrator Robert Hary, the ordinance is a follow-up to the adoption of the budget. “Our capital budget for 2010 was almost $4.5 million, and this is then the procedure we have to go through to actually get those projects going,” he said.
The bond ordinance includes funding for the decommissioning of the Duck Pond Run pump station. Because the sewage will run in gravity flow, there will no longer be a need for a pump station. The bond ordinance also includes the annual funding toward the township’s road improvement program.
However, there is usually a lag in the calendar year for the timeline for the completion of the road improvement projects.
So this year, the township is working on road projects that were funded in the 2009 budget, and around the time next year when the budget is adopted, the 2010 projects will begin.
According to Francis Guzik, the township’s engineer, the upcoming roads that will be repaved this year (but were funded in the 2009 budget) are Southfield Road, from Route 571 to Sheridan Drive — although township officials are hoping the bids come in low enough to be able to repave the road all the way to the Cranbury border — and a section of Lillie Street near the Benford Estates area.
However, this most recent bond ordinance, and the funding in the 2010 budget, includes funding for a list of potential roads: Birdsall Way, Ross Kelly Drive; Terry Lane; Harrison Lane; and Rumford Way.
Also on the list is the second portion of Lillie Street. Officials are hopeful those projects can go out to bid next summer, rather than next fall.
