We're Out of Money, Lake Commissioners Say

The Lake Hopatcong Commission (LHC) is running out of money to keep itself afloat, to the point where LHC administrator Donna Macalle-Holly won’t be employed beyond the end of this year without an infusion of cash.

The situation isn’t sitting well with the commissioners or the people who use the lake; however, the two groups appear to be at odds as to how to fix it.

At Monday night’s LHC meeting, Hopatcong resident Tim Clancy questioned the commissioners on a letter he’d written to them asking them to go to their individual towns to request funds to pay Macalle-Holly’s salary.

“Based on all the taxes we pay, it would take just pennies of that salary to keep the commission a viable entity by keeping its administrator on board,” Clancy said. “Have any of you actually asked your towns to help solve this problem?”

“I’ve been to my mayor over and over, beating the same drum,” said commissioner Dan McCarthy, Hopatcong’s representative on the LHC. “We just don’t have the money.”

Roxbury’s representative Richard Zoschak agreed.

“I can tell you, in Roxbury we don’t have it,” he said. “We’re extremely tight as it is, and we simply don’t have the money to spare.”

Obviously disappointed with the commissioners’ responses, Clancy noted that every action the commission takes “goes through Donna (Macalle-Holly).

“Have you all thought about what you’re going to do when she’s gone? Every action you take involves her. Who is going to do it all if she’s not here anymore? If you haven’t thought that far, then apparently you don’t care enough about what happens to this commission,” Clancy said.

“If Donna’s not here, the commission probably won’t be here either,” McCarthy said. “Believe me, the state knows what we’re going through, and they are working with us.”

, which would provide $400,000 to the cash-strapped commission. However, the bill has not yet passed through the senate’s Budget and Appropriation Committee, therefore is not yet eligible to be voted on by the assembly.