Official: Township Could Not Afford New Sweeper

To the Citizens of Lacey Township:

Recently I voted against borrowing almost $300,000 to purchase a new street sweeper. My "no" vote was enough to stop the township from borrowing this money, as four out of the five members of the governing body must vote "yes" to bond money. Even though Mrs. DelaCruz was not present for the meeting, she had made her opinion very clear months ago that she was not in favor of purchasing new equipment.

Our Department of Public Works, headed by Casey Parker, has continued to go above and beyond to keep our town clean and our services running. Without this new sweeper, it may take them longer to sweep the streets, but I'm confident they'll be able to do it.

Simply put, I could not justify borrowing almost $300,000 for a new piece of equipment at this time. The township already has one working street sweeper and a multi-purpose vehicle that can, when needed, double as a street sweeper as well. Secondly, the township already has a debt of $14,000,000. I don't want to add to that number any more than necessary.

I'd also like to clear up one point that caused some confusion in this debate, but that also illustrates some of the benefits that come from having new voices on the township committee.

When this issue originally came up, the committee was told that if we did not purchase this sweeper, we might risk being out of compliance with our State Storm Water permit and could potentially receive a fine. That is why I voted in favor of moving forward with the street sweeper in the first place. However, it has since been brought to my attention that we are not required to sweep every street in town weekly, as we originally – and incorrectly -- believed. Rather, the State only requires monthly street sweeping of predominately commercial streets with speeds limits of 35 miles per hour or less of which the town has very few. Those streets will have to be maintained with our current equipment. That is why I voted against borrowing almost $300,000 dollars for the new equipment. We simply cannot afford it.

I ran for office, in part, because I thought that one-party control of the committee was leading to unchallenged borrowing and spending. Now with Helen and I on the committee, we can have an actual debate about which things the township really needs to spend money on, what's optional, and where we can make cuts to save taxpayers money.

Helen and I promised when we were elected that we would absolutely not vote for the township to borrow money unless there was an emergency or residents' safety was at stake. The township already has too much debt and more borrowing leads to higher taxes for everyone. I believe my vote to block the township from borrowing $300,000 was in accordance with that promise and I will continue to keep it.

Sean Sharkey
Lacey Township Committeeman