What You Missed from This Week's Council Meeting ...

For those who couldn’t make it to Monday night’s council meeting, there were a few items on the agenda that didn’t make it into a full story, but were nonetheless noteworthy. Here a few leftover tidbits from the meeting:

• Township manager Scott Carew said, despite , he’d “like to see progress more quickly.” Council designated a two-member subcommittee, made up of council members Mike Testa and Stacey Jordan, to work on some of the finer points of the budget so it can be brought before council for final adoption soon.

• Jordan told council the township used roughly $200,000-225,000 from its Low and Moderate Income Housing (LMIH) trust fund to pay down part of the LMIH debt service. Township financial officer Tom Merchel explained, since the state Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) was eliminated last year, the state has the ability to take money out of municipal LIMH trust funds—unless the funds have already been obligated. Merchel said the township plans to hold onto the money by designating it for debt service payment over the next four years. The township has roughly $1 million in the trust fund, he said, with about $1.4 million of debt.

• Carew planned to meet with a municipal consulting firm this week to “review organizational efficiencies.” He said, “I know the (township) staff is working hard … What I don’t know is if we’re working smart.”

• Tax assessor Dennis DeKlerk is preparing requests for proposal for the , according to Carew. The manager said he would ask DeKlerk to attend council’s next meeting (March 26) to bring council up to speed.

• Township attorney Thomas Coleman said he may have a resolution ready for the next council meeting laying out the procedure for the sale of liquor licenses. Council passed an ordinance in January , which covered certain parameters for the types of licenses that will be issued and how many.

• Carew said he would ask Rick Ragan, principal for Ragan Design Group, to attend the next council meeting to provide an .