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Council President, ladies and gentleman of the Town Council, municipal employees, friends, relatives and fellow residents of Mount Olive, I thank you for the opportunity to report on the state of the Township of Mount Olive this year and for the next three years thereafter. It is truly an honor to have been chosen by the residents to guide our Township and instill my vision as to Mount Olive’s future. Along with the Town Council, we are looking to build MO MENTUM in promoting Mount Olive as the first class community it is, and to encourage commercial growth to stabilize our ratable base and reduce the tax burden on our residents.
At the outset, I would like to thank Dave Scapicchio, Bill Sohl and Phil Tobey for their too numerous to mention past efforts on behalf of the Township. All three individuals have worked diligently on behalf of the Township and can be credited for bringing stability back to Mount Olive. Indeed, this State of the Township address is as much a report on their successes and that of the last year’s Town Council, as it is a preview of my vision for Mount Olive’s future.
At this time, as the leadership torch is being passed from Mayor Scapicchio, the prior administration and Town Council should be extremely proud of the state of our Township and commended for last years accomplishments. As other municipalities have struggled to maintain an acceptable level of services in these extremely difficult economic times, Mount Olive has forged a path of doing more with less. Through conservative fiscal management, we have avoided the need for catastrophic reductions in municipal services. Besides our immediate past leadership, I would be remiss for not thanking and crediting the efforts of our employees for Mount Olive’s successes.
Through the extremely diligent efforts of the Finance Department, the Township received a perfect audit for 2010, the third year in a row. In 2011, outstanding debt was reduced by almost $2,500,000.00 through continued aggressive payback of debt service. The payroll contract with ADP was renegotiated at a cost savings of 50%, saving $17,500.00. Added assessments of approximately $10,000,000.00 resulted in more than $250,000.00 in additional revenue to the Township. This was an increase of over $100,000 from 2010. At the same time, tax appeal losses from county board judgments were held to less than $15,000. The Township also completed a town wide reassessment for 2011. I am pleased to announce that the finance department achieved a tax collection rate of 98.77 which exceeded our 2010 tax collection rate of 98.71%.
Last year, our Planning Department did an excellent job executing and staying on top of complex state regulation and new judicial determinations which impacted development issues throughout the Township. Highlands conformance, COAH, conversion legislation and the trust for affordable housing, are all issues which had to be addressed in 2011.
In 2012, it is my hope that the Planning Department, in addition to its’ other responsibilities, will be occupied with plan review for new and exciting busy ventures which the past Administration, Town Council and I have been working to make happen in Mount Olive.
In 2011, the Building Department collected close to $600,000.00 for permits and other fees related to new development and/or construction in Mount Olive. While some of these fees were generated through projects involving homeowner remodeling, the Building Department was also extremely busy doing inspections related to business improvements within the Trade Zone and elsewhere in town. One of these projects, the installation of a roof top solar system at Toys R Us in Flanders was the second largest installation of its’ type in the U.S. The Township collected approximately $120,000.00 in inspection fees related to the project. In total, last year, the Building Department logged well over 4,000 inspections.
With regard to the Municipal Court, I am pleased to report that the Township entered into a shared service agreement with the Borough of Netcong which will generate an additional $50,000 of annual revenue to the Township. In total, the Court added approximately 6,000 new cases to its’ docket and disposed of almost 6,500 pending cases, collecting over $800,000.00 in fines and penalties and raising revenue for the Township of approximately $300,000.00.
The Health Department has successfully continued in its’ effort to provide shared services with other municipalities, in the process raising approximately $160,000.00 in additional revenue for Mount Olive. The Health Department now serves the communities of Mount Olive, Netcong, Mount Arlington, Wharton and Dover. Among its’ other accomplishments, the health department successfully raised childhood influenza vaccination rates from 57% to 94% among participating county municipalities, provided low cost vaccinations for other residents, initiated a quality improvement program targeting food establishments, distributed over 600 pounds of food for needy families in our community through our food pantry, provided and improved transportation for our senior population to gain access to grocery, shopping, medical transportation, as well as food delivery via “Meals on Wheels” to our home-bound residents.
Always mindful of shared service opportunities, our Animal Control Officer successfully negotiated a shared service agreement for coverage in Byram Township benefiting Mount Olive with an additional revenue source of $7,500 per year. Through the efforts of the health department, Mount Olive Animal Control has currently licensed 3,168 dogs and 1,230 cats, which is the second highest animal control program in Morris County.
Mount Olive’s Fire Marshall’s office inspected every registered business in the Township, which amounted to over 2,000 inspections in 2011. Also cognizant of the need to raise revenue for the Township, the office entered into a shared service arrangement with Chester Borough which resulted in an additional $18,147.50 in revenue to Mount Olive.
Due to numerous weather related disasters, the Office of Emergency Management saw activity on a historic basis for Mount Olive. The office managed several large scale disasters from a hurricane, flash flood event, and crippling October snow storm. To date, OEM has thus far helped the Township secure over $80,000 from FEMA in disaster relief and is working with FEMA on and anticipating additional Township response cost reimbursements.
Besides preserving several hundred of acres of property for open space for the betterment of Mount Olive, our Grants Coordinator helped the Township obtain $125,000.00 in grants for energy efficiency upgrades in lighting and HVAC in Municipal Building, Senior Center, Municipal Garage, Library, Flanders Sewer plant, Blue Atlas Building, Flanders Fire, Budd Lake Fire and Budd Lake Rescue, as well as a $200,000.00 grant for restoration of the Mount Olive Baptist Church.
The Recreation Department offered 117 different recreation programs serving almost 4,100 residents throughout the year, including but not limited to 17 summer camp programs serving about 1,200 children. For 2012 the Recreation Department will be coordinating the Mt. Olive Community School, adding 85 instructors and over 150 more programs.
The Public Works Department successfully maintained and improved Township owned infrastructure despite decreased manpower and funding, as well as several natural disasters. This includes resurfacing of nearly 2 miles of roadway on Sand Shore Road and over a mile section of Drakestown Road, successfully completing the annual April residential large item cleanup, as well as providing additional significant town wide cleanup due to flooding and snow damage.
The department also completed the interconnection between the Tinc water system and the Goldmine system, received final approval to utilize Turkey Brook well #2 as a potable water well to assist the Goldmine system with quality drinking water, completed upgrades to Flanders well #2 which included a new filtration system and backup generator through approximately $1,000,000.00 in state reimbursed funding.
The Township also continued to improve all aspects related to Information Technology. Money spent improving information technology serves to decrease the need for certain types of manpower and increases the Township’s ability to communicate with our residents. To that end, the Township increased its’ internet bandwidth with fiber by switching to a new internet service provider, improved data restore/recovery capability, implemented an inventory system of all Township owned hardware and software, secured
VPN tunneling so that remote users can now securely connect to their workstations from any location, redesigned the Township website, upgraded our local area network, and improved our network security for both workstations and servers.
In 2011 the Police Department conducted over 60,000 calls for service, up significantly from last year, including over 1200 alarms, approximately 1000 motor vehicle crashes (3 fatal crashes), 1200 ambulance requests, and 250 domestic violence calls. To date, the police department removed over 150 drunk or impaired drivers from the streets of the township (up from 2010), all with less officers on the road.
The Investigations Division also continued to see an increased caseload. In 2011, 13 cases of sexual assault were reported, as well as 28 burglaries to homes. The detective bureau solved most of the burglaries and arrested 12 separate perpetrators for those crimes.
The Police Department also took on the difficult and time consuming effort of becoming a state accredited agency, the goal and purpose of which is to assure that the Police Department is acting in conjunction with the “best practices” as determined by the State Accreditation Commission. Once that process is completed in 2012, it will reduce risk for the township and is intended lead to significant savings.
As we move forward into 2012, it is my hope that as I report next year’s successes in the State of the Township address, I can take as much if not more pride in the MOMENTUM the Township has generated, as I have in reporting the accomplishments achieved in 2011. To help in that effort, I have hired Sean Canning as the next Business Administrator for Mt. Olive. Sean has worked both as Business Administrator and Chief of Police in Lincoln Park and came very highly recommended. I know that Sean will bring his management skills to Mt. Olive, both in terms of moving my agenda forward and managing the Township personnel on a daily basis. I am very excited to welcome Sean to Mt. Olive and look forward to sharing in his accomplishments.
I have already begun to tackle some of the issues facing the town. From a ratable perspective, it is my goal to fill every vacant store and to encourage smart growth for the viability of the Town’s future. Through commercial success, we can control tax increases and maintain our infrastructure.
I have also given a lot of thought to creative solutions to accomplish needed infrastructure improvements involving township manpower, flooding, drainage, athletic field usage, and traffic. I have already spoken to Sean Canning to arrange meetings with residents and town employees most affected by each of the issues to begin finding solutions to the problems which face the Township.
One issue which needs to be addressed immediately relates to the October snow storm. That storm revealed various issues in terms of the town’s ability to respond to a disaster. I am in the process of correcting those issues and know that we will be better able to respond in the future based upon what we learned through that storm. Communication methods will be improved and all residents will know in advance of the Town’s disaster planning, what and where the town can offer such as water and shelter, and where that assistance will be located. All of this will be known before the loss of electricity makes communicating with all virtually impossible.
On a lighter note but equally as important is the fostering of a sense of community. Through the recreation department and the Mayor’s office, we will be offering new and exciting events such as a 5K race between the High School and Turkey Brook, a bicycle event at Turkey Brook for our younger residents and the return of Mt. Olive Week, including the carnival and fireworks.
In 2012, the Town Council and I will endeavor to guide Mount Olive through the challenges facing us in the years ahead. Together we all can make a difference. In closing, I would like to thank Mayor Scapicchio for going out of his way to make sure that the succession of leadership was seamless. May you all and have a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
Sincerely and with great appreciation,
Mayor, Mount Olive Township.
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