Medford is set to adopt the 2012 municipal budget at a council meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m. Originally, the town planned adoption for the Thursday, April 26 council meeting, but the state was behind on its part of the process, said township manager Christopher Schultz.
The regularly scheduled meetings for May 1 and May 15 were cancelled.
It’s usually the state waiting for municipalities, Schultz said.
“The towns are ready,” he said.
It’s the state that is not.
Nearby municipalities, such as Tabernacle, have had similar issues.
If state approval is not sealed by the May 10 meeting, the council will decide what to do moving forward then.
As long as the budget is adopted prior to June, the town will be fine, said certified municipal accountant Kevin Frenia.
The tax levy just needs to be certified by June and budget adoption later than the end of May would tie up the tax bill, he said.
As part of the referendum that residents passed last month, sanitation services will continue, Schultz said.
“We have a lot of brush out there,” he said.
Going forward, he said, the town would be tightening up on collection and is considering adding pick-up requirements.
Tree trunks and stumps will no longer be collected per Medford Township code, he said. Trees are not considered brush.
Starting in June, subject to adoption of the budget, bulk trash day will be the third Saturday of each month from 8 a.m. to noon.
Schultz suggested some potential requirements to the council.
He recommended tree branches and limbs be no more than six inches in diameter, that there should be no more than three 4 x 4 x 6 brush piles, and for there to be no brush in the roadways, stacked on sidewalks, near a mailbox or other objects.
These requirements, he said, would make for more efficient removal.
“Grab it, keep moving,” he explained. “Grab it, keep moving.”
Bulk pick-up will occur once per quarter.
The yard schedule will be 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Wednesdays and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays will continue.
For Christmas tree pick-ups, there will be two removals per zone in January. Residents will be also be able to drop off their Christmas trees at the yard, but the township has yet to decide when and how many drop offs there will be, he said.
Commercial locations in the town with too many trashcans will be receiving notice letters to recall the extra cans by July 1, Schultz said.
All residents have to live within the new limitations, he said.
“There are limits to what can be done, even with the substantial tax increase we just had,” said Mayor James “Randy” Pace. “We have to do a better job as a municipality to educate the public” until every organization is “singing from the same sheet of music.”
In an effort to cut costs, the council discussed a 2011 resolution that gave the municipal alliance a $21,000 grant for use in the school system for drug and alcohol programs there.
The town matched it $5,000 in cash and $15,000 in lieu of services, said Schultz.
The grant was applied for in July 2011.
There are more questions than answers in reference to the grant, said Pace, but the existence of the grant is “over the top” considering how much of the budget the school system already receives.
“Medford Township just raised municipal property taxes,” he said. “We’re taxing people to run this program.”
While some of the programs that the grant funded are vital to the community and have been around for a long time, he said, the council needs to address the grant now to avoid being in the same situation next year.
Pace wants a full detailed breakdown of the line items of the grant and suggested placing the issue on the June agenda.
“We still have a lot of work to do,” said Schultz.
