Haimoff Selected as Mayor Again; Delivers State of Township Address

At the Township Committee’s annual re-organization meeting Tuesday night, the new board selected Mayor Sandra Haimoff and Deputy Mayor  Robert Tillotson to serve another term each and newcomer Sari Greenberg was sworn in to serve on the committee.

In her state of the Township address, Mayor Haimoff talked about the tough year Millburn ended up having, after starting out as calm and quiet.

“Then came August,” she said. , and on her heels a rare barreled into the township, imbs heavy with leaves and snapping power lines. These two events presented us with new challenges and veered us off course for a period of time.”

Haimoff outlined the projects and work of the committee during the past year including approving the plans for a parking deck at Essex and Lackawanna; taking own the ; using grant money for the ; cleaning up the Taylor Park fuel tank; redoing the tennis courts at Taylor Park; and restoring the Bauer Center porch.

The Township Committee also passed ordinances to deal with commercial filming licenses; sewer access fees for new development; driveway access for commercial areas; and sump pump discharge.

In addition, the township nd is still looking at the cost-effectiveness of the possibility of combing police dispatch services with Summit, New Providence and Berkeley Heights.

But the biggest issues and projects the committee has faced or worked on this year stem from the destruction caused by both Tropical Storm Irene and the October snowstorm, she said.

“Recognizing that all of the problems caused by the Rahway River could not be solved by Millburn Township alone, we reached out to the upstream and downstream towns,” she said. “That resulted in the formation of the Mayors Coalition on the Rahway River.”

That coalition met with the on Dec. 22, and the Corps agreed to include Campbell’s Pond, Diamond Mill Pond and the Orange Reservoir in its plans and conceptual designs for flood damage reduction.

“This was a big step in resolving part of our storm flooding problem at no cost to Millburn,” she said.

In the year to come, the Township will continue looking at additional ways to communicate in cases of emergencies and as well implementing additional safety measures.

“ is one of our paramount concerns,” Haimoff said. “We are investigating more safety measures such as installing cameras a strategic plances. Lighting is another source of concern and we have been working with JCP&L, not only to ensure that we don’t have another power outage that last for 12 days but that our street light are replaced quickly when they burn out.”

Not only will the township continue to pressure JCP&L to that end, she said, it will also “be applying pressure to the Board of Public Utilities” to deal with JCP&L.

“We will continue to learn from the past, work in the present and plan for the future,” she said.