BRIDGEPORT — During their meeting on April 16, the Logan Township Council tabled a resolution to introduce the community’s 2019 municipal budget.
CFO Will Pine explained that he had been waiting to receive financial information from the state, so he left the budget introduction on the agenda. But the information never arrived.
According to the Logan Township Spring Newsletter, Council anticipates the 2019 municipal budget will contain a decrease from the 2018 municipal tax rate. Logan’s 2018 municipal budget did not include a tax increase for the second straight year.
Logan Township was hurt badly in 2016 after the Logan Generating Plant and Keystone Cogeneration Company decided to renegotiate their existing pilot agreement with the community. The Keystone Financial Agreement had represented 20 percent of Logan’s revenue for over 20 years. But Logan has been on the rebound, and Council expects to introduce Logan’s budget at their next meeting.
In ordinances, Council added a chapter to the Logan Township code entitled “Smoking Prohibited on Public Property.”
During the public portion of the meeting, Council discussed efforts to stop speeding in the community. Catalano Lane resident Bruce Hutchinson expressed concerns about speeding on his street and Lafayette Drive.
Councilmember Chris Morris said the fairest way to control speeding was to have the engineers conduct a study, and the people said no. “The majority of residents were not in favor of speed humps,” offered Morris.
“People speed, even with humps,” commented Councilmember Art Smith. “If everybody involved in this study was speeding, they would vote yes. The humps do slow people down.”
Elsewhere, Mayor Frank Minor thanked all the volunteers who got involved in the community’s food and job projects. He mentioned that Deputy Mayor Bernadine Jackson had poured her heart into it.
“We’re in our fourth and fifth month of doing this,” observed Minor. “I can see the happiness and can tell that this has been working.”
The mayor and Council began a partnership in December 2018 with Logan Township businesses to put together monthly care packages for community residents who needed food assistance.
The first food packages were given out on Dec. 5, and further deliveries take place the second Monday of every month.
Logan has also opened up an employment portal, where township residents can visit LoganTwpHires.org to create a profile and review open positions in the community. The service is free for Logan residents seeking employment.
In new business, Council approved revised summer hours for the municipal building. The building will now be open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. and from 8 a.m. to 12:30 on Fridays, from May 28 to August 30. Council also allowed an Athletic Field Use Request from the South Jersey Blue Jays for Little League fields for the 2019 baseball season.
Earlier, Minor announced that a proclamation had been mailed to Gary W. Whyte, an advocate for Awareness and Support for Benefit of Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressive. FOP is a disorder where muscle and connective tissue like tendons and ligaments are gradually replaced by ossified bone forming outside the skeleton that restricts movement. Many people suffering from FOP die from starvation because their jaws freeze shut.
by Robert Holt
