Message from the Mayor: New Years and 2025

Going from councilman to mayor has been interesting to say the least. The first year has flown by. I have several things to cover. Let’s start with some recognition. I want to thank outgoing councilmen Doug Rex and Martin Quinn for their service. I’d like to welcome Ken Griggs Jr and Joe DeScenza. It’s a different world on the dais, but I have confidence that you will make a positive contribution to our borough.

I’d like to thank my wife, Jan, and my family. I have said this before and I’ll say it again. I am nothing without them. They are the ones that make the most sacrifices, as anything I do for the town is at a direct cost in terms of time away from them. Their willingness to see the big picture and sacrifices made to support me leaves me forever grateful for their love and support.

I am starting my 11th year as a part of the Middlesex leadership. I’ve seen a lot of things happen in that time, some good and some not. At this point I feel we are on a good path.

In 2024, we’ve made excellent progress in a number of areas. I would like to mention a few highlights.

• We still have a way to go fiscally, but we have added to the surplus and plan to continue on this path. This is necessary for our fiscal stability as well as helping us to secure the best financing rates to save cost. It’s easy to kick the can down the road but we have made it a point to address and resolve outstanding issues and in the balance be as fiscally conservative as possible.

• We brought back the councilmatic committees. Used correctly they help with transparency, accountability, efficiency and communication. This program continues to develop as some are more effective than others but overall have been helpful in developing departmental goals and plans.

• We requested departments, commissions, and committees to come in on a scheduled basis and present to the council and public on their activities, goals and accomplishments at council meetings. Several have come in, and we have more to come.

• We held a Town Hall Meeting to discuss openly where we are and where we want to go as a borough. Residents need to be heard and this meeting highlighted several areas where we can improve. This will do this again in 2025.

• The flood wall project has removed approximately 90 houses from our taxable base. We sold some underutilized properties bringing in over $800,000, which in addition to the sales price will turn into ratable properties.

• We investigated the possibility of purchasing the presbyterian church adjacent to the municipal building. After concluding our due diligence and making a lower counter offer, an agreement could not be reached.

• We made some headway on the Cedar Avenue RR crossing. This will be a very long term project with a potential $180,000,000 price tag before brought to the proposed long term solution.

• New compliant crosswalks are being installed along Route 28.

• We finished the Streetscape project. This was a 1,000,000 grant that gave us the lighting, sidewalks, fencing and safety improvements in front of the high school and mountainview park at no cost to the borough. • Our DPW did a stellar job of making a retaining wall for the Heather Lane neighborhood which is staving off the erosion caused by the floodwall project.

• We purchased log splitting equipment and we offer free firewood to our residents. This has saved us the costs of disposal while providing popular free service to our residents.

• Our Rock snake came back but Larry the Alligator did not.

• We added a bit of holiday decorations on the streetscape as well as in Victor Crowell Park and Mountainview park for all of our residents to enjoy and plan to expand on a yearly basis to celebrate the holidays.

• We held several community events including a volunteer fair, coffee with a cop, community day, national night out, as well as our winter festival with a bonfire. We are looking to do more events in 2025.

• We started on the rotating revaluation plan which in the end will save the borough money as well as stave off radical property valuation changes as properties are kept more current.

• We instituted the Mayor Emeritus a position for the immediate past mayor which enhances and helps promote our legacy volunteers as well as helps fulfill ceremonial duties when the mayor is not available.

• Our police department marked their 85th anniversery.

• We invested in our police department with a 2 year program, hiring 9 officers and instituted remote dispatching investing in our public safety to keep crime down to protect our community with an active and visible police department.

• Our environmental commission has been reactivated and hit the ground running with the creation of a tree farm, and a rain garden, as well as, instituting a Green Team which in addition to being more hands on deck will prove helpful in securing grants for future projects.

• We have finalized our Board of Health move to Somerset County which should result in us receiving better service to our Borough for the money spent.

• We have purchased a HydroRake and are looking to clean and provide flood relief improvements to Lake Creighton (Duck Pond).

• With the purchase of the HydroRake I am looking for some tangible progress on a clean out as well open a dialog with the necessary state agencies over the operation and inspection of the dam.

• We are well underway for a comprehensive plan for Victor Crowell Park. This will take several years to bring to fruition but in the end will be a real multiuse centerpiece for our Borough.

• We have started the “Pillars of Middlesex” and “Citizen of the Year” program to recognize people who have been instrumental in making Middlesex the borough it is. Our 2024 Pillar Honorees were:

o John and Sheila Fuhrman

o Ed Johnson

o Jim Grimm

o Bob and Amelia Sherr

o Jack Costa

• Citizen of the Year

o Barbara Bensen

But now it is 2025 and despite the successes we still have some significant challenges and some pesky outstanding challenges facing this borough. 2 of the more public outstanding issues are flooding and Lake Creighton. We continue to work with and press the urgency and necessity of these projects and these will take years to complete but we will continue to push the state agencies to make our needs a priority.

Last year I talked about General Colin Powell’s “A Leadership Primer” where he states “Strategy equals execution. All the great ideas and visions in the world are worthless if they can’t be implemented rapidly and efficiently.” The crux of the lesson is that as a leader you need to have a knowledge of and pay attention to the operational details if a project is going to be completed. A key tenant we had in place for last year was a proper budget process and adherence to the plan. We did pretty good at this and will continue down this path in 2025.

The last 2 years we saw a couple of necessary tax increases. These were brought about by several factors. Investment in staffing, rising costs of benefits, overall economic price increases and timing. In hindsight 2 years of a zero municipal tax increase with these other factors may not have been the most helpful but the extraordinary economic circumstances caused by covid and the uncertainty of the future made this decision reasonable at the time. We will endeavor to keep the increase for 2025 as reasonable as possible.

During the past year I have had the opportunity to interface with many officials from other towns. In my conversations I have come to realize

that as a borough we offer quite a bit of included services that many other municipalities do not. (Garbage/ Sewer / Bulk Pick up come to mind quickly). For 2025 Our goal is to retain all services.

We will be looking at all expenditures with an eye towards reducing costs while retaining quality service.

We have several contracts that are in the middle of negotiations. A key factor in these negotiations is health insurance. Our state plan has risen 48% in the last 3 years, 16.3% in this year alone. We are currently in the process of looking at the options that are available as this increase is unsustainable for us as a borough and to continue as it is would possibly result in a reduction in services or staff or both. I do believe we have an opportunity here for a win for our employees as well as our borough.

I am looking at folding the Beautification committee into the Culture and Arts committee. This combination of complimentary committees should help with membership and results.

2025 will see major improvements to Mountainview park. There already paid for improvements will include, new restrooms, as well as playground equipment and pathways and improvements to the Pavilion area including an adult fitness area.

Looking at our businesses I see there is a bit of inconsistency in the way they are looked at and handled. For 2025 we are looking to implement a mercantile license whereby all business in the borough would be required to register giving us an accurate count of businesses in the borough as well as a knowledge of their proposed business activities before start-up.

Later this month we are looking for the opening of the History Room at the Library.

We have a plan to upgrade to a fulltime construction official to review our construction office workflow as well as have a larger in-field presence for routine and zoning/code enforcement issues.

As I mentioned before the flood wall project has removed approximately 90 houses from our taxable base. This equates to approximately $900,000 loss of revenue each and every year. We need to attract businesses and developers to our Borough. Our reputation is that we are difficult to work with and not really interested in change. We need to be amenable to controlled development. The redevelopment committee has been inactive for a number of years. I will be reactivating this committee in the 1st quarter and put some emphasis behind it to see what we can do to bring people to the table. This is a must to stay competitive in terms of making Middlesex attractive to be here as well as afford to stay here. Landlocked as we are we have limited opportunities as it is. It’s time to be aggressive and let people know we are OPEN and ready for business.

Lastly, I’d like to talk about volunteerism. The Borough Council, the Fire Department, OEM, rescue squad and many of the committees and commissions in Middlesex Borough are made up of volunteers. And these volunteers are the backbone of what makes our Borough tick. Unfortunately, volunteerism is at a low the past few years with some of our key areas being down a significant number of members to the point where their ability to be effective is being challenged. Maybe it is a matter of people not having the knowledge that many of these services are volunteers. Or perhaps a culture that is being brought up on door dash and other services not realizing that these services that are free now will no longer be able to be sustained without an influx of new members. This will happen quickly especially as the older members continue to age out. Middlesex residents need to take notice and get involved. Continued low volunteerism will result in us paying for things we now take for granted that are free.

Robert Kennedy said - Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.

For our dedicated employees and volunteers that we are grateful for, and our residents, I’d like to wish everyone a happy healthy and prosperous new year.

Thank You