MARIE LAWRENCE, LIAISON TO DIVISION OF HEALTH, WANTS NOTIFICATION OF EMERGENCY CALLS.

One Adam 12 meet Committeewoman Lawrence on the corner of Sicklerville and.........than proceed on to the emergency call at.......

UNofficially Winslow suggest Committeewoman Lawrence......(Click here)

DOES WINSLOW TOWNSHIP B.O.E. HAVE A CLUE ?

BELOW IS A RE-PRINT OF AN ARTICLE THAT ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN THE COURIER-POST ON JUNE 19, 2006.

IS THERE A $3.7 MILLION SCHOOL BUDGET DEFICIT ?

DO WE NEED TO HAVE A TAX INCREASE TO PAY FOR B.O.E. CATERING ?

WHY ARE ITEMS, SUCH AS SNOW PLOWING AND POLICE SERVICES IN THE SCHOOL BUDGET, WHEN THE MUNICIPALITY IS PROVIDING THESE SERVICES TO THE SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR FREE?


The Mayor and Township Committee addressed the defeated school budget in open session. The Committee voted to decrease the school budget by $ 3,144,481. Which eliminated the 21 cents per hundred dollars of assessed property value school tax increase.

Please CLICK HERE for the full UNofficially Winslow report of the Mayor and Township Committee's action.


CLICK HERE to e-mail UNofficially Winslow your opinion & comments.

COURIER-POST REPORTS ON WINSLOW TOWNSHIP DEFEATED SCHOOL BUDGET.

Winslow schools seek tax hike

By ERIK SCHWARTZ
Courier-Post Staff

WINSLOW
School property taxes would rise 4 percent under an $86.3 million spending proposal submitted by the Winslow Township Board of Education in appealing its defeated budget to state officials.

But even if the state Department of Education resolves the appeal in Winslow's favor, the state of the school district's finances remains unclear.

"I believe that the financial picture is not as presented by the administration," said Mayor Sue Ann Metzner, who reviewed the district's spending after voters defeated the 2006-07 budget by a wide margin in April.

"There is a lot of money that is not accounted for to my satisfaction, and not accounted for doesn't mean it's missing," Metzner said.

Interim Superintendent Michael E. Schreiner could not be reached for comment.

After voters rejected the budget, the Winslow Township Committee -- which includes Metzner -- recommended cutting $3.1 million, effectively holding spending and taxes to current levels.

The school board asked the state Department of Education to restore $1.55 million, or about half, of the committee's cuts. With the restoration, the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 would pay a school property tax of $2,623, an increase of $109.

"I have to go with what the administration provides me . . . and the administration feels that a $3.1 million cut would be detrimental to the school district," said school board President Robert J. Bartolone.

Winslow's budget situation is complicated by a reported $3.7 million current-year deficit that caused the layoffs of nine school-district employees and drew scrutiny from the state Department of Education's Office of Compliance Investigation.

A state auditor completed her work earlier this month, and a report is forthcoming.

Metzner said school district officials told her the auditor found no such deficit.

"It appears that will become a fact within the next week or so," she said. "The difficulty is that you have people that are saying there . . . was this deficit, and there is no reason to believe at this time that there was any deficit. And how do you deal with people that just don't deal straight with you?"

A spokesman for the state Department of Education said that the compliance auditor's report must be made public after it is considered by the school board.

Reach Erik Schwartz at (856) 486-2904 or eschwartz@courierpostonline.com

COURIER-POST REPORTS--IS RENT CONTROL IN WINSLOW'S FUTURE ?

Utility battle intensifies in Winslow

By ERIK SCHWARTZ
Courier-Post Staff

WINSLOW
The Township Committee is coming to the aid of elderly residents at two mobile home parks.

About 195 families in The Norway's and Strawberry Village face eviction if they don't convert their heating systems from oil to natural gas or electricity.

The township has begun to explore rent control as a way to protect the tenants and also asked state officials to intervene "to prevent the homelessness of these senior citizens."

Both parks are over-55 communities owned by the Sickler family, which last month began requiring residents to convert within 18 months of the date their lease expires.

Co-owner Paul Sickler said he's paid about $160,000 to clean up oil spills under scrutiny from the state Department of Environmental Protection. In addition, tenants' insurance companies have paid more than $100,000.

"It's not something that I want to do. It's something that I have to do," Sickler said.

About 60 percent of the 152 households in The Norway's and nearly half of the 45 households in Strawberry Village have signed up with South Jersey Gas to connect, he said.

Tenants at Norway's, which is off Sicklerville Road, and Strawberry Village, which is off Tansboro Road, said they, too, want to prevent pollution.

However, they note that conversion costs of $1,500 to $3,700 are daunting for people living on fixed incomes. They have appealed to a variety of government officials.

"There has to be help somewhere," said Strawberry Village resident Bob Dougherty, 71, a leader of the effort against the Sicklers' mandate. "That's what my main objective is: getting help for the senior citizens."

South Jersey Gas offers five-year interest-free loans to finance installations, noted Marie Rossell, a satisfied Norway's resident for 30 years.

"Well, $35 a month . . . it's only a handful of people that can't afford this," said Rossell, a retired casino security guard, adding that the Sicklers "have been pretty good to the residents in here."

The Township Committee stepped into the fray after Norway's resident Paul Potoczny reported Sickler had threatened that "if we take legal action, we would lose even if we win because he would just simply raise our rent to cover his legal expenses," Potoczny said.

Potoczny, who's considering a lawsuit, said he asked for "rent control so that we will not be threatened with rent increases if we exercise our right to legal action."

"Unfortunately, any cost that the business incurs gets handed out to the end customer," Sickler said. "Money doesn't grow on trees."

After the governing body voted, 9-0, to study the creation of a rent-control board, Potoczny said he was "ecstatic."

Mayor Sue Ann Metzner voted for the study but said she was skeptical that rent control would help.

"I think that where it doesn't exist people view it as a saving grace, and, in fact, it may be. I am just not as convinced of that at this point in time," she said.

Metzner said Winslow turned to the state Department of Community Affairs to address the seniors' plight because "I really don't see that the township can do very much at all."

In a letter to Community Affairs Commissioner Susan Bass Levin, the township asked her department and others to investigate "the housing practices of the landlord."

Metzner said she could see Sickler's business predicament.

"I understand him, needing or wanting to protect himself," she said. "As long as he goes about it in a legal manner . . . I don't see how it's discriminatory when you're applying the same rule to everyone."

It has been more than 25 years since Winslow last had rent control, which applied to the Sicklers' parks.

"They did away with it because it didn't work out for the township," Sickler said. "It became a hassle for the township."

Reach Erik Schwartz at (856) 486-2904 or eschwartz@courierpostonline.com

MAYOR METZNER AND HER TEAM SOLVE WATER CRISIS AND SAVES WINSLOW TOWNSHIP PUBLIC WATER USERS $6 MILLION.

UNofficially Winslow salutes Mayor Metzner and her team, Karen Gibison, Anthony Tomasello, Al Cooper, Nick LoSasso, ARH Engineering, Township Administration & involved employees, for implementing a long term resolution without incurring a long term debt.

UNofficially Winslow is currently preparing documents to demostrate how Mayor Metzner and her team have saved Winslow Township residents in excess of ten million dollars since taking over our Township government in January 2006.