It's a no brainer, let's get it done Harris, Lonergan, Hagner etc etc. Get some guts.

Sounds like a plan. Let's get it done.

Only do it if it lowers our taxes.

At one time, I felt the marginal savings would justify a full merger. But, over time, I have observed that most of those savings in personnel and other duplicated services would take a long time to realize, if ever. These towns have a history of protecting public workers (see two Rec Directors for instance) and its not reasonable to expect that a merger would do much more than create some small incremental savings. But I am more concerned as a Township resident with the decline of downtown Chatham Boro over the years (see current vacancy rates), the lack of parking and the loss of competitiveness to Summit and now New Providence. Madison is a special case as a college town. Summit and NP planned their way out of downtown delcine. Frankly, I don't want to pay for the development and implementation of an economic plan to deal with the traffic and parking issues in the Boro - I get what I need from Madison, Summit and New Providence. Isn't it enough that we already pay the majority of the freight for our school system - why take on more to compensate for Chatham Boro's mistakes?

Without any hard data on the numbers being provided by the politicians of either town, it is hard to weigh in on this subject. However, it seems to me that we do not have to take an all or nothing approach as Princeton did. How about continuing with the merging of services on a "as needed" basis? The merging of the school districts and the recreation departments seem to be successful. The library is shared (although it has outgrown its available parking and the expansion of the municipal pool over there really concerns me as a township library user-- the township committee let that one get by them). Perhaps its time to single out public works or police and take a look at the pros or cons of merging one of those services.
How about recycling, garbage or cable television? Those are all privately paid for, but certainly better deals could be negotiated with combined purchasing power.

The only people who are in favor of a merger are those that just moved here. They have no idea what the identity of the town is. As someone who grew up here and has lived in the Boro for most of my 43 years I can tell you they are separate and unique towns. One of the biggest mistakes was merging the schools! And I'm not just talking about from a rivalry standpoint. How many additions have they put on every school in town? What the people in charge back in 1988 didn't factor in, was the town would evolve again. My street used to be all older people whose kids had long since grown up and moved away. Now I'm one of the oldest people on my street. Every house has 2, 3 or 4 kids in it! Someone told me that there sons (age 13) class has 350+ students?!? When I graduated from the Boro I was one of 126. There would have been some lean years in the 90's with small classes, but it would have come around. Think of all the money that could have been saved by not building all the additions which would have been unnecessary. Combining services like police, fire, and public works may make sense. If the towns merged the Township people would be eligible to park at the train. What a nightmare that would be to figure out, we can't even accommodate all the Boro residents. Overall, there should be instances where we can help each other save money with services, but in the end the two entities should remain separate.

You have a better chance of merging Mars with Jupiter than getting these towns together. Anyone who thinks otherwise either just moved here or has their head in the sand. Other than sharing a name and a couple of schools they couldn't be more different. Merging the Boro with Madison would make more sense and that will never happen either!

Oh yes the identities are so striking and unique. The downtown is dumpy and we get no services in the Township. Perish the thought.

History of New Jersey 101: Many of the boroughs of NJ were formed around 1900 for a very good reason - mainly because the larger township. Bernardsville and Somerville, for instance, were formed becuase the larger townships- at the time Bernards Township (Basking Ridge zip code) and Bridgewater were not providing adequate police, water, sewers, etc.
Merging towns is a terrible idea- there is mininal savings and, in this legislative environment, can pretty much never again be "un-merged." In the case today, the suburban townships would be crazy to merge with the likes of someplace like Chatham Borough, which is the early stages of urban decay. It has rat infestation problem, a crime problem and pedestrians being run over left and right. That disgustin borough needs more police, health resources (rodent management) and other welfare services. Of course the local borough politiicans would like to merge with Chatham Township - so would Newark or East Orange if Chathm Township was next to them.

I've lived in Chatham for 20 years and thanks to these comments, I just learned that the Boro and Township have completely different and unique environments. I would have never known.....

@ Scott, I didn't know that either. Maybe we should put checkpoints at the borders.

Scott and Ken, These small-towners are missing the point. I recoommend, though, since you seem to view yourselves as serious people to take a close look at the Chatham budgets and find the potential savings. Then take a look at the personnel decisions involved in reducing head-count. And look again at the travesty of having TWO Rec directors and ask yourself what politician is going to face the police forces, the "first responders", and tell them we are cutting back on personnel. You can reduce through attrition but that will take a lot of time and money. And you underestimate the cost of taking on Chatham Boro. Can anyone tell me the ongoing liability for replacing the lead drinking water pipes in Chatham Boro?

More Chatham history. Chatham Boro , township Madison, Florham Park were all part of Chatham Twp until the early 1900's. The Boro and Twp parted company over taxes and water issues. The Twp thought it was getting the short end of the stick.Does it make sense to merge? Probably. Will it happen? Probably not. There are some who are still complaining about the school merger.

Mayor G and Ken - I was being sarcastic, sorry. I've always identified myself as a resident of Chatham never adding the distinction of Township or Boro.
If the poll response to the idea of merging the Township and Boro is any indication of the sentiment among Township and Boro residents, the councils should conduct a feasibility study but it won't happen until they are pushed to do so.

It would be, because the cross line between towns it so STUPID! You could live 3/4 in the Borough and 1/4 in the Township! So lame! But anyway, the Township needs sidewalks unlike the Borough, the Borough is WAY better.

No use discussing without the data to evaluate the cost savings. My understanding from the last go-round is that the cost-savings are small (and since there are usually unforeseen costs, it probably means the towns would lose money by merging).