Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Impact to average homeowner is $79.
Municipal taxes on the average Chatham Borough home will rise $79 under the terms of a $13.6 million budget introduced at Monday’s Borough Council meeting. The overall tax levy for municipal purposes, $7,540,389, will rise 1.72 percent, Business Administrator Robert Falzarano said, under the 2 percent state-mandated cap. The rest of the budget will be funded by other revenue, including income from leases, parking, fees and state aid. The annual municipal tax bill for a home assessed at about $600,000 will rise from $3,449 to $3,528, Falzarano said. The increase includes the library tax and the fees for water, sewer and solid waste. A public hearing on the budget will be held April 8. The municipal portion accounts for about 22 percent of …
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Borough residents will have to pay a $5 increase to park at the train station.
Chatham Borough Councilman James Lonergan said there will be a slight increase in parking fees in 2014. Presently the only fee increase he announced is to Lots Nos. 1 and 2 at the Chatham NJ Transit station, both in the north and south lot. In 2013 the fee was $420; In 2014, the fee will be $425. Lonergan said he has looked into parking fees in other nearby towns to compareChatham's rates to others. A full presentation is upcoming, Lonergan said, but he believes Chatham's rates are about half of Summit's and are almost identical to Madison's. "Short Hills and Millburn, I believe, were $360 for the first car, $450 for the second," he said. "We are still assessing daily rates." Lonergan will give a full presentation of the 2013 budget at …
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Most of the funds will be taken out of Chatham Borough's joint insurance fund, but emergency appropriations will have to be allotted for the rest.
In a report on Chatham Borough's preparation for and response to Tropical Storm Sandy, Administrator Robert Falzarano estimated the storm's total damage to the borough $680,841. Falzarano briefly summarized his report diring the council meeting Monday, in which he outlined the borough's major costs as a result of the storm. According to the report, costs from Sandy include: These funds are on top of the 942 regular hours worked by DPW employees and the 1,674 regular hours worked by police employees during the storm. According to Falzarano, damage caused by borough trees can be taken out of the borough's Joint Insurance Fund (JIF), which is in the millions. For the remaining funds, Falzarano said the borough council will likely have to vote…
Monday, September 24, 2012
The Chatham Borough Council was the first to approve the move to a club system for baseball and soccer teams.
With no comments from the public and limited discussion by Chatham Borough Council members, club systems were approved for youth baseball and soccer teams at Monday's council meeting. Council President James Lonergan said over the past few years as he sat on the Chatham Joint Recreation Advisory Committee, he noticed two disturbing trends. "I noticed over the past two or three years that I was protecting the coaches and the volunteers more than I should," he said. Parent expectations have risen, he said, and since recreation sports teams "really are run by parents," Lonergan said the club system for sports will put more control in parents' hands. The move is not without its conditions. Both Chatham Borough and Chatham Township governing …
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Memorial Park and Pool project represents "best of what Chatham Borough has to offer," mayor says.
Mayor Bruce Harris, Councilman James Lonergan and numerous other Chatham volunteers, officials, contractors and employees gathered Saturday to mark the official reopening of Memorial Park and Pool. The efforts made to rejuvenate the fields and the pool, Harris said, represent "the best of what Chatham Borough has to offer," because residents paired with elected and appointed officials to determine what improvements to make. The park, Lonergan said, will serve as a new home for the Chatham High School softball team, and the pool has already garnered "well above" members from previous years. As of Saturday, Lonergan said, about 170 adults and 130 children were signed up as members for the 2012 summer pool season. Harris and Lonergan thanked …
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The budget includes a 7 percent increase to the local tax levy.
In its first order of business at the meeting Monday night, the Chatham Borough Council unanimously passed the 2012 municipal budget. No member of the public opted to speak on the budget, which includes a 7 percent local tax levy increase. The budget includes $102,986.61 for Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Funds and $757,825.24 to support the Library of the Chathams. In an effort to increase the borough's tax base, Lonergan said the committee and Borough Engineer Vincent J. DeNave will assess some of the empty lots in town to see if they can be sold. "We actually have a fair number of parcels of land, but the difficulty for building is, they're unique," Council President James Lonergan said. By "unique," he…
40.738487
-74.384788
Chatham Borough Municipal Building
54 Fairmount Ave, Chatham, NJ
/articles/borough-council-unanimously-adopts-2012-budget
26715
/locations/6872164
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Trees and water feature have been installed in the field, pool.
Memorial Park is scheduled to open well before the Memorial Day weekend, according to Council Member James Lonergan. Engineer Vincent J. DeNave said the trees along the boundary of the park have been planted, and the water feature for the kiddie pool has been installed. "It looks great. It's almost done, it'll be ready to go and for play by May 1," Lonergan said at the Chatham Borough Council meeting Monday. Grass has been put down on the two baseball fields, and with the warm weather has helped it take root. Also, 26 trees were planted at the field to replace the 14 trees cut down in August in preparation of the project. New fencing has been installed, and the deck area around the Chatham Borough Municipal Pool is complete. Tiling in the …
40.74225
-74.3808
Memorial Park
N Passaic Ave & Center Pl, Chatham, NJ
/articles/memorial-field-to-open-early-video
148502
/locations/6774763
Monday, March 19, 2012
Engineer says pool will be finished well before opening date.
Long-awaited improvements to Memorial Park and Pool will be completed before Memorial Day, according to the borough engineer. Vincent J. DeNave said the project still has a few small touches before the project is finished, including fencing and landscaping. Council President James Lonergan, who sits on the Joint Recreation Advisory Committee, said contractors were waiting for warm weather to lay the concrete. Some of the concrete was laid last week, as the pictures attached to this article show. "Fields [are] pretty much done other than fencing and small area of grass," Lonergan said, and barring extreme winter weather the fields will be in play by May 1, "ahead of schedule." The retaining wall and kiddie pool have been installed, with the…
40.74225
-74.3808
Memorial Park
N Passaic Ave & Center Pl, Chatham, NJ
/articles/final-touches-coming-to-park-and-pool
148502
/locations/6617485
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Borough pays more in local taxes while township stays level
Falling assessments and flat ratables play a big role in the proposed seven percent tax levy increase in Chatham Borough. "Think of the township," Council President James Lonergan said. "There's an interesting mix of big-sized properties, ranch houses and larger houses. A lot of people are knocking down small houses on big properties and turning [them] into bigger houses." As a built-out community contained in two miles squared, the borough does not have those same opportunities for development. "Chatham Borough doesn't have a lot of large properties. Even when you knock down a house, you can't build a bigger house," Lonergan said. Ground area is not the only restriction homeowners face. The borough has limits on not only how much area of …
40.738487
-74.384788
Chatham Borough Municipal Building
54 Fairmount Ave, Chatham, NJ
/articles/ratables-make-big-difference-in-borough-taxes
26715
/locations/6562571
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Increase remains within allowable exceptions.
Amid concerns that taxes will continue to rise while its revenue sources continue to freefall, the Borough of Chatham presented its 2012 budget, with a proposed seven percent increase to the tax levy, on Monday night. The increase will raise the amount of funds collected from taxes to $8,078,374, compared to the $7,578,339 collected in 2011. The annual increase for the average home in Chatham Borough, assessed at $658,500, will be $172 for the year. The state allows for exceptions to the mandated 2 percent tax levy cap for expenses beyond the borough's control, such as pension increases, debt service, capital improvement increases and new ratable adjustments to the tax levy. The tax rate will increase from 0.367 in 2011 to 0.393 in 2012, …
40.738487
-74.384788
Chatham Borough Municipal Building
54 Fairmount Ave, Chatham, NJ
/articles/chatham-borough-taxes-increase-revenues-down
26715
/locations/6472972
R. Swanson
6:12 pm on Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Only in the public sector are salary increases "mandatory". This is the cost of allowing collective bargaining for public employees and why folks in Wisconsin, for instance, finally woke up. Hopefully there will be the same realization here some day that bargaining with taxpayer funds when the economy isn't growing and tax revenues are stagnant makes no sense whatsoever. Public sector employees, … more ›