Dixon Seeking Election for Mayor
October 27, 2011
 
Come January 1, the residents will have a new mayor for the first time in 13 years.
 
Two candidates, Republican Ronald D. Dixon and Democrat Eric Steeber, are seeking election on November 8 to serve as successor to Gloria Bradford, who did not seek re-election this year. Bradford, 77, a Republican, is Milltown’s longest serving mayor and the first female one. She told the Sentinel earlier this year that she has given the job her all, but felt it was time to move on.
 
Dixon, 65, of JFK Drive, has lived in the borough for six and a half years and is engaged to be married to Nancy Ellen O’Rorke. He has four children and seven grandchildren. He is a retired law enforcement officer who served with the Edison Police Department, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office and the state Drug Enforcement Administration.
 
Elected to the Borough Council in 2009, Dixon is currently finishing his first term on council. He was elected as a Democrat but switched to the GOP. “I do not play political lines,” he said when questioned about the change. “I listen to the people in Milltown and I give my input to the best of my knowledge.”
 
Dixon stressed that he does not take orders from politicians about how he should vote. “It’s all about voting for what is right with all the available facts given,” he said. “I’m not saying all votes that have been made have been right.”
 
The councilman said he got involved in the town in order to help residents and their families.
 
If elected mayor, Dixon said, he would concentrate on improving and maintaining the infrastructure in the borough. The No. 1 priority is deciding what to do about the borough-owned electric utility, he said. “It’s something I am keeping an open mind to,” he said. “Nothing is etched in stone on what to do.
 
“What I do not want to see happen is to have a knee-jerk reaction to what happened after [Hurricane Irene in August],” he said. “We did not start looking into the electrical issue problem after the hurricane; we have been looking at it for the past two years and have been working on moving the substation.”
 
Dixon said that something would have to offset a rise in taxes if the borough was to lose the revenue that currently comes in from the electric utility. In part, he said, more revenue could be derived from a thriving downtown business area. “Parking is a problem in the area and it needs to be addressed,” he said.
 
Dixon announced the possible relocation of the borough garage, which is next to the electric substation, at the council meeting on Oct. 11. It has been unusable since the hurricane, and the borough lost $2.1 million in equipment. The proposed new site for a three-bay garage is borough-owned property behind the American Legion Joyce Kilmer Post No. 25 on JFK Drive.
 
“Right now it is just used for storage,” he said of the property. “Borough employees came to us regarding the space, and it is a win-win solution for the borough, but nothing has been made final as of yet.”
 
Touching on the longstanding debate over building a new firehouse, Dixon said residents have to understand that the firehouse is borough property. “This is all part of maintaining infrastructure,” he said. “Whatever is decided, if we should upgrade it or consolidate the museum on the property, something has to be done.”
 
Another issue that needs to be worked on is flooding from the Lawrence Brook. Dixon said officials are currently exploring ways of alleviating the flooding, and are discussing that with members of the Lawrence Brook Watershed Partnership.
 
“The problem of flooding does not start in Milltown, but in North Brunswick and South Brunswick,” he said. “The Mill Pond was dredged back in the 1970s by the Army Corps [of Engineers], but that is an expensive option.” Dixon noted that officials have to take into consideration that New Brunswick’s drinking water supply comes from the watershed.
 
Dixon grew up in Edison but remembers coming to Milltown as a child to fish. “It’s important to maintain the small-town pride and that small-town feeling,” he said.

Dekovics, Waters for Borough Council
October 26, 2011
 
The Republican slate for Borough Council includes former Councilwoman Stacey Waters and newcomer Jules Dekovics. Council President Lawrence Citro is not seeking another term, and Councilman Ronald Dixon is seeking the mayoral position.
 
Dekovics, 44, is seeking his first three year term on council. He is a lifelong resident of Milltown, and he and his wife, Loriann, have three children. He attended Montclair State College and has degrees from the Middlesex County Fire Academy and New Jersey State Fire College. He is the Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager at Drexel Metals Inc.
 
He currently is the chairman of the Zoning Board of Adjustments and is the vice president of the Milltown Fire Department. He had previously served as fire chief for five years.
 
Dekovics said his top goal if elected on council is to restore the faith of the residents in Milltown’s government. “This begins with addressing the most pressing needs of our borough starting with the flooding issues that impacts our electrical substation,” he said. “Water management must be planned and executed.”
 
Dekovics said the proper direction to take with the electric utility needs to be scrutinized in depth. “It is a monumental decision that will impact our way of life financially and with the service levels provided,” he said. “Our basic infrastructure needs have been ignored for so long that the disrepair could have heavy financial impacts on our town. We have to make sure these basic needs are planned for in the future to avoid a repeat.”Dekovics said the residents need to have faith that the local officials are there to watch out for their best interests. “This means keeping residents informed, involved and being transparent, as that is what Milltown deserves,” he said.
 
Dekovics said he brings his understanding and experience of running a business to the council. “Decisions should be made in the best interests of the residents and the borough alike,” he said. “These decisions must be informed with the input of professionals and most importantly our residents.”Dekovics said he has the ability to work with multiple groups and deal with people to get the intended results of a project. “I am a believer in being open-minded to all ideas; looking outside the box is essential, as status quo is not always the best option,” he said.
 
In addition, Dekovics said his emergency services background gives him the ability to “work under pressure with a level and cool head” in order to make the best decisions for a circumstance or issue. “I have the ability to look at changing situations and alter direction if needed to get to a goal that is in the best interest of Milltown,” he said.
 
Waters, 35, is seeking to regain a seat on the council after losing it last year. She is a lifelong resident of Milltown. She received her B.A. in history from Rutgers University, a mini-MBA certificate from Rutgers and is working toward a project management professional credential. She is a senior administrator for IEEE in Piscataway.
 
She is currently serving as a co-chair and treasurer for the revitalization committee, is a member of the Board of Health and is a member of the Historical Society. During her tenure on the council, she served as a finance chair, public safety chair, a utility committee member, and recreation committee member, liaison to the zoning board, shade tree commission and fire department and a served as a chair to the historic preservation advisory committee.
 
Waters said if re-elected, she would like to work on putting a water management plan in place and ensuring that electric service will be reliable. “I guarantee a full analysis will be completed on the electric utility so we understand what is best for Milltown,” she said.
 
Waters said should selling the utility be decided, she will ensure any contract would include moving the substation. If keeping the utility is the better option, she said she will ensure the substation is moved timely and economically. “Either way, I will continue to secure and keep what we currently have in good operation,” she said.
 
Waters said it is evident that the water table has risen over time due to various reasons, most of which she said were not Milltown’s doing. “This led to flooding that Milltown hasn’t experienced in generations,” she said. “The flooding caused our electric issues, damaged our [rescue] squad, and mostly affected many residents’ homes.”
 
It is necessary, she said, to work with the surrounding communities, New Brunswick Water, and the county, so a comprehensive solution can be found and a long-term planning is done. Waters said she brings her project management and administration experience to the council. This, she said, will help monitor and organize efforts for solutions for both the borough’s electric and water management issues within the budget. “My past experience on council has provided me an understanding of what these issues mean to Milltown, both financially and concerning quality of life,” she said.
 
Waters said during her tenure on council she made infrastructure maintenance and upgrades a priority, including a feasibility study on the substation relocation site and began the process to obtain land for the substation and garage. “I saw to it that surpluses in electric were once again invested back into the utility by contracting previously avoided maintenance, creating capital funds for infrastructure and substation relocation,” she said.

Milltown tweaks budget to cut tax hike in half
October 7, 2010

Council to vote on final spending plan next week

Milltown officials are moving forward with a municipal budget that will bring about a far lower tax hike than was previously in the works.

The Borough Council will hold a public hearing and final vote on the spending plan for 2010 on Tuesday. It held a special meeting Oct. 5 to introduce budget amendments that reduce the municipal tax hike from 16.8 cents to roughly 8.8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

“We have really worked on cutting a lot since we introduced our budget,” council President Brian Harto said of the council’s efforts since May.

At that time, the governing body introduced a $7.7 million budget that would have raised municipal taxes by $278 on a home assessed at the borough average of $166,087. With the lower tax rate hike now in the works, the average tax hike would be $144.

Councilwoman Stacey Waters, who chairs the finance committee, said the new amendments bring the budget total from $7,767,000 to $7,686,205.

Officials have been discussing ways to save the borough money for several months, dealing with a situation that some have termed as “disastrous.” The council first was working with a budget that carried a tax rate hike of 33 cents after losing $99,529, or 20.4 percent, of its state aid this year. The aid went from $486,698 last year to $387,169 this year. Officials also had to deal with a loss of $917,000 in electricity revenue.

Harto said the council has saved money without making any layoffs. “It is a lot of little things that have added up and kept the tax rate low,” he said.

Those factors include the incorporation of 11 furlough days for municipal employees, which saves the town about $70,000, and a new recycling contract that will save $23,000 per year, but only $10,000 this year. In August, the borough awarded a bid to Waste Management of New Jersey Inc., based in Ewing, for recycling pickup.

Also, the borough work force was reduced by four positions due to attrition and retirements. “Two left in June and two left in July,” Harto said. “We saved six to seven months on their salaries.”

Waters said the borough saved a significant amount of money by asking departments to cut 10 percent of their previous budgets. “We also reached out to the library and they agreed to cut 10 percent of their budget, which saved us $32,000,” she said.

Waters said the borough has received additional revenue from opening up the municipal swimming pool to nonresidents and by increasing construction fees.

Borough officials are still considering the potential outsourcing of police dispatch services to a nearby police department such as Rutgers University or East Brunswick. The potential move has brought heated dissent from the Milltown Police Department and some residents.

Waters said the council is also looking into ideas such as bringing an outside dispatch service into the borough. “So, they would be outsourcing to us,” she said. “Right now, I would say this is still something that is on the table.”

The public hearing on the 2010 municipal budget amendments is set for 7 p.m. Oct. 12 in council chambers.