Council Addresses Current and Future Issues at Meeting

At Tuesday night's meeting of the Township Mayor and Council, the agenda may not have had the punch of some previous gatherings involving the building, but there were decisions made that will impact the township for a long time to come. 

As part of the meeting, the first since Hurricane Irene did a significant amount of damage to the town, members of the administration and the council paid tribute to those who helped the residents work through the storm. At times the comments showed a lot of emotion from a council that had seen damage the likes of which had not been seen in Howell in recent memory. 

From the police department, to the Office of Emergency Management, to the Department of Public Works and the managers office to the citizen volunteers there was plenty of thanks to go around. There were also the words of one resident of who was evacuated by those same volunteers and is now left to pick up the pieces from the storm.

A plan was also introduced on Tuesday to change the landscape of recreational activities in the town. As part of the plan the Police Athletic League would effectively run the recreation department's activities as part of a new department. 

The plan would be a partnership between the PAL, the township and the Board of Education as its base would be the former Southard School. It would all fall under the auspices of the newly formed position of Director of Community Relations.

Another item on the agenda was one that will be an issue for the council to tackle for a long time. As time goes on the council will look at the feasibility and possibility of redeveloping stretches of Route 9 and Route 33 in the future. Even on the first night of the discussion there were several key issues brought up. 

Questions of environmental issues as opposed to the ability to have rateables are ones that will linger as the discussion continues. A recent application by was just one example of a possible change along one of the most popular roads in the township. This figures to be just the first step of many that would need to be taken if changes are to come to these stretches of the town.

Residents were also reminded on Tuesday that the township will hold its own 9/11 ceremony starting at 2 p.m. at the Town Hall complex.

Check with Howell Patch over the rest of the week for more coverage on these and other stories from the meeting.