towns struggle to cut costs taking back control

WINTER BLASTAn early January storm dumpedseveral inches of snow on theregion. Earlier this week, resi-dents were forced to dig out fromyet another snowfall.

Page 4

mm

AND THEY'RE OFF!Eighteen horses seem to havebeen startled right before theybroke free from the safety of theirhome at the Watchung Stables inMountainside and took an earlymorning stroll down Route 22 onSunday.

Page 14

CHARITY FILMSAngelica Velez is an actress whostarred in Mountainside nativeJim Riffle's horror film 'Night of theDay of the Dawn, Part 5.'

Page 20

IN THIS ISSUEPolice Blotter 6Opinion Page 10Letters to the Editor 11County News 14Obituaries 18Healthy Living 19School Zone 20Arts & Leisure 22Sports 26Classified 36

. " ' • • • • • ' i i i . : • , . ;;• :. ;

Incorporating The Eagle, The Observer, The ProgressTHURSDAY; JANUARY1J672O11 LOCALSOURCE.COM VOL794 50 CENTS

Towns struggle to cut costsBy Cheryl Hehl

Staff WriterTrying to stay under the 2 percent stale-

imposed spending cap has some local officialsworking late into the night to find new ways tocut expenses.

Although the budget process For all munici-palities is still in the early stages, town officialsare doing what it takes to get their spending

TakingbackcontrolProsecutor pullsout of local PD

By Cheryl HehlStaff Writer

SPRINGFIELD — The prose-cutor's office has officially pulledout of the Police Department afterstepping in to help with restructur-ing efforts nearly six months ago.

However, former townshipmayor Ziad Shehady, who wa. notre-elected to the committee in theNovember election, felt UnionCounty Prosecutor TheodoreRomankow let politics influencethe timing factor.

Shehady said last week he wasmore than happy to hear the policedepartment was finally on its own,but took issue with the fact thatRomankow sent the letter to"Mayor Keffer" on Dec. 31, twodays before the new mayor took theoath of office.

Romankow sent the letter, datedDec. 31, 2010, to "Mayor" HughKeffer, notifying him that effective"Jan. 2, 2011 at 12:01 a.m." hisoffice would be relinquishing con-trol over the police department.Shehady took exception not onlywhen the letter was sent, but also

See UCPO. Page 12

plans under control. In some towns that mightmean looking closely at shared services with anearby community, furloughing or laying offemployees or asking the local finance board toconsider excluding certain fees from the munic-ipal cap.

In Summit, the governing body is havingserious discussions with Millburn, which is inEssex County, about merging fire departments.

According to Mayor Jordan Glatt, that couldpossibly amount to thousands in savings forSummit. The city has been looking into such amerger since 2009, even bringing a consultantaboard to examine all facets of such a merge,including a complete merger of both fire depart-ments or sharing of services and equipment.

Summit officials are not sure such a mergerSee OFFICIALS, Page 12

HEAD FOR THEHILLS — Above,with schools closeddue to a recentsnow storm, chil-dren gathered atEcho Lake Park,which straddlesWestfield andMountainside, to dosome sledding.Below, two friendstake advantage ofthe recent snowstorm to do somecross-country skiingin Union County'sWatchung Reserva-tion.

imrinrrri\irrn\\^io rN 3aisr~t~ixH

Experience the E-E

xoo-s*:scoa

3OIS11XHHJT33

x«

YOUR NEWS, YOUR WAY!Whether pit have moved out of slit, gone off tocollege orjiist want put hometown newspaperavailable whenever anil wherever you choose.

For more informationor to see a demo

of our E-Ediiion log on to

wvw.localsource.com