Morris Twp. Move to Madison Court ‘Done Deal’

Less than two months after announcing their intention to dissolve their court and join up with Harding, Madison and the Chathams, Morris Township has received approval to do just that.

According to Morris Township Administrator Timothy Quinn,  assignment Judge Thomas Weisenbeck signed off on the arrangement, which means the Township will join the court hosted by Madison on Jan. 1.

Those four communities have had a shared court arrangement since February of 2011. At the time of that merge, Chatham Mayor Nelson Vaughan said that participation in the joint court system was going to cut the borough's cost nearly in half. According to Morris Township Mayor Peter Mancuso, significant savings could also be seen for township residents.

“It is one of the most difficult decisions we’ve had to make,” Mancuso said when the announcement was made. “But to me it comes down to three things.  First, we could be saving $150,000. Second, it has the support of the police chief. And third, when we do this we have six months to get out of the deal. We sign a four-year agreement, but if we don’t like it we have six months to pull out.”

The next step in the process, according to Quinn, will be figuring out the disposition of the current court staff. Quinn said there were plans in the works but the details were unavailable.