New Mayor speaks to 2012

New Morris Township Mayor Peter Mancuso hopes to work with his counterparts in neighboring municipalities to address issues that impact them all.

Morris Township is essentially a doughnut surrounding Morristown and borders Morris Plains, Randolph, Chatham Township, Harding Township, Mendham Township and Madison.

In his address at the township reorganization meeting, Mancuso said one of his goals is to form a working group of mayors from the Southeastern section of Morris County to explore new ways “to implement additional shared services, address mutual traffic concerns and examine quality of life issues.”

Right now he is attempting to arrange meetings with members of the Board of  Public Utilities to discuss the problems caused by the storms of 2011 and to find potential solutions.

Because of the power outages caused by the various rain and snowstorms, the township is working toward improving its ability to alert residents during emergencies. Residents can give the township their email addresses by using the municipal website and Mancuso suggests all residents keep a battery-powered radio handy. He also said the township is negotiating with radio stations WMTR and WDHA for air time when needed to relay information to the residents.

Mancuso said a number of things could have an affect on the infrastructure of the township. He mentioned the master plan amendment for the Honeywell property the planning board is scheduled to refer to the township committee. He assured residents plenty of opportunity for input.

Since the budget process has just started and the township committee doesn’t know what their surplus or state aid will be yet, Mancuso said it is hard to assess what the tax rate and spending will be.

Newly sworn-in committeeman Jeff Grayzel also spoke at the reorganization meeting. He said the township’s volunteers and the residents who are willing to speak out on issues give lie to the idea that “Americans feel hopeless and have shut down.