Power Outages and Open Space Discussed at June 25 Montville Twp Committee Meeting

MONTVILLE, NJ – The June 25 Montville Township Committee meeting followed a major wind storm in the township, during which 1,400 homes lost power, according to Mayor Matt Kayne. He said that he and Deputy Mayor June Witty, Chief of Police Andrew Caggiano and Police Captain Carlo Marucci were on top of the substitute representative from JCP&L, and he thought they restored power as quickly as they could, considering that there were 12 areas that had trees down with wires intertwined. Kayne said he received texts from residents stating that power was restored much quicker than expected and thanking the power company, and he sent a text to the representative thanking them. JCP&L is getting a billion dollars in funding for the state and upgrades will take place in Montville, according to the company, Kayne said.

The Township Committee voted to spend almost $600,000 of Open Space funds on:

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• Metro Tract driveway and site improvements - $200,000
• Replacement of pond fountain at Lake Montowac - $10,000
• Camp Dawson & Masar Park oil/stone - $25,000
• Pickleball courts and lights - $325,000
• Community Park playground entrance improvements - $30,600

Resident Holly Cox stated that no one is going to want to play pickleball in this heat, and the money would be better spent to purchase undeveloped land and preserve it, and she would rather see the money come out of the town’s maintenance budget.

“As a town, we need to realize that natural habitats and green spaces, not plasticized turf fields or the latest, trendy pickleball courts convey more long-term value to our town in a warming world,” she told the Township Committee. “[…] Montville is looking noticeably worse lately with the all the destruction of our trees and natural habitats. We don’t need any more corporate plazas, storage spaces or paved-over spaces. You are our leaders, and as you can see from the embarrassing lack of community involvement here tonight, everyone is trusting you to do what’s best for all of us as a community.”

Cox was a proponent of pursuing grants and funding to build up the Open Space budget and putting a referendum on the ballot in November to increase the Open Space funds in order to buy as much undeveloped land as possible.

Township Administrator June Hercek replied to Cox that $71,000 in grants had been obtained for the pickleball courts. She said that there is a lot of interest in pickleball “with a lot of following” and “a lot of demands for.” Cox added that she is not against pickleball but she doesn’t like courts being built onto a natural habitat space.

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Other News

Christian Hansen resigned from the Zoning Board. Alec Grossman is now on the Environmental Commission as well as the Historic Preservation Review Commission. Christopher Fano was appointed to the Zoning Board.

A resolution was passed to provide a resource officer (police officer) for the ‘24-‘25 school year and two Class III Special Law Enforcement Officers for the next three school years.

During public portion, Pat Gamsby requested silent fireworks for the 4 ^th of July celebration due to the problems that animals, people on the spectrum, and veterans with PTSD have with the loud version.

Montville Day 2024 will be Oct. 13.

Two meetings coming soon: special meeting on July 8 at 9:00 a.m. and a regular meeting on July 23 at 7:00 p.m.

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