I want to thank my wife Kathleen, the love of my life and my best friend. My sons, John, Ryan, and my daughter in law Marylou and my grandchildren, each of you have made this day possible for me.
My congratulations to Mr. Ferramosca, we welcome him to the Official family of the Township of Hanover.
I thank my fellow committeemen for their confidence and support in selecting me Mayor. I extend my hand to each of them in a cooperative and congenial manner. To those who may have reservations I ask for their support and best effort to serve, to work together with diplomacy and open dialog in the best interest of all the residents of Hanover Township.
I bring my can do spirit, my commitment and my integrity to this office!
HANOVER TOWNSHIP IS A COMMUNITY IN TRANSISTION. I want to assure you that the members of the committee are determined to meet the challenges that lay ahead of us.
Hanover Township is a ‘Jewel’ in the crown of Morris County. We have practiced responsible fiscal policies since the 1960’s; I know, I was here. We have been blessed with strong commercial and business ratable that have given us financial stability. We have preserved our suburban appearance and most importantly our quality of life.
To the citizens and Public Officials that have come before us, and our present senior residents who had the foresight to put in place an infrastructure that has served us well. I thank you.
We now face challenges that are the result of Federal and State Government decisions that directly affect the economy and thus our once strong and vibrant fiscal base. We as residents, all of us, must rise to this challenge. This not a political issue, this is an inherent responsibility of all of us residents. What makes our town great is the individual pride we each have in the neighborhood where we live. But, we must all view our residency as the residency of Hanover Township, not by the postal zip code where our mail goes to, or the title of the sub division in town where we live. We must work together to balance our community’s fiscal strength.
In 1982, 46% of our tax base was derived from commercial properties. Today we are at 38.82%. The residential tax burden was approximately 40% as compared to today, where it is 57%.
My vision is to take the Township forward by engaging in smart growth development, that will not alter our quality of life.
I want to bring. commercial and business development to our community that will begin the process of balancing our fiscal strength. I envision a senior citizen development that will provide a community of retail stores within walking distance, a passive recreation area and a community center that will encourage gatherings or meetings.
While we have a terrific standard of education for our youth, we need to build on and upgrade our character building sports programs, recreation programs and provide our community volunteers, our scouts and local church ministries with our encouragement and support. Our community has benefited greatly because of our volunteers, I applaud them.
I am committed to creating fiscal balance and bringing and directing our township toward this goal. I have promised when campaigning a Citizens Economic Development Committee to foster smart commercial and business growth. This has become a reality, I thank the members on the committee for working with me to create the ordinance to begin the process. I am proud to announce that on January 7th Thursday at 7:00 PM we will kick off this, our first presentation. It will be held in this room and each of you are welcome to attend.
I would like to re-direct the efforts of our Open Space Committee, I would like to see them develop a plan to create the walking paths that have been alluded to for years. Perhaps a bicycle path as well.
I am always available to our residents. Each Thursday morning on Township Committee meeting days, the first & third Thursday, between the hours of 10:00 am and 12:00 noon I will be available to our residents. You are invited to stop by the municipal building and share your concerns or suggestions with me. I only ask you be specific with your issues so we as a committee can accurately address them. I will also be available by telephone through Mr. Giorgio’s office.
In closing I want to thank our municipal employees for their dedication and cooperative efforts in the past year.
I look forward to a year that will require our hard labor and best efforts but, we will go forward and make every effort to meet our financial challenges. Revitalizing our opportunities for success.
Thank you all, there are refreshments provided by the Township Committee at our recreation center. I invite you to join us.
