Communities, like the people who live in them, suffered from the recent economic crisis, dealing with budget cuts, layoffs, and reduced services.

“This may be the worst of times,” said Rhoda Schermer of the North Jersey Public Policy Network, sponsor of “Creating Thriving Communities in Challenging Times,” a special presentation Thursday at Bergen Community College where a panel of experts proposed solutions to help towns recover and thrive.

Residents of various Bergen County communities as well as Sen. Bob Gordon, Freeholder Maura DiNicola, and public officials from Park Ridge and Little Ferry turned out to hear the proposals, which urged citizens and local governments to work cooperatively on projects that could save money and improve quality of life through better land use, more efficient transportation patterns, environmentally sound practices, and streamlined municipal administrations.

“We have to restructure New Jersey,” said Gina Genovese, founder and director of Courage to Connect NJ, an organization that helps communities consolidate and share costly services such as fire, police, and sanitation departments. “The state cannot sustain its 566 municipalities.”

Genovese was the mayor of Long Hill Township where a small population struggled to finance municipal services. She praised the 2011 consolidation of Princeton Boro and Princeton Township into a single municipality, a move expected to save Princeton $3.2 million a year.

This article originally appeared in the Paramus Patch. Continue reading the full article here 

Scotch Plains and Fanwood residents in favor of merging the two towns made history on February 15, becoming the first neighboring communities in the state to petition the Local Finance Board to commission a study on what consolidation would mean for the SPF tax payers.

Over the past year, this community has seen an escalation in discussions regarding shared services, including a possible police merger. Fanwood Mayor, Colleen Mahr, who has dedicated much of her time as Mayor to revitalizing downtown Fanwood, has remained adamant in her opposition to full consolidation. However, Scotch Plains Mayor, Nancy Malool of has openly voiced her support for pursuing a municipal consolidation study, under the Local Option Municipal Consolidation Act, passed in 2007.

Courage to Re-connect is the local grassroots organization that created the petition to commission the consolidation to study. The organization was founded by Scotch Plains resident, Fred Lange. Courage to Re-connect receives support from Courage to Connect New Jersey, a non-profit, non-partisan organization committed to assisting municipalities to study consolidation where appropriate.

Frustrated with rising taxes, Lange formed the organization in 2010. Backed by a firm belief that consolidation was the answer to rising costs, Lange mobilized members of his community to support a municipal study.

In order to commission the study, Lange had to get 10 percent of voters in Scotch Plains and Fanwood who voted in the last general election to sign the petition. Lange exceeded that requirement, collecting over 1000 signatures.

“Initially, I went door to door to have our petitions signed,” Lange said. “Ninety-two percent of the people in Fanwood and 98 percent of the people in Scotch Plains with whom I spoke supported what I was doing. This is really a citizen-driven initiative. We’re the ones who want to study a consolidation by an overwhelming majority.”

This article originally appeared in the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Patch. Continue reading the full article here.  

Courage to Connect New Jersey started its presentation last week at Pohatcong Township Elementary School by citing an 1895 New York Times article discussing the municipal consolidation of the Oranges.

 
“The Oranges must be made one city so that all our public departments may be better and more economically managed,” Courage to Connect New Jersey Executive Director Gina Genovese said, quoting a city physician from the article. “It is only selfishness that keeps us apart.”

 
“We have to find out if in 2012 if it is only selfishness that keeps us apart,” Genovese told the audience of roughly 20 people, including local officials, residents and emergency squad members. Courage to Connect New Jersey is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that goes around the state educating the public about municipal consolidation. The three-year-old organization delivered a similar presentation at the end of October in Pohatcong Township.

 
Genovese did most of the talking at the lecture last week as co-founder Wendy McCahill took on the tedious task of showing the audience 566 placards representing New Jersey’s municipalities from the highest to lowest in population.

 
McCahill then stacked a majority of the placards against a wall, leaving a handful on the table because the pile had reached the ceiling.
“The thing that’s ironic about these 566 towns is that they do 80 percent of the same thing,” she said. “Is there a better way to administer the business of these 566 towns?”

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Courage to Connect NJ Founder and Executive Director Gina Genovese was recently featured in The Daily Record article, “10 reflections on 2011, hopes for new year from Morris notables.“

Gina Genovese, Founder and executive director, Courage to Connect NJ

One word to describe 2011: Groundbreaking

Wish or hope for 2012: In 2012, New Jersey will have the courage to lead the way to a sustainable and stronger municipal structure.

In the new year municipal consolidation will be acknowledged as the most common sense way to end redundancy in local government.

Courage to Connect NJ will be working on numerous consolidation efforts initiated by both citizens and elected officials statewide. What was learned through the efforts of citizens and elected officials in 2011 in communities such as the Princetons, Cherry Hill and Merchantville, and Scotch Plains and Fanwood will be passed to the next generation of consolidators.

Courage to Connect NJ will be the one-stop resource for those seeking to improve local services and reduce the cost of local government.

Ultimately, the consolidation movement, started in New Jersey, will sweep across the entire country.

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SCOTCH PLAINS — A group of Scotch Plains and Fanwood residents are taking it upon themselves to merge their two towns. The municipal governments have long flirted with the idea of consolidation but residents say they’re tired of waiting.

“This would solve everything,” said Fred Lange, a 37-year Scotch Plains resident leading the effort. “It would lower taxes, make departments and services more efficient and it just makes sense.”

Scotch Plains and Fanwood already share a school district and most recently started talks about combining police forces and construction.

Lange’s group, Courage to Connect New Jersey, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to consolidating services in many of New Jersey’s 566 towns. The group operates across the state but sprouted local roots in Scotch Plains and Fanwood in March.

Council members and the mayors in both towns say they’re committed to cutting property taxes but feelings about a total merger are mixed.

“I think you have to walk before you run,” said Scotch Plains Councilman Kevin Glover. “Walking might have been merging the schools, next you merge police and public works but it should be an evolutionary move, rather than a revolutionary one.”

In 2009, the towns spent $50,000 to study merging services such as the police department, public works and the municipal courts, Glover said. But there has been no study that looks at combining the towns on the whole, he said.

This article originally appeared in The Star-Ledger. Click here to continue reading

Talks of a municipal merger between Phillipsburg-area governments have begun.

Pohatcong Township Mayor Jim Kern III hosted a forum last week to discuss consolidating Alpha, Phillipsburg and Pohatcong, Lopatcong and Greenwich townships.

“There are 566 towns in the state of New Jersey and 566 mayors in the state,” Kern said after the forum. “It’s crazy the amount of duplication between services.”

The consolidation would result in one governing body, one mayor, one council, one administrator, one attorney, one land use board, one chief financial officer, one tax assessor and one court system for the Phillipsburg-area, according to Kern.

“There would be no reduction in services and the town would be able to operate at lower costs,” Kern said, adding he vowed to explore all possibilities to lower taxes when he was elected earlier this year.

Kern invited Gina Genovese, executive director of Millington, N.J.-based Courage to Connect New Jersey, to speak at the forum.

“Courage to Connect is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that addresses the financial state of New Jersey and difficulty of municipalities to deliver services and not raise taxes,” Genovese said in an interview after the forum, noting the organization has existed for two years. “The forum is a great way to start the conversation, air concerns and talk about consolidation.”

This article originally appeared in The Express-Times