Cody Named Cranbury Mayor, Pledges Frugality

[Guest]

More than three-dozen onlookers witnessed a changing of the guard for Cranbury Township at Monday's reorganization meeting. Republican Winthrop Cody was appointed mayor for 2011, while fellow Republican Daniel Mulligan and Democrat Glenn P. Johnson were sworn in for their three-year terms as the township's newest committeemen.

With the departure of Democrats David Stout and Richard Stannard, neither of whom were present at the meeting, the committee now has a Republican majority. Cody's mayoral nomination was approved by a margin of 4-1 with the lone nay coming from Johnson, who had nominated David Cook, the committee's only other Democrat. Cook himself voted for Cody.

The newly appointed mayor said he feels New Jersey's difficult financial situation is one of the key issues facing Cranbury.

"We are in tough financial times," Cody said. "We need to work to keep an efficient township running without overtaxing the residents. I will work with our legislators in Trenton to look at things that we can do to help relieve unnecessary expenses. We need to help the people in Trenton identify unfunded mandates."

http://eastwindsor.patch.com/articles/cody-named-cranbury-mayor-pledges-frugality

[Guest]

Here is an idea. Cancel Cranbury Day, Memorial Day Parade, and Fireworks. All wants not needs.

[Guest]

[Guest]

I agree cutting leaf collection is genius. It will be really great when the storm drains are clogged.

[Guest]

I agree cutting leaf collection is genius. It will be really great when the storm drains are clogged.

[Guest 2]

[Guest]

Cancel leaf collection that's just plain dumb.

[Guest]

[Guest]

Almost anything can be defined as a want versus a need so the phrase is nearly meaningless. Others have pointed out we could outsource the police force. There are plenty of good arguments not to of course but technically our own force is a want. Others have said we could marginalize the school. Again, many excellent reasons not to. But technically our great school is a want. We could outsource snow removal. We could kill the library entirely. Etc.

The point is, need versus want is a not a relevant distinction. It's about priorities. The electorate choses to prioritize certain things and over time it’s become pretty clear what Cranbury prioritizes: 1) The School and Princeton tuition, 2) A local police force, and 3) Preservation of the historic village, which includes the occasional “Day” or parade to celebrate it, and surrounding farmland. You can call that our “need” and everything else “wants” but it’s all semantics. This is what interests the majority of the local electorate and taxpayers. Anything else, the stand alone library, ball fields, whatever, will tend to have less consensus because they are not driving reasons why many people located here. In a booming economy there is often less focus on the cost of such things and in a lean one people pay more attention.

[Guest]

It is an egregious leap to go from suggesting that canceling a parade and a few community events to outsourcing the police department and other neccesary public services(snow removal). Let alone mentioning allowing our school to decline. I enjoy the parade, Cranbury Day, and Fireworks but come on if push came to shove those r things that should be the first to go.Maybe we should just agree that in our town taxpayers are willing to pay to maintain a certain quality of life.

[Guest]

I saw an update on the planning board. Did the zoning board also have any reorganization?

[Guest]

[Guest]

[Guest]

A summary from Cranbury Press of the recent appointments to Boards, etc. following the reorganization of the township committee:

http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2011/01/08/cranbury_press/news/doc4d2611a7c6d80500371718.txt