Resident's Support Rooted in Spending Decisions

To the Editor:

I am writing you to endorse Mayor Gloria McCauley and Doug Tomson for re-election, and election, to the Township Committee in the upcoming elections in November. I have a little more insight than most of my fellow township residents as I have voluntarily served on the Township Planning Board, the Capital Planning Committee, as well as the Township Open Space Advisory Committee for 5 years now.

I have served with both Doug and Mayor McCauley on the Planning Board, and Doug on the Capital Planning Committee, and each has always demonstrated to me a thorough understanding of the issues facing our local government, and more importantly a conviction to do what is right for ALL of Hillsborough and its citizens.

The Township Committee has done an amazing job of containing spending, with our present spending levels being virtually the same as they were in 2008. Spending has never increased more than 1% per year during this period while costs continually go up each year. This is accomplished in an environment of declining state revenue for our town, like most other towns.

Having served on the Capital Planning Committee with Doug, we see all of the requests for funding from the various township departments. When the public works department has a lawn mower that dies, for example, you are looking at a $50-70k bill for a new commercial sized mower. Residents would be shocked if they saw the costs involved to maintain all of the tremendous services we are able to offer. This Committee has been able to significantly reduce spending, with the help of all of the township’s unions, continue to offer ALL essential services, and NOT set up a ticking time bomb for the future.

We have continued to fund road repairs, maintain equipment in the public works and police departments, township IT department, and our amazingly dedicated, mostly-volunteer EMS department. Many towns have just “put off” spending for the future. In Hillsborough, there have been true spending cuts and NO Ticking time bomb in all of our futures.

Hillsborough is 54 square miles. Over 16 of those square miles are permanently preserved from future development by the work done on the Open Space Committee. We are also sitting on a nice-sized nest egg for future acquisitions, should some become available. We are building the GSA depot and creating a kid-friendly 360-acre park and recreation facility. There is very little acreage available for builders to develop here in town any longer, which is great for ALL of our futures. These are some of the reasons why we were just named one of the Top 100 Towns to live in America for the 2nd time in 5 years. This is a tremendous town to live in and largely due to its’ people and the closeness of our community. This community has been extremely well-served by our Township Committee and we will all benefit from electing Mayor Mccauley and Doug Tomson in November.

Tod Mershon

The writer is a member of the Township's Planning Board, Capital Planning Committee, and Open Space Advisory Committee.