Municipal Merger Forum Scheduled for Tuesday in Waretown

Waretown’s Democratic Club is inviting residents from nearby towns to attend a bipartisan forum on municipal mergers at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18 at the Waretown Community Center, 239 11th St.

The event was prompted in part by Gov. Chris Christie’s proposal late last month for state funding to cover the cost of mergers between New Jersey municipalities, said Joan Finn, president pro tem of the Waretown Democratic Club.

Under legislation proposed by the governor Sept. 30, the state Department of Community Affairs would pay 20 percent of the cost of consolidation.

Finn said the Waretown event will include a presentation by Gina Genovese, executive director of Courage to Connect New Jersey, a non-partisan, non-profit organization pushing for a more efficient municipal structure in the state.

Republican, Democratic and independent officials from a number of southern Ocean County towns will attend, said Finn.

Consolidation is a complex topic to tackle, she conceded.

“The nitty gritty of how this works also interests us, because how do you do this?” said Finn. “It could be problematic for people, and I understand why.”

People want to their towns’ independence and are reluctant to give up certain separate services, she said, including their respective police forces.

Finn said she hopes the forum will foster a better understanding of the issues surrounding consolidation and encourage more discussion of the possibility among local towns.

“It’s really a taxpayer issue,” she said. “It’s a New Jersey resident issue.”

And one Patch readers have strong opinions on. In , 58 percent said they’d rather see their small municipal government consolidate. The majority of readers on Barnegat, Manchester and Berkeley Patch sites said the same.