Highlights of March 28th 2017 Raritan Borough Council Meeting
Mayor McMullin was absent. Council President Denise Carra ran the meeting.
The meeting was broadcast on "Cablevision-Optimum" Channel 15. and "Verizon FIOS" Channel 37.
Meeting Highlights Include:

The Raritan only (Non School) portion of this year's budget is the same total amount as the year before. (This is the second year in a row for this.) That means that there will be no tax increases related to the core Raritan piece of the budget. However, School Taxes, the largest piece of the budget, could cause an increase.

It was stated that the property on the Somerville Circle that contains the Old Gateway Motel, the old Denny’s and old Popeye’s has had initial approval by the planning board to be a Quick Chek convenience store and gas station. The planning board is meeting on Wednesday April 12th to further move this along.

There will be a bike race in Raritan on Sunday, May 28th - Memorial Day Weekend. This is part of three days of bike races. On Saturday the race is in Bound Brook and on Monday the race is in Somerville. Many racers travel quite a distance to compete in this event. Raritan hopes to make this an annual event and attract sponsors for it.

The Raritan Historical Society has recorded an interview with former Fire Chief Carl Memoli. In this video Carl tells the story of the History of the Fire Department. This video should be available soon for the public to see at the Raritan Library.

The “interior” work at the Anderson Street Firehouse is moving along. The planned “exterior” work has been approved and will start with the arrival of the warm weather.

The construction project for the improvements to Bell and Sherman Avenues will be going out for bid.

The television screen in the council chamber will be moved to a better position on the wall. Councilman Zack Bray thought that anyone who is going to do a presentation in the council chamber should be made aware that the screen is available for their use.

A Purchase Order was approved for the Police Department to “Taser International” for $14,034 for the annual body camera agreement.

The team sports committee has been reduced from 7 to 3 members.

The Raritan Department of Public Works was thanked for doing a great job in clearing the snow a couple of weeks ago.

A New Jersey publication came out with a list of the best New Jersey towns for families. Raritan was 143 of out of 511.