Taxes, revenue focus of Mine Hill council race

Democratic and Republican candidates for Mine Hill council want many of the same things, but their approach is quite different.

Council president Marc Sovelove, Gary Colucci and Paul Chwazik are running on the Democratic ticket against incumbent Kristine Kanzenbach, Sam Morris and Conrad Pepperman. Democratic incumbent Michael Warholak is running against Republican Bret Coranato to fill the remaining two years of an unexpired term.

They all want to keep the tax rate low and generate new revenues for the township while looking for creative ways to cut expenditures.

The Republicans advocate a bottom-up approach, with township citizens taking more of the initiative to improve the township.

Kanzenbach believes tax dollars can be saved if the council was more proactive in encouraging volunteerism.

"I want to see us do more with what we have," Kanzenbach said. "We don't use our people base really well."

Kanzenbach highlighted the beach and the area behind the municipal building as areas that volunteers could help clean.

Morris started a website, www.minehillhappenings.com, to alert residents to opportunities where they can get involved.

"Mine Hill is so small that we should be polishing the gem," Morris said. "Nobody at the town level is tapping into the people."

Pepperman spoke of a community action team that would help encourage businesses along Route 46 to beautify the area and attract new ratables to town.

"It might be something simple like planting a couple flowers," Pepperman said. "Just to give the area a little curb appeal."

Democrats have expressed concerns over the Republican approach. Colucci mused that there might be union problems if volunteers encroached on township responsibilities. Chwazik said that while he is in favor of volunteerism, residents of Morris County are entitled to expect a certain level of service from their municipality without having to volunteer.

The Democrats' philosophy is the council must take more of a lead role and their primary responsibility should be to increase revenues....