Ewing mayor, council agree to study Hollowbrook sale to save 21

township jobs, including 6 cops

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

By JOAN GALLER
Staff Writer

EWING — Plans to lay off 21 township employees, including six cops, next Wednesday to offset lost state aid were postponed for 30 days last night
after residents urged the Democratic-controlled township council and the Republican mayor to put aside egos and partisan politics and do what’s right.

Democratic Council President Joseph Murphy abruptly took up the public challenge and asked if GOP Mayor Jack Ball would agree to the 30-day
layoff freeze if the council agrees to hold a special meeting to consider selling Hollowbrook Community Center, which is appraised at $2.2 million.

Ball — who immediately agreed — earlier yesterday had asked for just such a bargain in a letter he sent to the council members. The mayor repeated
this offer at last night’s council meeting but was initially rebuffed by the Democratic majority as a “one-time fix” for Ewing’s budget woes and an
insulting “pig in a poke” proposition.

“The only way to avoid layoffs is through the sale of Hollowbrook,” Ball maintained as he asked for the council to agree to “consider” a sale.

If the center is sold, the township would be required to pay back $250,000 in grants from the proceeds, Ball said in his letter, noting $60,000 could be
transferred to the Mercer At Play funding and kept by Ewing for other township recreational uses.

Hollowbrook was replaced as the community center when Ewing acquired the former Jewish Community Center on Lower Ferry Road. Hollowbrook is
now leased to various organizations that provide day care, senior programs and nutrition programs.

Ball suggested that these programs could be relocated to the Ewing Senior & Community Center or their leases would be honored through a sale.

Sale of Hollowbrook, the mayor added, would give the township time to allow attrition from retirement and other separation to reduce the workforce.

Retired Ewing cop Robert Litz and former Acting Township Clerk Charles Green challenged the mayor and council to act now to save six cops in the
patrol division from being laid off and three others from being reassigned from the jobs as school resource officers to patrol duties.

Before Murphy and Ball shook hands on the agreement, Councilman Bert Steinmann went on the record to oppose the Hollowbrook sale, asserting it
was a “one-time fix” to cope with Ewing’s longterm budget woes stemming largely from the loss of $2.5 million in state aid for Fiscal 2011.

Steinmann noted the center generates income from spaces leased for day care, health and senior citizens nutrition programs. Councilwoman Kathy
Wollert called Ball’s proposal “a pig in a poke.”

Several township residents also called upon Ball to produce a budget to prove the township doesn’t have funds to retain the six police officers and 15
other employees who face termination.

The proposed sale drew support from Yvonne Ellis, director of the Hollowbrook Community Center, who said she approved of the mayor’s plan to
save the jobs of the “young people,” looking over at eight police officers attending the meeting.

But Ellis said she doubts the township can get $2.2 million for the building, which has not been maintained by the township and is “falling down.”

The mayor said he will hold his monthly mayors meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hollowbrook Community Center on Hollowbrook Drive, where he
expects the public to offer their views on the proposed sale.

Reacting to the deal struck, township police who attended the meeting said it was great news. “I’m happy not to pit the police against the township
over the question of selling the center,” said Lt. Edward DeAngelo, president of the Superior Officers Association.

Ewing’s two police unions representing officers and patrolmen are suing the township over the layoffs, and lawyers for both sides will be in court
Tuesday.

URL: http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2010/08/12/news/doc4c6366e11eb22587397369.prt

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