By Katrina Grant
The residents of Shamong Township and the township committee heard a presentation from Ann Moore, Burlington County Recycling coordinator, at the recent committee meeting about the CART program. The CART program is used by all townships in the county for recycling paper, except Shamong.
With the CART program township residents would each receive a cart where they will put all types of paper into one cart. According to the presentation, residents recycle up to 100 pounds more paper each year, and most towns see a 25 percent increase in recycling.
Shamong Township, however, decided not to move forward with the CART program because of the cost to the township. The county had to hire an engineer to design the system at the county level, costing the county millions of dollars, therefore pushing costs on to the townships. The county agreed to pay half of the cost to the townships, but Shamong is still responsible for the other half, totaling between $50,000 and $60,000 over the next six years.
The township committee did not see any cost benefit to the program and decided not to move forward with it. The township can revisit the issue in the future.
In other committee meeting news:
The township thanked everyone involved with helping out during Hurricane Irene. Members also read a part of a proclamation for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The full proclamation will be available for all township residents to read.
The committee also voted to rezone a property where a resident wants to build a home. Others in attendance said they don’t want the person to be able to build, but the township approved the rezoning because of what they saw as a threat of litigation to the township. One resident said that when he originally bought the land, he was told he could not build on the land if he didn’t have 10 acres. The person wanting to build does not own 10 acres, officials said.
