Mayor's Forum - September

As this extraordinarily hot summer winds down I’d like to share with you some of the activities that have been happening in our borough. During the first half of this year I have had the privilege of forming a number of new municipal committees. Some of them have been ad hoc committees and one is a committee formed by ordinance. You have heard me discuss the Raritan Cultural and Historic Committee in previous articles. This group became an official borough committee by ordinance just last month. They have just completed their first project which was framing old photographs and identifying those people in them . Come September they will be starting an oral histories project. The Economic Development Committee is an ad hoc committee whose purpose is to build relationships with the business community and to provide a means to identify economic strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges in the borough and examine them in detail. In other words, their mission is to foster positive economic growth within the borough. They have been meeting since May and are a very energetic group of business owners and citizens. I also appointed an ad hoc Grants Writing Committee. With the economy in turmoil we need to seek out grant money to help us maintain our municipal services. This committee is charged with researching grants available to municipalities and writing the grant applications. I’d like to thank all the volunteers who stepped forward to help these committees function so well. Finally, the newest committee is called Youth on Main Street or YOMS. This is still in the formation stage and will involve high school age teens helping out with projects along Somerset Street. This is a program that is in operation in Bridgeton, NJ and Newton, NJ and has been very successful in both towns. Of course it would not be September without a mention of the John Basilone Parade Weekend. This year’s observances will take place on Friday, September 24 with a swing band concert and fireworks; Saturday, September 25 with a family fun run and a 5K run for adults and in the evening the Marine Band Concert at RVCC; and Sunday, September 26 with the annual John Basilone Parade. It is truly a wonderful weekend to salute not only John Basilone but all of the men and women from Raritan and the entire United States who have and continue to serve our country Mayor Jo-Ann Liptak