BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - Five municipalities in Atlantic County are exploring the option of merging their municipal courts into one.

The Township Committee moved forward Monday night with a resolution supporting a feasibility study into forming a central court in Buena Vista that would serve Buena Borough, Folsom Borough, Weymouth Township and Estell Manor.

For each area, the current costs of running a local court include hiring judges, prosecutors and public defenders. For about a year, according to Mayor Chuck Chiarello, the other municipalities have been raising the question of whether a form of regional court would be more streamlined.

The Township Council unanimously approved a resolution that supported seeking funds from the state Department of Community Affairs to pay for the study. They also conditionally approved a bid from a surveyor, Jersey Professional Management, to undertake the task.

"This (court consolidation) would save everyone else money," Chiarello said. "We simply need to find out if it would save us any as well."

Committee members were unwilling to speculate how fast the consolidation might occur. "Nothing can be said until the study is done," said committee member Peter Bylone. Chiarello said earlier that other leaders, including Buena Mayor Joseph Baruffi, would be keen for a decision by the new year.

Buena, Buena Vista and Folsom currently each have their own courts, while Weymouth and Estell Manor share one.

Sharing services with other areas is often a condition of towns receiving extraordinary aid from the state, Chiarello said.

Regarding the Aug. 11 story "More train service the ticket":

Restoration of rail services to Cape May is a logical next step to meet the growing demands for mobility in southern New Jersey. As your article correctly notes, significant benefits to the southern New Jersey tourism industry will be realized as a direct result of this restoration project.

Rail operator Cape May Seashore Lines has already demonstrated the potential benefit and opportunity associated with rail service operations. Even with limited (by distance) service offering, Cape May Seashore Lines accommodated more than 16,000 riders to and from Cape May in 2005. Completing restoration of the Cape May line to enable direct service from Cape May to Tuckahoe (and intermediate points) will add significantly to this ridership profile.

Not mentioned in your article is the direct relationship between mobility and public safety. If a Katrina-like event were to occur in southern New Jersey during the peak season, a fully functional Cape May line could prove to be a very critical element in conducting time-sensitive evacuation operations. Such evacuation operations could leverage both equipment and personnel from across the NJ Transit rail system, including the Atlantic City Line.

NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles is to be commended for his willingness to gain a first-hand understanding of this matter. Now is the time for state leadership at all levels to engage in finding a way to move forward with this very important project.

ROBERT C. REGENSBURGER

Ocean City

BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP - Tax bills are finally being sent to property owners, four weeks behind schedule.

The township has come perilously close to borrowing large sums of money, but it has been able hold off because of county's and school district's patience, Mayor Chuck Chiarello said Wednesday.

The delay came after a $1.1 million error in the Buena Regional School District's budget required a state-approved plan to correct it. The approval or rejection of that plan would have affected the township's tax rate.

The approval did not come through until Aug. 1. The deadline for mailing bills was July 20, Chiarello said, although in previous years they have been sent much earlier than that.

He said that this year, since getting the green light, the township has moved as fast as it could, getting its tax rate struck and the bills printed up.

But the four-week delay has left township coffers running on empty.

"We have really relied on the good will of those we owe," Chiarello said.

The school district would normally receive about $600,000 a month from the township, as well as funds from neighboring Buena Borough.

Buena Vista Township has not paid its July and August installments.

The deadline for Atlantic County to receive its quarterly payment of more than $300,000 from the township passed on Wednesday, Chiarello said.

Two weeks ago, the mayor made a plea for residents to pay their taxes early. Some have been stopping by, paying approximately what they owed last time and being issued a receipt. But this has only amounted to $80,000, out of an eventual taxpayers' total for the quarter of approximately $2 million.

"That doesn't go very far," Chiarello said.

The bills came back from the printer just before the weekend, and since then all the township's departments have been called on to stuff envelopes. If taxpayers pay promptly, Chiarello says, the township may yet avoid having to borrow money to cover the shortfall. Borrowing money would mean fees and interest for the township to pay. "I've been holding off, waiting to see how fast the money comes in," he said.

In light of the reason for the delay, Chiarello said, "We expect the school district will be most patient."

Inside the historic Tuckahoe train station, public officials on Friday afternoon pitched NJ Transit for $27 million in track repairs for an excursion line from Richland to Cape May.

More than a dozen elected officials from Cape May and Atlantic counties took a ceremonious train ride on the Cape May Seashore Lines to meet NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles in Tuckahoe.

Meanwhile, inside a white Ford Explorer at the station parking lot, two Middle Township officials made their own pitch to Sarles, one with a significantly different tone.

They showed him photographs of decrepit trains and asked him to forgo any possible funding until Cape May Seashore Lines moves vandalized trains from tracks in Rio Grande.

The trains have been a sore spot for Middle Township officials for several years.

The concept of sweeping passenger railroad coverage down the shore has excited some southern New Jersey officials who want to increase tourism without increasing traffic jams and parking nightmares.

“There is a real interest to build this rail line,” Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello said inside the quaint Tuckahoe train station. “The infrastructure is around here. We’re just looking for the missing link.”

The tracks run from Richland to Tuckahoe through Woodbine down to Cape May Court House and Cold Spring, terminating in Cape May.

But Cape May Seashore Lines owner Tony Macrie has been in a contentious relationship with Middle Township officials for years about vandalized trains stored on the tracks along Route 47 in Rio Grande.

Middle Township Solicitor James Pickering said the township did not want to stop rail line improvements, but wanted its issues addressed.

He and former Mayor Michael Voll, a vocal opponent of the trains in Rio Grande, met with Sarles before officials gathered in the Tuckahoe train station.

In March, Middle Township Committee even passed a resolution requesting it be notified of any federal, state or county government funding requests by Seashore Lines.

Officials estimate about $27 million is needed to repair train tracks, particularly those between Woodbine and Cape May Court House.

Dennis Township is seeking federal funding for a train station to be built in Dennisville, Dennis Township Administrator Jody Alessandrine said. Also needed, he said, is about $6 million in infrastructure for the tracks in the township.

This week, the state Department of Community Affairs announced it is lending $435,000 to Woodbine for track repairs, a parking lot and a new rail platform for the Cape May Seashore Lines excursion.

Chiarello sees a boon to the communities and businesses located alongside the tracks. He objected to the way Middle Township officials approached Sarles at the event Friday.

“Obviously we had a group of 25 folks that were there for the betterment of the project,” he said. “That was our mission today. I was a little blindsided, and I think it was inappropriate for Mike Voll to use that opportunity to bring up an issue that’s totally unrelated to that project we’re working on. “It was more of an embarrassment. I felt it was an embarrassment to Middle Township to attempt to become a spoiler to what otherwise was a positive day.”

Meanwhile, Middle Township will probably start citing and fining Cape May Seashore Lines shortly for trains stored in Rio Grande, said Township Administrator James Alexis, who did not attend Friday’s event.

“It’s literally come to a boiling point with the residents affected by the sight of the cars and the level of deterioration they’ve reached, and we feel we’re not getting the cooperation of the rail operator,” Alexis said.

Township officials said they are concerned about the unsightly trains and the criminal element attracted to them after dark.

Township officials have said that, despite being assured the trains would be relocated, they have remained unmoved for several years.

Macrie said he is being vilified for an issue beyond his control.

The trains were in pristine condition when he first stored them in Rio Grande but have fallen victim to serious damage and vandalism, he said.

The trains are sprayed with graffiti, windows are cracked and doors are missing.

Macrie said moving the trains now requires fixing damage done to the tracks following storms in April.

“If you owned a car and someone was vandalizing it, and you had the opportunity to move it, wouldn’t you move it?” Macrie said Friday. “We’re a small company. We’re not a gigantic operation.”

“Look at the stuff here,” Macrie said, pointing to the shiny silver and black trains on the tracks in Tuckahoe. “This is the way it looked when we placed it there.”

Meanwhile, the trains can be a lure for tourism, history and transportation, he said. In 2005, about 16,000 people took the train in and out of Cape May, he said.

“Our position is, here we would love to see mass transit coming into Cape May. We have significant traffic and parking problems,” said Lou Corea, Cape May City manager.

The train had run into Cape May previously but has not done so recently due to bridge repairs over the Cape May Canal, Corea said.

Inside the train station, Sarles told officials gathered that the project was on his radar, but that there were many other priorities in New Jersey as well. He stressed that federally earmarked money could move the project along.

Chiarello said he found the meeting encouraging

The large scale of the project could be done in pieces over several years.

“We can get this done, town by town, section by section. Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he said.

On Friday, Voll and Pickering’s presence and statements on Friday irked some who had gathered to pitch NJ Transit for funding.

After Sarles left, Voll and Pickering were arguing with Paul Mulligan, of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers.

“You guys have a lot of nerve,” Mulligan said inside the train station, adding their statements could hurt the recent funding requests.

“If you think they’re going to give that guy (Macrie) $27 million,” Voll yelled, “you must believe in the Easter Bunny.

6 p.m. Update - Inside the historic Tuckahoe train station, public officials on Friday afternoon made their pitch to NJ Transit to fund up to $27 million in improvements to railroad tracks from Richland to Cape May.

Ten minutes earlier inside a white Ford Explorer, two Middle Township officials made their own pitch to NJ Transit Executive Director Richard Sarles, asking him to forgo funding until Cape May Seashore Lines moves vandalized trains from tracks in Rio Grande.

The concept of sweeping passenger railroad coverage down the shore has excited some local officials who see the desire to increase tourism without increasing traffic jams and parking nightmares.

“There is a real interest to build this trail line,” Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello said inside the quaint Tuckahoe train station.

But in Middle Township, Cape May Seashore Lines owner Tony Macrie has been in a contentious relationship with Middle Township officials for years about trains stored on the tracks along Route 47 in Rio Grande.

In March, Middle Township Committee passed a resolution requesting it be notified of any federal, state or county government funding requests by Seashore Lines.

Middle Township Solicitor James Pickering said the township did not want to stop a rail line, but wanted its issues addressed.

Inside the train station, an argument ensued between former Middle Township Mayor Michael Voll and Paul Mulligan, of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers.

The hole in the Buena Regional school budget that was discovered in May was finally closed Wednesday, but not without the school board president giving a reminder that celebrations were hardly warranted.

The state Department of Education notified the school district in writing that the financial solution the district had proposed was approved. The letter was forwarded to the mayors of both municipalities that are covered by the district.

A calculation error by Business Administrator Thomas Kearney meant that taxpayers were told their rate would not go up this year. That was enthusiastically approved by voters in April. Weeks later, it emerged that, calculated correctly, the budget needed an extra $1.1 million.

Rather than reneging on the promise to voters of no higher property taxes, the school board passed a resolution June 13 proposing that the money come from two sources — interest accruing on the money that was earmarked to build the middle school, which would cover about $730,000, and an additional amount coming from a fund for capital projects. That proposal had to be approved by the Atlantic County Office of Education and the state.

State approval took more than a month. Neither Buena Borough, which was also waiting to receive extraordinary aid, nor Buena Vista Township could approve their budgets until the solution was accepted.

Now, both municipalities say that once they receive word from the county, they plan to get their tax rates struck and the bills sent to residents as fast as possible.

But school board President Dave Anderson struck a cautionary note.

Though the situation was resolved for now, he said he felt uncomfortable using a lump sum that he says was meant to go toward school renovation: “I’m not satisfied. How could anyone be satisfied, having to use money that was meant to go toward renovating Cleary as an elementary school?”

Once the area’s new middle school, currently under construction, opens in September 2009, Anderson said, Cleary Middle School is slated to be closed and converted into an elementary school to replace the aging Donini Elementary School.

Anderson said it was “pretty much common knowledge among the board” that the money now filling the budget hole was going to be spent on Cleary.

Now, he says, when they sit down in November to work on the 2008-09 budget, “we’ll be beginning with an $800,000 deficit.”

“We’ll have to worry about that next year,” he said.

While Mayor Chuck Chiarello of Buena Vista Township and Mayor Joseph Baruffi of Buena Borough expressed relief that the solution was approved, Chiarello said that, with the delay, his township was already likely to have to need to borrow money until taxes were paid.