Mayor John Thoms of New Providence speaks at the Suburban Chamber in Summit

Posted by Denise Broesler

Mayor John Thoms spoke at the first Friday meeting for the Suburban Chamber this past Friday, April 6th.

I've taken some notes about his speech:

The Mayor recognized Joe Spillazzo, one of the 4 police auxiliary members that go on to become dispatchers and police officers.

The reason Mayor Thoms became mayor is because he wants to work to make a difference in this world.

His vision for New Providence:

-He's proud of downtown improvements - they've done new sidewalks, lighting, park benches; took 8 years to plan this.
-One of the last things was park benches - question was which way to face - some benches face street and some face the stores - compromise was the answer.
-He hopes to have a 45,000 square foot supermarket (most likely a Superfresh A&P) in 2008 that will be more of a colonial type facade. The burough wants a consistent design.
-They are working on a shared shopping area with Village Shopping Center. They want it to become a business friendly community.
-For South Street - Starbucks in negotiation but no lease signed yet.
-In early June they will have a farmer's market near Borough Hall on Wednesdays to generate activity.

Problems:

-Post office - moving but cannot find home in downtown - any ideas? June the post office will be displaced and may be in a trailer.
-There are 12,000 residents in New Providence sports. This puts a stress on the athletic facilities.
-They are looking at turfing fields in the near future.
-There will be lights in the tennis courts and they will be running tennis leagues (night included).

Why should New Providence go green? To foster environmental awareness:

-water mangement
-landscaping
-cutting trees
-organic environmental board
-we're working on shade tree committee

Property Taxes:

-Will go up 5.8%
-We have Community Tax Appeals this year - without this tax increase would be less than 3%.
-Property values have increased
-Equalized valuation ratio says commercial in step with residential. The ratio is now out of wack because appropriation of residents has grown up.
-There have been $40 million of assets on the books due to appeals
Properties should be valued at what they are worth, not compared to other properties.