Township Committee Meeting Tonight: The Budget, a Noise Law, Tennis Center and Newsletter

At the Township Committee meeting tonight, the governing body will introduce the 2012 Municipal Budget. Observers will be listening to hear how the budget shortfall - last publicly announced on Feb. 23 to be around $1.8 million -- has been tackled, and if the three wooded lots on Plum Lane will eventually be sold for cash flow.

There will be a public hearing and vote on an ordinance to lease the deteriorating tennis center on Bailey Lane to a firm that is willing to trade specific improvements for the right to run a tennis academy there for two years. Proposals were due on Tuesday. The township is expected to announce the name of the new leaseholder.

The public will also be heard on a much more flexible noise ordinance that will replace the current one. It will allow police to write tickets without using a decibel reader, giving them more flexibility to make reasonable decisions without calling a certified operator to come to the scene, said the Township Attorney Duane Davison. An amendment to the ordinance removed old-fashioned language describing the obnoxious output  from "radios, TVs and phonographs" so that it could be interpreted more broadly. Like, for teams of landscapers and their roaring leaf blowers, suggested Township Committeeman Larry Fink.

Discussion over costs associated with resurrecting the mailed version of the quarterly township newsletter is also expected. More than a dozen comments were posted on a Holmdel Patch story and unscientific poll on the issue. You can read them here.