Though the Borough Council had voted 3-2 to pass the nearly $8 million budget Sept. 22, officials later realized they needed a "super majority" vote to make it official.

Users in the borough consumed 4,693,279 kilowatt-hours of electricity during the seventh billing period in 2008, which spans parts of June and July, according to the utility department. That's about a 4 percent increase from last year's "Period 7" usage, during which customers used 4,505,320 kwh.

"I think this summer has been warmer. That's probably why they're higher," said Diane Wagner, the borough tax and utility collector. "There are people that I think are conserving, but then there are those that certainly aren't."

The average temperatures in June and July were 74.3 degrees and 77.2 degrees, respectively, according to Mark DeLisi, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. Those figures are about 2.5 degrees higher than during those months last summer.

Wagner said Period 8 is probably more representative of summer months, but that the utility department will be reading meters for that period through mid-August.

The 70 percent rate increase was adopted in January after the purchase cost of raw energy more than doubled for the borough electric utility.

As the owner and operator of the service, Milltown buys its energy wholesale and distributes it directly to its nearly 2,800 residential users and about 320 commercial and industrial users.

While overall consumption has increased so far this summer, some residents said they were still looking for ways to lower their usage because of the higher rates.

"We've definitely seen an increase in our bill, which has kind of made us a little more conscious of our electricity use," said Laura Carasso, of Janet Court. She said her family tries the usual ways to conserve energy, such as opening windows when possible or keeping the lights off.

Other residents have become dedicated to at least some of those practices.

"Not so much of the A.C.," said Thomas Kwietniak, of Nelson Drive, about whether he uses his air conditioner less. "But my wife does go around the house turning off every light that my daughter or I leave on, so she is after it."

Kwietniak added: "It's hard to tell if there really is a difference. Every little bit helps, but we have seen a dramatic increase in the bills."

He said his bills during the summer have almost doubled from what they were last year.

Borough Council President Randy Farkas said the income from this year's electricity consumption should help the borough meet its revenue projections. Anything extra could provide an opportunity for rate relief or for badly-needed infrastructure improvements.

"As long as we hit our revenues, and if there's any excess, we're not going to play this surplus game," he said, referring to the idea of keeping extra revenues in a reserve fund.

The blast was felt throughout the 1.5-square-mile borough, with nearby residents and businesses reporting that their buildings shook around 6:30 p.m.

Police said no injuries resulted from the explosion, and that arson was not suspected.

Milltown police Lt. Doug Cole said officers responded at about 6:25 p.m. after receiving calls about burning pallets outside the rear of the West Church Street building, where roof work was being done.

When they arrived, Cpl. George Regan and Fire Chief Brian Bush found two of three 100-pound propane tanks venting from the pressure caused by the flames, with gas burning as it came out of the tanks.

Soon one of the propane tanks imploded from the pressure, which caused it to ""go up like a fireball,'' blowing out a window and sending burning debris on to the roof.

"We thought a truck hit our building,'' said Mallory Shanahan, who works in the nearby bakery her family owns on North Main Street. "The whole building rocked.''

Ceiling tiles fell inside the shop, she said.

Tar and other materials on the school's roof caught fire, but firefighters arrived and extinguished the rest of the
blaze.

Bush said the roof was damaged by the flames and from firefighters cutting into the building to look for pocket fires. A classroom and a hallway also sustained heat, smoke and water damage, while smoke and water damage was left in areas of the first and second floors in the building's rear, he said.

Cole said the borough had contacted the New Jersey State Police arson squad, but that the fire "doesn't appear to be arson.'' Bush also said that a preliminary investigation was "pointing more toward an accident,'' adding that it "does not seem to be deliberate in any way.''

The roof work was being done as part of major renovations to Joyce Kilmer and Parkview schools. The burning pallets held roofing insulations, there were also materials such as tar, adhesive cement and tarp on the scene that were exposed.

The graffiti was discovered at Joyce Kilmer School and Albert Avenue and Boro parks, as well as on cars on Bruce Court and houses, signs and businesses along South Main Street and other areas.
 
The pictures were 3-feet to 4-feet in size and included drawings of a face, some with the initials "MOPE'' and "CEP,'' and a picture of a large heart with "T.A.,'' "More'' and "More is Drunk.'' The graffiti was drawn in black and white spray.
 
Anyone with information is asked to call police at (732) 828-1100.

Though the exact path is not clear, plans for a pedestrian walkway and bike path are on track in the borough.

 
Slated to extend from Washington Avenue to Violet Terrace, the project will be funded with grants from the state Department of Transportation (DOT). A contract awarded for the work will be awarded sometime in July.

 
"By the end of the project, it won't cost the taxpayers any money," Mayor Gloria Bradford said.

 
Borough Engineer Michael McClelland shared a slightly altered plan for the path with Bradford and the council at its meeting Monday. McClelland shifted part of the project from the north to the south side of the parking lot at Borough Park after receiving input from borough officials and employees, and members of the public during a walk-through of the area May 10.

 
The realignment plan must be submitted to the DOT for approval, according to McClelland. In addition, the borough attorney is working with the American Legion's attorney to reach an agreement on an easement the town would require from the Legion as part of the path.

 
Councilman John Collins said Legion head Ron Dixon asked for the matter to be dealt with less formally, with council and organization members working together.

Bradford said the groups could work in concert with the attorneys to strike a deal regarding the easement.

 
"The Legion has been a very good neighbor to Milltown," Councilman Mike Skarzynski said. Bradford and others agreed, saying the organization has always been willing to work with the town in various capacities.

 
The total cost of the project is estimated at $480,000, and the amount of the DOT grant is $530,000, leaving additional funds to cover related costs, according to McClelland. The grant funding will come as reimbursement upon the project's completion.

 
Though the path will be constructed at no cost to taxpayers, a couple of residents took issue with what they said were hidden costs of the project during the council meeting.

 
"I wish the people in Milltown would see, actually, what this path is," resident Charlie Jegou said. "It's a path to nowhere."
Jegou said he foresees problems in the wooded area behind left field of the baseball field, where an 80-foot steel bridge would be constructed to pass over two streams. With vandalism already a problem in town, he said the secluded location would be conducive to such activities. As a result, taxpayers would end up bearing the brunt of maintaining the area, he said.

 
"It's a concern, but I don't think it's the problem that Charlie portrayed it as," Bradford said. "We have to move along."

 
Milltown has only as much, or less, vandalism than other area towns, Bradford later told the Sentinel. Though it is an issue, she said there is another footpath in town that goes into a somewhat deserted gully, and there have not been problems there.

 
Michael Lewycky, another resident, agreed with Jegou, saying littering would likely be an issue there, and that the bridge could pose a safety hazard. He asked McClelland if an alternate route, which would not require the easement from the American Legion or the bridge, would be considered.McClelland said that would be investigated for viability.

 
The alternate route would come from JFK Boulevard, then run alongside the borough pool's filtration system, McClelland said.
Jegou pointed out that if the easement is required of the Legion, even the barter system that has been discussed would cost taxpayers money, as they ultimately pay for the services the town would render in exchange for the land.

 
Regardless of the chosen plan, Jegou said only a slim fraction of residents would use the path, making it a bad financial decision.
"That's throwing money down the drain," Jegou said. "This was a ridiculous thing to do, right from the beginning."

 
Borough Business Administrator Denise Biancamano pointed out that the beginning was two years ago, when the council approved the project and decided to move forward. Since then, $78,000 has been spent on it, she said. If the borough were to scrap the project now, that money would be lost, and the borough would have to raise it through taxes next year, according to Biancamano.

 
"We sure do screw up in Milltown," Jegou said.

 
Bradford said no one voiced opposition to the project when the council was voting on it, and said she does not think the few residents who spoke out against it Monday are representative of most of the town.

 
"Do you throw $70,000 away, or do you finish the project? It seems like a no-brainer," Bradford said.

 
With their terms due to expire at the end of this year, neither one has filed to run in the June primary, saying they want to spend more time with their families.

 
Skarzynski, 45, said his children were babies when his 12 years of service began and wants to see them more in their final years of high school.

 
Cruz, 46, meanwhile said he is being "pulled in a lot of different directions" by other factors, such as his own family and two jobs.

 
As the lone Democrats remaining on the governing body, their departures could open the door for an all-Republican council if their replacements don't prevail in the November elections and the recent trend of GOP victories in the borough continues.

 
Sweeps in the last two council elections have earned the Republicans a 4-2 majority on the dais, with victories first by John Collins and Randy Farkas in 2006 and most recently by Brian Harto and Stacey Waters.

Those wins came even though registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1 in the borough.

 
As this year's campaign season begins, Ed Winant, chairman of the borough Republican Party, said it "probably does help" to have the familiar faces of Cruz and Skarzynski absent from the ballot. But he noted that his party is also running two would-be newcomers to the council, Tom Harknett and Larry Citro.

 
"On either side there are no incumbents, so the voters will get a chance to look at all of these four candidates and make their selection," he said. "So neither party is going to have that advantage."

 
Asked if he thought the Democrats were already vulnerable after the recent string of election losses, Winant said he "learned a long time ago that the people of Milltown make those decisions."

 
But it will be about seven months until voters decide whether to add to the Republican hold on the governing body, possibly creating the first all-GOP council since the early 1990s, or maintain the thin Democratic presence.

 
The latter depends on the success of Ronald Dixon and Michael Farella, the chosen Democratic candidates.

 
In the meantime, Skarzynski and Cruz will finish their fourth and second terms as councilmen, respectively, before they step down.

 
Cruz, a full-time K-9 handler with the Middlesex County Sheriff's Department and the owner of a small construction business, said his children are growing up, and he "had to make a decision."

 
"As time goes on when you spread yourself thin, something in the end suffers," he said. "I don't want my family to suffer, I don't want my job to suffer, and I definitely don't want the town to suffer."

 
Skarzynski, the chief of staff at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick, also said he wants to devote more time to his family, with two children in high school and planning for college.

 
"I admit I'm a little burnt out after 12 years, and I need a little bit of break, to take a deep breath," he said.

 
Both said they were proud of their service, helping to minimize tax increases, improving infrastructure, and upgrading parks and services.

 
And the two Democrats voiced confidence in their party's new candidates —- Farella, a sergeant with the Rutgers University police, and Dixon, a commander at the local American Legion post.

 
"If we didn't get two quality candidates to take mine and Joe's place, I would have stayed on for the good of the party and for the good of the town," Skarzynski said.

 
Both said their decision to not run was not influenced by the Republican gains on the council. And both said they might consider another run for office in the future.

 
As introduced by the Borough Council, the budget puts spending at about $54,000 less than last year, and Borough Council President Randy Farkas called the tax hike a "revenue-driven increase."

 
It comes as the borough faces cuts in state aid and thousands of dollars in other general revenue losses.

 
"The easy cuts have been made," Farkas said, noting that the budget at one point carried a 25-cent increase before it was pared down. "Now it's time for the hard cuts, and there will be hard cuts."

 
Later saying there were "no easy cuts," he said a second garbage pickup during the summer would be eliminated so the borough does not have to hire extra help. He also said there will be no new capital projects this year.

 
As for future cuts, the borough has to "take a long hard look" at staffing and consider withholding built-in salary increases, Farkas said.

 
Spending items include more than $138,000 in additional state-mandated pension contributions, according to Business Administrator Denise Biancamano. Total pension payments for 2008 stand at $347,826.

 
But the borough is reeling from revenue shortfalls, the most visible being proposed cuts in municipal aid by Gov. Jon S. Corzine.

 
The municipality could suffer from the governor's plan for the statewide reductions, which calls for the sharpest cuts to municipalities with 10,000 or fewer residents. The proposed allocation of $410,990 is about $260,000 less than last year.

 
Meanwhile, the borough in 2007 lost $63,000 in court revenues, as well as $43,000 in in construction-code payments, fees and permits, Biancamano said.
The budget was introduced by a 4-1 vote, with one abstention by Democratic Councilman Joseph Cruz, who said he couldn't attend a recent budget meeting and had not had enough time to review the document.

 
Democratic Councilman Michael Skarzynski said he cast the only "no" vote because the tax increase was still too high given that residents had recently seen their electric rates rise by 70 percent.

 
"If I introduce it, it means I was basically happy with it," he said. "And I believe that there are more cuts to be made and believe there will be more cuts made."

 
Skarzynski said the council has to "dig deeper," proposing that the six-member council and mayor give up their salaries as another way to cut costs.

 
Farkas said the budget had to be introduced this week to meet the deadline for applying for extraordinary aid from the state.

 
Last year's $8.1 million municipal budget was introduced with a 6-cent tax increase, but the council used about $585,000 in utility surplus funds to eliminate the hike altogether.

 
The current budget is to be subsidized by $531,700 in surplus funds from 2007 and about $1.1 million in anticipated utility operating surplus from this year, Biancamano said.

 
The proposed tax levy, at about $4.5 million, is $274,000 over the state-imposed cap on property tax increases. The borough will seek a waiver before the state Local Finance Board.

As the ongoing fight over the fate of the Forney House in Milltown headed to court last week, the group hoping to save the historic structure had a new, larger entity in its corner.

 
Even if a judge rules to allow demolition of the approximately 150-year-old house to make way for a bank, members of the John C. Evans Project, which is working to save the North Main Street house, could realize success with the help of the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP).

 
"They don't get involved all the time. In this particular case, I guess they deem this as something worthy of being considered. We are obviously cautiously optimistic," said Stuart Lieberman, the Princeton-based attorney working for the John C. Evans Project.

 
The group is appealing the March 2007 decision by the Milltown Zoning Board of Adjustment that would allow the Forney House building to be demolished to make way for a Valley National Bank branch.

 
On Friday, state Superior Court Judge Jessica Mayer, sitting in New Brunswick, reserved decision on whether to uphold the board's approval of the bank branch. While there is no word on when a decision will be issued, Lieberman said he thinks it could take a few weeks.

 
"This case is not just about saving an old house on Main Street. It goes beyond that," said Michael Shakarjian, a trustee of the John C. Evans Project.

 
A borough ordinance does not allow for drive-throughs in the town's B-1, or business, zone. As part of the approval, the zoning board granted Valley National Bank a variance to allow them to construct a drive-through at the proposed branch.

 
"We feel that if this was not challenged, it could open the doors for more drive-throughs in the B-1 zone," Shakarjian said.

"We feel that weakening this prohibition could have a dramatic negative effect on our town."

 
Attorneys for Valley National Bank declined to comment on the case.

 
Even if the approval is upheld in court, members of the John C. Evans group may still have a chance to preserve the Forney House, as approval from the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is necessary before the bank can proceed with its plans.

 
Members of the John C. Evans group expressed dissatisfaction with the OCC in its handling of the matter, saying the agency was not following its own regulations, and was hasty in moving toward drafting a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the bank late last year.

 
However, the MOA has yet to be drafted, and Shakarjian said the ACHP will now be involved in the necessary Section 106 review process, which appraises possible effects of actions taken on historic sites.

 
"That means the MOA process has been put on hold," Shakarjian said.

 
While the citizens' group was mobilizing to achieve its goals, others involved in the battle were doing the same.

 
In August, Valley National Bank filed a counterclaim against the John C. Evans Project, stating that the group has interfered with its economic advantage, as well as with its rights under the sale contract that the bank has with the current owner of the Forney House building, Dr. Bhudev Sharma.

 
"In my view, it's a meritless suit," Lieberman said. "You don't use the court as a club to intimidate and beat somebody down so they'll be afraid to participate in the process."

 
Lieberman characterized the counterclaim as a SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation, suit. Some suits are termed as such when they involve corporations or developers bringing litigation against citizens' groups that take an oppositional stance to their plans, according to Lieberman.

 
Valley National's counterclaim has yet to be heard in court.

 
And according to Lieberman, there is another new legal angle. He said Sharma has now filed a lawsuit against members of the group who are seeking to stop the sale of the house.

 
Sharma declined to comment on the matter.

 
Although Shakarjian had requested that theACHP get involved in the matter in the past, the federal entity advised him to continue working with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the OCC, he said. It was not until Sharma filed suit against two members of the citizens' group that Meghan MacWilliams Baratta of the SHPO reached out to ACHP to intervene, he said.

 
"When she heard that, that was finally the straw that broke the camel's back," Shakarjian said. "[The ACHP] has truly gotten involved, and that's a good thing."

 
The Forney House was built in the mid- to late-1800s by the Evans family, whose son served as Milltown's first mayor. It was converted into a medical facility by John C. Evans and operated as such from 1907 until the 1970s. During many of those years, it was run by Dr. Norman C. Forney Sr., the town's first surgeon.

 
While Sharma and representatives of Valley National have asserted that the house is in such a state of disrepair that it cannot be preserved, the John C. Evans Project aims to find a purchaser that would be interested in saving the structure.

 
Members of the John C. Evans Project have thus far covered the costs of their efforts by using their own funds, as well as donations from the community, they said. The group is requesting contributions from others who share their goal, in order to cover the anticipated additional $15,000 cost of the court process. The group can be e-mailed at evansforney@ aol.com

 
Residents will see a 70 percent increase in electric rates when they receive their bills for the month of March.