Town Hall

Monroe Township Council members appointed an architect yesterday to study the location, cost and design for a new town hall. Officials said last night they wanted to move into new quarters that would be larger and more accessible to the town's residents. Municipal operations now operate out of five facilities, including the 58- year-old, three-story town hall on Main Street that houses the administrative offices and council chambers. "I think it is becoming evident that the existing town hall does not efficiently provide services to the public," said Township Administrator James White.

Monroe Township residents will have an opportunity to voice their opinion about the construction of a proposed $3.8 million town hall tomorrow when the Township Council holds a public hearing on financing for the project. By a 6-1 vote Feb. 6, the council gave preliminary approval for a $3.6 bond issue to help finance the building, proposed for a site on Virginia Avenue adjacent to the police station. The 38,000-square-foot structure, designed by Kanalstein Timber Danton & Johns of Cherry Hill, at a cost of $162,000, would house township operations now based at the town hall and its annex, both on Main Street.

President Obama will visit a Bucks County wind-turbine plant next Wednesday to highlight the administration's policy of diversifying the nation's energy sources and reducing reliance on imported oil, a White House official said Friday. The president plans to stop at Gamesa Technology Corp. in Fairless Hills, Pa., where he will hold a town-hall meeting with workers about building a clean-energy future for the 21st century. Gamesa employs about 300 people at the facility, built on the site of a former U.S. Steel factory, and manufactures turbines used in the generation of wind-powered electricity.

"Don't even think of parking here" reads the sign posted at the Town Hall parking spot of Monroe Township Mayor Carmen J. DiNovi Sr. Although the sign may seem to display authoritarian humor, the architect who recently completed a feasibility study for a new municipal complex said that it is a sign of overcrowding, both inside and outside township offices. The architect - Gary Kanalstein of Kanalstein, Timber, Danton, Johns, P.A. of Cherry Hill - presented the Monroe Township Council on Dec. 7 with a 200- plus-page report on studies his firm had made and recommendations for a new municipal complex.

IT TAKES courage to be mayor, and more courage to lead public forums about budget decisions during tight and contentious times. The first of Mayor Nutter's town hall meetings on the budget was last night. I wasn't there, but I'm betting I know what happened: The mayor, with his budgetary leadership staff, presented their work, described what they've prioritized, what they've cut and why. They likely included some of the trade-offs they made and why they made them. Then a long line of citizens queued-up - physically or on 3-by-5 cards - to ask the mayor and his budget team "questions" to which they expect "answers.

Madonna was there. So was Chuck Berry. Janet Jackson, Cyndi Lauper and even Alice Cooper made appearances. But in the end, it was Michael Jackson who stole the show. Why all the celebrities? Residents of Conshohocken are trying to save their borough hall, a nearly 100-year-old mansion at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Fayette Street. And they decided that a good way to raise money toward that end would be to throw a party and invite the hit-makers to belt out some of their hits.

"I'm interested in light and shadow as well as color, and my photos are a lot like paintings," said Clarence Guienze of Cherry Hill, whose portrait of his grandmother, titled, "Roots Study - Big Mama #1," has been purchased by the township's Arts Advisory Board to hang in Town Hall as representative of local excellence in the arts. That Guienze's photographs are like paintings is not surprising. After graduating from Southern University and serving in the Army, he traveled to Seattle from his home state of Louisiana in 1954 to launch a career as a painter.

More than five years after fire destroyed its town hall, Moorestown broke ground Friday on a 45,000-square-foot building that will house municipal offices and the township library. "It's a day long in the making and long overdue" Township Manager Scott Carew told a gathering of about 30 who stood, bearing umbrellas, before a muddy field at 111 W. Second St. Municipal offices have been in scattered rented spaces around town since the 2007 fire. Settling on its design, size, and budget took so long, Carew remarked, that three mayors, three town managers, and two architectural firms have been involved with the project since the blaze, of unknown origin, rendered the old building uninhabitable.

Nearly four years after a fire doomed Moorestown's fortresslike town hall, the only thing agreed upon is that the vacant concrete structure will be demolished in a few weeks. Meanwhile, the government of the wealthy Burlington County community operates out of five locations, including hard-to-find industrial park offices that have no signs or American flags marking them as public offices. Twenty proposals have come and gone. Now a $19 million plan for an all-inclusive municipal center is being debated.

When the phones start ringing Wednesday evening in Gloucester Township homes, it might be the mayor, not a telemarketer, interrupting dinner. Robocalls are scheduled to go out just before 7 inviting residents to join Mayor David Mayer in a "telephone town hall meeting. " The meeting will be set up like a Fortune 500 company's earnings call rather than an open conference call, with participants muted. Callers with questions or comments will queue up to speak, then be muted again while Mayer responds.

ON THE FLIP SIDE, Philadelphia is doing a smart thing by hosting community meetings for homeowners who have questions about AVI. The first two were Thursday; a third will be on Saturday at Ss. Neumann and Goretti High School, 1736 S. 10th St. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Homeowners can bring their new assessments and ask experts about what it all means. Keep in mind that no one will be able to answer the question "exactly how much will I be paying in taxes?" at least until the actual rate is set. More of these sessions will be scheduled; meanwhile, another way for taxpayers to get their questions answered is by participating in a live toll-free telephone town-hall meeting Monday from 6:55-7:55 p.m. If you wish to listen in or ask a question, you have to register at phila.gov.

When the phones start ringing Wednesday evening in Gloucester Township homes, it might be the mayor, not a telemarketer, interrupting dinner. Robocalls are scheduled to go out just before 7 inviting residents to join Mayor David Mayer in a "telephone town hall meeting. " The meeting will be set up like a Fortune 500 company's earnings call rather than an open conference call, with participants muted. Callers with questions or comments will queue up to speak, then be muted again while Mayer responds.

Dan had nothing to say. The first caller on Gloucester Township's "telephone town hall" Wednesday night asked no question of the mayor, David R. Mayer. The conference call's moderator prompted him - "Dan, go ahead please" - before moving on to Kelly. Kelly was no Dan. "I was just curious," she said, "what the current administration has been doing to stimulate economic growth in the township. " With that, the town hall was under way. Fourteen people asked questions during the hour-long call, with only four or five more queued up when the call ended.

Ah, democracy. Last month, I took in the Conshohocken Planning Commission hearing that was considering Wawa's application for a 4,000-square-foot gas and convenience store in the borough, at the unoccupied site of a former car dealership on Fayette Street. For two years, passions in the town have flared over the issue. Petitions have circulated for and against, voices have been raised and tears shed at normally sparsely attended public meetings, and there has even been a hilarious "We Want Wawa" Rage Against the Machinelike rock video posted on YouTube: You see free market retail rules all More than the roar of the crowd at a town hall.

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - They began on stages, in front of small crowds, and starred a new governor selling his tax policies to constituents. Nearly three years later, Gov. Christie's town hall meetings are theaters-in-the-round with soundtracks, videos, and huge audiences. They are communications juggernauts that have helped propel Christie from rookie leader of a medium-sized state to potential Republican presidential candidate. On Wednesday at his 100th town hall meeting, held in a church gymnasium in this Ocean County town, Christie served up many of the same jokes and the theatrics that audiences in all 21 counties have experienced since February 2010.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Newtown celebrated Christmas amid piles of snow-covered teddy bears, long lines of stockings, and heaps of flowers as volunteers manned a 24-hour candlelight vigil in memory of the 20 children and six educators gunned down at an elementary school just 11 days before the holiday. Well-wishers from around the country showed up Christmas morning to hang ornaments on a series of memorial Christmas trees while police officers from around the state took extra shifts to direct traffic, patrol the town, and give police here a break.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - More messages of hope and solidarity poured into Newtown on Monday as the town prepared to observe Christmas Eve 10 days after the elementary school massacre that claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six teachers and administrators. Two dozen children and six adults arrived at town hall in the morning to deliver hundreds of handmade cards and snowflakes collected as they toured the state in a charter bus. One of the organizers, Gwen Samuel of Meriden, said, "We just want them to know they're not alone in their journey.

BELMAR, N.J. - Gov. Chris Christie says "it weighs on me" that some people who ignored his evacuation order as Hurricane Sandy bore down on New Jersey later died because they refused to leave their low-lying homes. "That weighs on me a bit - maybe if I was a little bit tougher they wouldn't have died," Christie said at a town hall meeting Thursday, after an elementary school girl asked what he would do differently to respond to the late October superstorm. The Republican governor has gotten almost uniform praise for his handling of the worst storm in state history, and his job approval rating has skyrocketed in public opinion polls taken after the storm.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - This, residents say, is a special town. Why, exactly? They'll point you to the town's prized flagpole, which stands in the middle of an intersection on Main Street. They'll mention the Newtown General Store, purveyor of locally grown delicacies and piping-hot coffee. They speak fondly of $2 movie nights at the town hall, tree lightings at Christmas, and parades on Labor Day. Then there's tiny Sandy Hook, a bit of small-town Americana that could have sprung, fully formed, from a Norman Rockwell painting.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - This, residents say, is a special town. Why, exactly? They'll point you to the town's prized flagpole, which stands in the middle of an intersection on Main Street. They'll mention the Newtown General Store, purveyor of locally grown delicacies and piping-hot coffee. They speak fondly of $2 movie nights at the town hall, tree lightings at Christmas and parades on Labor Day. Then there's tiny Sandy Hook, a bit of small-town Americana that could have sprung, fully formed, from a Norman Rockwell painting.