Politics & Government

Christie 'Can't Understand' Two Mendhams

Governor says shared service should start in his hometown.

As part of his town hall meeting in Montville on Wednesday, Governor Chris Christie spoke about the need for increasing shared services and the money if would save the taxpayers. Christie said to those assembled he needed to look no further for an example than his hometown of Mendham.

"Where I live, I live in Mendham Township, inside Mendham Township is Mendham Borough for reasons that I can never understand," Christie said. "I say I live in Mendham, 'Township or Borough?' Whats it matter? There is 8,000 people between the two towns."

Christie has been a longtime resident of Mendham Township and last March hosted a breakfast fundraiser for the township library. 

Find out what's happening in Mendham-Chesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"In my town they have two old, decaying libraries," Christie said. "Mendham Township wants a new library. How about this, we build one library and everybody in the greater Mendham area goes to the same library? Right? Makes perfect sense, right? As if the books read differently."

Consolidating has been something often discussed in Mendham Township and Mendham Borough. As recently as the last meeting of the Mendham Borough Mayor and Council, Mayor Neil Henry mentioned it in reference to the K-8 school districts.

Find out what's happening in Mendham-Chesterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Do we have a new superintendent here in Mendham Borough?" Henry asked. "I know they were looking but that would be a great opportunity. I don't know why we can't have one superintendent."

Former Mendham Township Mayor Sam Tolley said several times during his 2012 stint as mayor that merging the two Mendhams was worth investigating the most recent being during a committee meeting last month.

“The Princeton Merger should be a road map for many of our communities,” Tolley said. “We need to look further at how we can best serve our communities.”

For his part, the Governor didn't stop at libraries, he also expressed his thoughts on the two police forces in Mendham.  

"Where I live in Mendham Township, I am a mile and a quarter closer to the Mendham Borough Police Department than I am to the Mendham Township Police Department," Christie said "If I call for police assistance, the borough should come because, hell, they're two minutes closer, right? No."

Christie said that situations like this contribute to the burden on the taxpayers.

"Why not just make it the Mendham Police Department? Mendham Township proposed that and you would have thought that we were trying to get the national force and pilage the place. Craziness," Christie said. "Everyone of these add expense to you."

Tell us, is Mendham's most controversial resident right? Share your opinion on the two Mendhams in our comments below. 


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