Time to be frugal

I thank all the volunteers on the Sparta Board of Education and the Township Council for the numerous hours and effort devoted to improving our township. This is no walk in the park and these are unusual times. Daily we are bombarded by disheartening news that Europe, the United States,and individual states, including New Jersey, are in significant debt. Many municipalities, including Sparta, have had to reduce the budget which has effected public employees. Now I read in the Sparta Independent that there is approximately four million dollars unencumbered from the high school renovation project and some are considering various ways to spend this money. Is this wisdom? Hasn’t our country and the states espoused this philosophy and brought us into this major fiscal crisis. Fellow Spartans, this is the most opportune time to be frugal. The economic fog has not yet lifted in New Jersey or the United States and it may very well get thicker. Should we dispense caution and spend this and other tax payer dollars without long difficult scrutiny? Humbly, I think not. We restored our high school at a cost, I believe, of $72,000.000. We should pay down the mortgage debt or pay off some other debts Sparta has incurred with the left over funds. If an agreement can not be amicably reached, maybe a a referendum is in order. Spartans, we need to do what my grandmother wisely spoke, “Watch the pennies, the dollars will then take care of themselves.” Robert Ferrari Sparta