TONIGHT: County Freeholders to Meet in Victory Gardens

Published on August 23, 2017

Resident of County's Smallest Town and Neighbors Encouraged to Attend and Ask Questions

(JPG, 10KB)The Morris County Board of Freeholders will hold their next meeting tonight, Wednesday, Aug. 23, in Victory Gardens as part of the board's eight-stop 2017 road meeting''schedule.

This will be the county governing board's first meeting in the county's smallest municipality since Oct. 26, 2011.

The freeholders hope the 7 p.m. meeting makes it more convenient for residents of the borough, as well as surrounding communities such as Dover, Denville, Wharton and Randolph, to attend the meeting, ask questions about county issues, and to learn more about their county government.

Moving freeholder board meetings out of the county seat in Morristown to the county's 39 municipalities is part of the board's continuing effort to bring county government closer to their constituents.

The county government road meetings for the rest of 2017, all to be held in town halls or community centers and starting at 7 p.m., include:

• Aug. 23, Victory Gardens, 337 South Salem St., Dover, N.J. 07801
• Sept. 27, Mendham Borough, Garabrant Center, 4 Wilson St, Mendham N.J. 07945
• Oct. 25, Hanover Township, 1000 Route 10, Whippany, N.J. 07981
• Nov. 20, Mount Arlington, 419 Howard Blvd., Mount Arlington, N.J. 07856

Residents and officials from each of those towns, and from all towns in Morris County, are invited to the Wednesday night freeholder meetings and invited to raise issues and ask questions about local, county and regional issues.

The Freeholders voted earlier this year to continue their tradition of holding some county government meetings at towns halls away from the county government headquarters in Morristown. So far this year, the board has met in Chester Borough, Morris Plains, East Hanover, and Kinnelon.

(JPG, 94KB) Morris County Freeholder Director Douglas Cabana

It is important to meet county residents where they live and work, and to make it more convenient for residents and elected officials to have access to county government without having to come to Morristown,'' said Freeholder Director Doug Cabana.

The road meetings give local residents and officials an opportunity to raise regional issues of concern to the freeholders, so we can better understand and focus on these issues,'' said Deputy Freeholder Director John Cesaro.

The board of freeholders meet twice monthly, usually on the evening of the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, at the County Administration and Records Building in Morristown. The public can comment at those meetings.

The board also holds public work sessions on the mornings of the second and fourth Wednesdays in Morristown. Residents are invited to observe but cannot comment at the work sessions.

Victory Gardens in Morris County's smallest municipality, measured by size and/or population. Its origins date to 1941 when the federal government purchased 97 acres in Randolph as the site of a 330-unit housing project for World War II industry employees €“ especially for Picatinny Arsenal.(JPG, 12KB)

In 1951, Randolph residents approved a referendum as part of a special election in which voters were asked if the Victory Gardens neighborhood should be removed from the township and created as an independent municipality for its 1,300 residents on 92 acres. Based on passage of the referendum, Victory Gardens was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the state Legislature on Sept. 18, 1951.

Agendas for Freeholder meetings are posted at https://morriscountynj.gov/freeholders/publicmeetings-about/

For more information on Victory Gardens, visit: http://www.victorygardensnj.gov/ or http://www.victorygardensnj.gov/history/index.html

For more on county government, visit: https://morriscountynj.gov/