"We're expending so much energy on this," said Vice Mayor Kathy Leventhal at one point at last night's Maplewood Township Committee meeting.

Leventhal was referring to the fate of Millburn stops on the Wyoming Jitney loop, which the Township Committee voted to end as of June 30 due to low ridership and the inability to cover costs. Leventhal's feelings were echoed by others on Maplewood's Township Committee meeting, who have spent many hours over several meetings in the past two years discussing the cost-effectiveness of providing service to Millburn residents through the Maplewood jitney.

On this night, the Maplewood Township Committee in essence said, "Enough is enough."

Despite a thoughtful scenario presented by Millburn residents to raise fares (passes for Millburn residents would go from $100 to $200 per annum) and fill a gap in funding through an independent subsidy — as well as drop off Millburn residents last — Maplewood's leaders decided to continue the suspension of service to Millburn and send the discussion to Millburn's leaders.

Said Committeeman Jerry Ryan, "We should tell Millburn, 'It's $3,000. Work it out. Establish a fee schedule, etc.'"

He added, "With all due respect, it's up to you. Do we really need to get involved in having elaborate discussions about rates for Millburn riders?"

Other members of the TC glommed onto Ryan's idea.

Said Committeeman Marlon K. Brownlee, "I share Mr. Ryan's view." He questioned whether the Township could enter into a binding agreement with group of citizens.

Said Leventhal, "I like Mr. Ryan's approach. To take this on is a lot of work and I don't see that the Township of Maplewood should incur that." Leventhal said she felt strongly about this despite the fact that she supported green initiatives in general.

Mayor Vic DeLuca was most forceful on the issue:

"There is no indication that the Millburn Township Committee even cares about this," said DeLuca who reported that he had not received one phone call from a Millburn elected leader on the topic. "They need to give us a sense of if they want to purchase this service." He added, "Like other shared services, it should be a flat fee." DeLuca said that a cost-benefit analysis of the service should be performed by Millburn.

Previously, the Maplewood Township Committee had twice extended the program despite low ridership — in 2009 and 2010. Each time, the extension was in response to direct pleas from Millburn residents who ride the jitney to the Maplewood train station. This past extension was a six-month trial from January 1 through June 30 to see if Millburn Township could promote the program to raise ridership sufficiently to offset costs.

That goal was not met, as reported after the June 21 Maplewood Township Committee when the Maplewood leaders voted to end service to the Millburn stops after June 30.

That action spurred the Millburn riders into action. They formed the Millburn Jitney Riders Association and filed a notice with Maplewood Town Clerk Liz Fritzen that they would be petitioning the Township Committee on July 5. The notice stated that, among other things, the Committee did not provide adequate notice of the decision to suspend service.

Before the Committee members deliberated, Millburn residents John Connor, John Livingston and Ann Ludwig had been impassioned in their pleas to extend the service. Connor said that "our reaction was absolute shock" when riders heard the service was suspended "because we thorugh we were doing very well."

Maplewood Transportation Committee member Charlie Bibbins had previously supported ending the Millburn service despite the fact that the jitney service was "his baby." However, Bibbins had reversed his support when he found that ridership had grown in the last six weeks (from 3.8 to 4.7 average riders in the morning and from 6.4 to 8.8 in the evening).

"It stunned me. I don't know what you've done in the last month but if you have done something, you need to do more."

Brownlee later noted that those numbers were still anemic in his view: With 6 loops in the morning and 7 loops in the evening, the new averages still amounted to a little more than one Millburn rider per loop.

Other discussions/actions at the Maplewood Township Committee on July 5, 2011:

• Maplewood will now retain three of the six bike lockers at the Maplewood train station, but all three remaining bike lockers will be located on the westbound side of the station near the Ricalton Square parking lot. All lockers from the eastbound platform will be removed.
• The South Orange animal control officer was bitten by a dog on June 2, requiring surgery on his hand, and has been out of commission for the past month. Maplewood Health Officer Robert Roe reported that the Maplewood animal control officer had been serving both towns on her own (answering 53 calls in South Orange in the last month). Township Administrator Joseph Manning said that South Orange was now apporaching West Orange to find interim staffing support.
• Committeeman Jerry Ryan read a proclamation declaring July as Parks and Recreation Month and presenting Director of Recreation George Rague with the proclamation.
• Jennifer Coleman Thieroff was approved as a new member of the Pool Advisory Committee. Thieroff is a Maplewood resident since 1996 and mother of two children on the Makos swim team.
• One resident approached the Township Commitee to complain about his property taxes, wanting to appeal his assessment. Town Counsel Roger Desiderio explained that the deadline for a 2011 appeal had passed, but if the resident had not received a notice of his new assessed rate earlier this year, he should contact an attorney. Desiderio also recommended that residents contact Tax Assessor Ed Galante to have their assessments explained. Galante can be contacted through the Town Hall number: 973-762-8120.
• Kathy Kohlman, Chair of the Parks & Gardens Committee of the Green Team, presented an explanation of the Hilton Rain Garden that will be located next to the Hilton Branch of the Maplewood Library. The Garden will utilize rain run-off from the library roof and surrounding paved areas. Kohlman said that excavation for the garden will start the week of July 11. More details on the garden are coming in a separate article.
• The Township is collecting gently used shoes for donation to third world countries. There is a Soles4Souls box for collection located within Town Hall, per Township Administrator Joseph Manning.
• Manning also reminded residents that the Farmers Market at Indiana Street and Springfield Avenue is open every Monday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. through October 31. Leventhal applauded one vendor, noting that "the falafel are wonderful."
• Committeeman Jerry Ryan reminded residents that the Planning Board will meet on July 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall to finalize the re-examination of the Township Master Plan. Members of the public are invited to participate.
• The Committee passed an ordinance to adjust salary guides for municipal employees in order to align the guides with new pay raises.