MOUNT ARLINGTON 

Time running out for Lake Hopatcong staff 

    MOUNT ARLINGTON (11/20/08) – State Senators Anthony Bucco (R-Morris) and Steven Oroho (R-Sussex) are working feverishly to round up funding support for the Lake Hopatcong Commission next year. 

    Their efforts have made some headway, according to Bucco, by picking up Democratic support in the person of Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney (D-Glouster).

   Nearly every year since the commission’s founding in 2003 there has been controversies surrounding the budget and every year Bucco has successfully championed the commission’s cause.

    But this year has been exceptionally tough because of state fiscal restraints.  Efforts for funding have proved fruitless thus far but Bucco still remains confident he can get his legislative colleagues to come up with at least $700,000…a bare bones amount he said needed to keep the commission afloat next year.

    Most of the money would go to pay the salaries of the four people who mostly would be doing maintenance work on equipment during the winter months so the weed harvesters are ready  to attack  accumulated weeds in the spring.

    If the senators are unsuccessful the Commission will run out of funds by the end of this month and the staff will be furloughed.

    Bucco is sponsoring a bill in the Legislature that would annually take the needed funds from state fees for boat registrations.  He maintains the registration fees taken in by the state amount to more than $4 million a year, half of which goes to the State Department of Environmental Protection, which has been adamant that there is no money for Lake Hopatcong next year.

      The DEP maintains that the cost of maintaining the lake should come from user fees by boaters who use the lake but Bucco will not hear of it and he has actively opposed this every time it comes up.

    Mount Arlington Mayor Arthur Ondish, who serves as chairman of the commission, said he and the other commissioners are working on an alternative plan in the event Bucco does not get the legislative support he needs for his bill.

     The plan is being devised by a citizens group called the Lake Hopatcong Protective Association, which according to Ondish will involve fees and taxes from the surrounding municipalities.  When the plan is complete it will be submitted to the commission.