Bedminster Township cuts job due to drop in new construction

In 2003, there were 18 new homes built in Bedminster. In 2004, it was 11. The following year, 2005, it spiked up to 264, followed by 172 in 2006, according to township figures accompanying the 2013 budget.

By 2011, it was back down to 32. For 2012, the number of new homes as of the end of November was 33.

“New house construction’s at a 10year low,” Bedminster Township Board of Supervisors Chairman Morgan Cowperthwaite said at the board’s Dec. 28 year-end meeting.

“You hear about all this new construction, but I don’t know who’s doing it,” Cowperthwaite said. “Not around here.”

With the slowdown, a part-time worker in the township’s land use office was laid off in December 2011. The move saved the township about $10,000 per year, officials said at the time.

At the Dec. 28, 2012, meeting, a separation agreement with Dawn Cook, the township’s land use administrator, was approved and the position was eliminated in a restructuring of township jobs. The land use part of the job had been coupled with another one as administrator of the Bedminster Muncipal Authority to form one full-time job. The BMA is now going to contract out that part of the job, Jack Terry, township manager, said.

With the elimination of the land use administrator position, two other township employees will have their hours increased, but the savings to the township will be about $35,000 per year, he said.

The BMA has been reimbursing the township for the BMA administrator part of the job, which won’t be happening any longer, he said.

“We lose on the revenue side, but we save on the expenditure side,” Terry said.