Millburn Hesitant to Pay Firm to Lobby for Flood Mitigation Funds

Written by Craig McCarthy and Nicole Bitette

With hurricane season looming as the summer comes to an end, ways to prevent flooding in municipalities in the River Watershed Flood Control has come to the forefront of discussions.

In Cranford, the township is looking to hire a firm to lobby for funds to move preventative projects forward, such as South Mountain Regional Retention Dam project — Millburn is hesitant.

According to Cranford Mayor Tom Hannen, the firm lobby for the Rahway Watershed in Washington D.C. for grants, such as the $300,000 the Governor’s Office recently announced is now available to fund these type of projects.  

However, Millburn Mayor Sandra Haimoff told Patch she and the town were cautious about hiring a lobbying firm with taxpayers’ money before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gives its recommendation in September.

"We'll find out what they recommend in the next few weeks so why rush?" Haimoff said. 

Using Winning Strategies would cost the township about $9,000 for the year (after it is divided among the other towns), but Millburn could choose to terminate the relationship at anytime if they felt it was not a success.  

Currently and Union have signed off to hire the firm, with Rahway possibly next, Hannen said. Springfield was originally reported as having approved the lobbying firm, however Springfield Committeeman Ziad Shehady told Patch the township couldn't afford the firm at this time.

Haimoff explained, there are many proposed plans to help flood mitigation all along the Rahway Watershed, some of which target municipalities further down the watershed, requiring townships fund projects to alleviate local flooding. 

"We might need the money we have or get for our township's flooding," Haimoff said. "The whole process is extremely slow so we really must know exactly what we are lobbying for before we lobby."

Cranford Committeeman Kevin Campbell said it would definitely be money well spent to hire the firm when comparing the cost-benefit analysis of what the firm would cost the Township to what damage from future storms could cost.

Winning Strategies previously lobbied for the dune replacement project in Long Beach Island, where they were able to secure the funds to move the project forward.