Listen on your favorite podcast player:iTunesSpotifyOvercastHeartRadioAmazon MusicBibliography:Karcher, Alan; (1998). New Jersey’s Multiple Municipal Madness. Rutgers University PressTranscriptWhen choosing a new hometown, it’s probably a good idea to know which town you’re choosing.When I first purchased a house in Mendham, I didn’t quite realize that it was one of two towns. Yes, there were two Mendham’s on the map, but I came from California where I didn’t have townships or boroughs, and hadn’t really any thought to the names of towns, or their boundaries, or how that might affect how they operate. So when we bought our house in Mendham, I thought it was just in Mendham, and that Google Maps was just a little bit confused. Until recycling day…When we moved here we had a surplus of cardboard and styrofoam. So I googled “styrofoam recycling Mendham”, and was pointed to a recycling place very close to my house. This is the Mendham Borough Public Works Garage. I pulled up, and asked where I could drop off my styrofoam. And they answered: “Do you live in the Township or the Borough”? I wasn’t quite sure. I told them I lived in the Oak Knoll neighborhood.“Oh, that's the TOWNSHIP,” they said. “This is only for BOROUGH residents. You’ll have to leave your recycling on the street and the Department of Public Works will pick it up. But that's only for cardboard and cans. Styrofoam has its own recycling day.” And, of course, they didn’t know when that was. So I left the recycling center with more questions than answers. What was Mendham Borough and what was the Township? And why was there a difference? Had it always been this way? And most importantly, I still wondered, when is styrofoam recycling day?(Theme)Welcome to Hometown History. A series about the iconic places and events that make a town someplace people call home - stories that people can tell to their friends old and new about the place they live, did live, or will live: In my case, Mendham TOWNSHIP, New Jersey. Because there are indeed TWO Mendhams, Mendham Township and Mendham Borough. And in THIS episode, we talk about the Township and the Borough, and the real reasons behind how and why…more than 100 years ago…they split. If you’re not from New Jersey, the whole Borough / Township thing can be a bit confusing. If you look at a map of Mendham, you’ll notice that the borough is sitting inside of the township, like a fried egg: the borough (the yolk) is surrounded by the township (the egg white). Easy enough, right? But while it’s pretty easy to picture a fried egg, in reality the lines between Mendham Borough and Mendham Township are extremely subtle. Many people, myself included, might not even know which one they’re in. There’s a few hints, like the Abner Doubleday sign welcoming you to Mendham Borough, and the fact that homes in the township are often farther apart than they are in the Borough’s center. The biggest giveaway might be the fact that Katie’s kids, who live in Mendham Borough, will attend Hilltop Elementary School in the dead center of Mendham, but my kids, who live in the Township will attend Brookside Elementary school, even though that’s WAY over on the other side of the egg white.But while this sort of municipal structure might be a headache for parents, it’s not really uncommon here in New Jersey. Like, for example, Princeton, New Jersey. Liz Lempert is the former mayor of the Municipality of Princeton. LIZ: I served two terms for a total of eight years, from 2013 to 2020.Liz explained the most basic differences between boroughs and townships, which come down to governance. LIZ: The Township form of government has five elected officials, and the mayor is chosen by the five people amongst themselves. The Borough has a directly elected mayor and then six council people. But outside of the way you elect your government, there's really no rules as to how boroughs and townships relate to each other. Liz told me that Princeton’s borough and township essentially worked together across a lot of different departments. LIZ: So, we had a shared Recreation Department, a shared library. We had a shared Planning Department, shared court system. In Mendham, things are slightly different. Clearly as I discovered when I tried to go to the recycling center. It would have been much easier if I could have just gone to the place right around the corner from my home. Or if my kids could go to the elementary school that’s closer to where they live. Now that I understood better the way things worked in Mendham Township and Mendham Borough. I wanted to understand why.A few weeks after my conveniently inconvenient trip to the recycling center, I learned that a neighbor of mine was a council member for Mendham Township. JORDAN: My name is Jordan Orlins. I was elected for the Mendham township committee for the years 2020, '21, '22.Jordan was the perfect person to go to for...
