Hopewell Borough will have a referendum vote on whether they should proceed to pursue the sale of the borough’s water system.
Mayor Ryan Kennedy announced that a referendum would take place during the Hopewell Borough Council’s September meeting.
“The earliest [for the referendum] is November 2025 because it is the probable target based on how long we have always thought it would take to go out and evaluate bids and take a look at these things,” he explained.
Hopewell Borough will be putting out a more helpful schedule on what will happen next in the evaluation process regarding the potential sale of the water system, the borough’s efforts regarding grants and funding, and a timeline ahead of having an interested bidder, the borough evaluating the bid, and potential presentation to the community, the mayor said.
“The reality of that continues to be we are looking at about a year from now before we would have [a potential bidder, evaluation, and potential presentation to the community] to share and then likely be on the ballot in November 2025,” he said.
Kennedy’s comments come after Food & Water Watch, a national organization whose mission is to fight for sustainable food, clean water and a livable climate, released that Hopewell Borough residents gathered 222 petition signatures in time by the Aug. 5 deadline to force a referendum vote before any sale of the borough water system.
“Privatization leads to higher costs for water customers, so we are pleased that Hopewell Borough won’t be able to rush into a privatization deal under flawed legislation like WIPA (Water Infrastructure Protection Act),” said Charlie Kratovil, Central Jersey organizer at Food & Water Watch.
Hopewell Borough had received approval from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to go through the WIPA process and explore the potential sale of the water system.
WIPA authorizes certain owners of water or wastewater systems to enter into a long-term lease contract or sell their water or wastewater assets to a private or public entity.
Residents were able to challenge the NJDEP decision with a petition that had to be filed to the borough on or before Aug. 5. The petition would need at least 121 signatures from borough voters for a public referendum vote before the sale of the water system.
If there was no petition filed, the borough would have been able to proceed with the WIPA process with no need for a referendum public vote before a potential sale of the system.
