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Schools chief explains budget increase
Pet passion turns into passion project Northeast Animal Support Alliance is a ‘rescue for rescues’ organization
Beyond-cap 5.27% tax hike source of some controversy in Hopewell Valley
By JuLia maRnin Local animal lover Kim Janel’s life changed when a 160pound rottweiler-mastiff mix named Rocky entered her life. The Hopewell resident had been doing animal fundraising and rescue for years when she got a call about Rocky, a 1 year old dog in Newark’s overcrowded animal shelter on death row. “I was told that his time was up,” Janel says. “I was desperately trying to find a rescue to take him.” The shelter was full to capacity and he was going to be euthanized. At the time, her home was full of four children and two dogs she had previously rescued. However, she could not let young Rocky go. “He would’ve had to die because of the lack of funding,” she says. “So I took him without anywhere to bring him and I just decided to put him in my car.” Seeing Rocky’s almost fatal predicament two and a half years ago inspired Janel to begin her organization, the Northeast Animal Support Alliance, which raises awareness See RESCUE, Page 10
inTeRvieW By Joe emansKi
Hopewell Valley Municipal Alliance coordinator Heidi Kahme, front left, with husband Mike and daughters Samantha and Rebecca on a recent vacation.
County honors for ‘amazing’ Kahme Municipal Alliance coordinator to receive Excellence in Prevention award on June 12 By Joe emansKi
jemanski@communitynews.org
It’s 7:45 on a Thursday morning. Some 50 people are gathered in a room at the Hopewell Township municipal building to hear a presentation by Steve Olsen about the Traumatic Loss Coalition of Mercer County. The occasion is a meeting
of the Hopewell Valley Municipal Alliance, an extraordinary body whose members include mayors, town council and committee members (past and present), school board members, school administrators, pastors, rabbis, town officials, police chiefs, pediatricians and mental health counselors, fire and emergency medical personnel, wellness practitioners, nonprofit directors and many more. Introducing Olsen is Heidi Kahme, who has been the alliance’s coordinator for 13 years. It’s because of Kahme that many of these people are in the room. The Governor’s Council
on Alcohol and Drug Abuse mandates that the alliance be a community-based anti-drug coalition promoting healthy and safe communities. Thanks to Kahme’s tireless efforts, Hopewell Valley’s alliance does that and much more. On June 12, the Mercer Council on Alcoholism will honor Kahme and several others at its annual Excellence in Prevention Awards breakfast. Christine Abrahams has worked closely with Kahme for 11 years now. She is the supervisor of K-12 counseling services for the Hopewell Valley See KAHME, Page 8
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On May 6, the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education approved a budget for the 2018–19 school year that included a 5.27% increase in the general fund tax levy, which is the main source of revenue for the district. The increase is above the state’s 2% cap for a single-year tax increase. However, when districts approve budgets with tax increases below the 2% cap, the state allows them to “bank” that unused cap for a period of three years. The Hopewell Valley Regional School District had banked a good amount of cap space in recent years by passing budgets whose tax increases were below the 2% threshold. Therefore the board could and did approve a budget with a tax levy $3,789,253 greater than the previous year. The Hopewell Express spoke with district superintendent Thomas Smith on May 22 about this decision and a variety of issues related to the budget. See BUDGET, Page 12
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