As for pension exclusions, the cap may be allowed to be increased to 4 percent.

Kirk Applegate, borough auditor, said if the town has enough money in the fund balance and does not replace retired personnel, the restriction may be met.

\”The Borough could also request a waiver from the imposed cap, or go out to a referendum asking the residents for approval to increase the budget amount,\” he said.

If the referendum is put to a vote and approved, then

the Borough can work with the cuts as needed and hope to keep the services and employees.

If the voters turn down the request, then the borough has to work within a 2.5 percent spending cap, according to the auditor.

Soubasis said they have gone to many state department meetings asking for assistance, and never received any good news.

\”They want us to merge with other towns, but we run our town more efficiently than the surrounding communities. There is nothing more to cut in the budget,\” he said.

Brian Schneider of Professional Property Appraisers gave a re-valuation update to the governing body.

He said the re-valuation would not necessary mean increases in property taxes.

\”We will make sure that everyone’s assessment value is fair. Approximately one third of the assessments will go up, one third will go down, and at least one half of the assessments will change,\” he said.

Councilwomen Theresa Branella asked if this is a good time to conduct the assessment. Schneider said it was a good time in a conservative market.

\”This is not being done to increase taxes. The town will be brought up to 100 percent assessment for all properties,\” he said.

An information session will be held for the property owners, and they will also be informed by mail that the appraisers are coming to their home.

Schneider said the square footage of the property, finished basements, pool, and air conditioning are some conditions that will figure in the reassessment.

The new assessments will not go on the tax books until 2011.

Osler, now 69, still lives in Glassboro, New Jersey where he enjoys publishing Mathematical research papers (more than 120) and teaching Math at Rowan University (his 49th year as a teacher; 41 at Rowan University) and running close to 50 miles a week.

A quick review of Osler’s running accomplishments: over 2100 races run; his first national championship, a 25K race, in 1965. He captured a second national title, for a 30K race in 1967. It was the same year he finished 19th in the Boston Marathon and, later that year, self-published a seminal work on running, the 32-page classic, The Conditioning of Distance Runners. Osler also published the Serious Runner’s Handbook in the ’70s during the height of the running boom. Dr. Tim Noakes (author of The Lure of Running) said \”Conditioning of Distance Runners remains one of the absolute classic training books of the world. Tom Osler\’s great contribution was to emphasize the importance of peaking training. He was the first to verbalize that in a way that was really understandable to most athletes. Most importantly, he was absolutely correct in what he proposed. Our own research undertaken [in South Africa] shows his principles to be absolutely correct. The principles he described withstood the test of time and are unquestionably real physiological laws.\”

His second book, Serious Runner’s Handbook, sold more than 55,000 copies during the peak of the running boom in the 1970s and was called \”the best running book\” by Osler’s friend and mentor Olympian Browning Ross.