Sordillo Gets Excited ... About Warren

When a Green Brook resident told Township Committeeman Vic Sordillo she wanted to move to Warren because she discovered a comparable house to her own in Warren would come with a substantially lower property tax bill.

That led Sordillo to the online property value site Zillow.com, where he noticed Warren was one of two Somerset County municipalities where property values increased in 2010. In fact, according to the website, Warren's property values increased by 3.9 percent in 2010, a virtual boom compared to even the increase in Bernards Township, which increased by 1.1 percent.

And according to Sordillo, the amenities Warren offers is behind the increase.

"What we have in this town—we have one of the best playgrounds in the area, one of the best sports facilities, a lbrary that attracts residents from all over," he said in a lengthy and impassionate statement at Thursday's Township Committee meeting. "We have strengthened the history protection in some of our buildings, we have a great volunteer fire department and Rescue Squad, great school system, good police department ... we are the envy of surrounding towns."

Then, getting increasingly passionate about his subject, Sordillo thanked Committeeman Mal Plager for his work with county officials on open space aquisitions, Deputy Mayor Carolann Garafola's close relationship with U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7th Dist.) which helped the township obtain funding for a communication system, and Mayor Gary DiNardo for his work with state representatives for maintaining "as best as possible, our share of state funding for programs."

Then, he apologized to the committee for taking so long, but Mayor DiNardo said his apology wasn't necessary.

"You sounded like you were leaving for a second there," Mayor DiNardo said.

"No, no, I'm passionate," Sordillo said.