Hillsborough Mining, Montgomery Manufacturing, cont.

Thursday July 23, 1953 - Montgomery Township Municipal Hall. 8:30 p.m.

So much for drama. As the assembled crowd inside and outside the Municipal Hall waits impatiently to hear the outcome of the recent Planning Board meeting concerning the application by 3M to build their proposed quarry and roofing tile granule manufacturing plant, word finally comes from their neighbors to the north. By pre-arrangement with Hillsborough, Montgomery Mayor Ficken will not read the Planning Board vote until 8:30, when Hillsborough reads theirs.

The outcome of the Hillsborough vote is the only real drama here, as people have known for days, after word spread in this still small town, that Montgomery had approved 3M's plan. When the call finally comes, Mayor Ficken announces that Hillsborough's Planning Board has not yet reached a decision (they did indeed approve the plan a few days later).

The approvals in Hillsborough and Montgomery lead to a summer of unrest in both townships. Citizens' groups in each town - Montgomery's led by famed pollster George Gallup - collected petitions for a change in government. Petitions were delivered to the respective clerks, and questions were put on the ballot for later that summer.

Dr. Gallup compared the campaign season that summer to the Civil War. "Sometimes a father will be on one side and a son on the other. Men who have been good friends all their lives are arguing. Next door neighbors are no longer in agreement".

Ultimately both ballot questions failed at the polls - Hillsborough's voters declined to change to a Council-Manager form of government by a vote of 972 to 408 - and the 3M plant was built.


It is interesting to note that 3M's announcement last week that it would be closing its Montgomery/Hillsborough facility (amid continuing concerns about the accumulated rock dust and wastewater management!) come during a time when Hillsborough once again contemplates changing its form of government. Also interesting is the evolution of the relationship between Hillsborough and Montgomery - destined to be partners in geography (re: the 206 bypass) for at least another 54 years and beyond.