A ruling could come as early as this month in the lawsuit over the expanded Special Improvement District (SID) after a hearing on Oct. 9. UPDATE: Apologies for the ill-timed post, a decision came down late Monday afternoon — click here for an update.

Both sides said the judge did not rule at the Oct. 9 hearing but that a decision could come shortly from Assignment Judge Karen Cassidy.

City Administrator Cherron Rountree said last week that the judge indicated that she may have a decision within 30 days. William Michelson, the Fanwood attorney representing Friends of Rahway Business, LLC, said last week that he expects a written ruling “fairly quickly,” possibly within a week or two. Michelson also is running for Assembly in the 22nd District against former Rahway Mayor James Kennedy.

City Council in December 2014 approved the expansion of the SID from 138 downtown properties to more than 500 properties citywide. The group of Rahway business owners filed suit in January.

The special assessment for the expanded SID would be $0.2518 per $100 of assessed value for the 544 properties in the expanded SID compared with $0.30 in the previous version. That would generate an annual budget of about $760,000 for the SID.