HAMILTON — Hamilton’s new mayor promised, after a turbulent year involving a convicted mayor and axed department heads, the township is ready to move forward at her state of the township address.

Mayor Kelly Yaede made the speech to more than 250 people in the Nottingham Ballroom Tuesday afternoon, making her case before the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce that the township will move past last year’s scandal surrounding former Mayor John Bencivengo and several of his subordinates. She also promised to keep the town’s economy developing and balance the budget.

“Now is the time to leave the past where it rightly belongs, in the past,” she said. “Our community of neighborhoods is too great to be held back by those who want to hold onto the past.”

Yaede also reiterated a number of steps she has taken to “move past” the Bencivengo scandal, including an expanded audit of the township’s finances and three-step ethics reform package announced Monday. That plan would involve abolishing the local ethics board in favor of a state one, expanding the township’s gift policy and annual ethics training for township managers and supervisors.

“The state of Hamilton Township is strong, fiscally sound and the future of our community is bright,” she said.