Letters
Manalapan officials need to reach a consensus on pay-to-play

The issue of pay-to-play is so prominent that it is being debated even at the gubernatorial level. Although Manalapan had a chance to adopt one of the strongest ordinances recently, MARCO was defeated and the Township Committee members are back to the drawing board.

Throughout this process a committeewoman has relied heavily upon a representative affiliated with Common Cause to reinstate the old, ineffective 2004 Manalapan pay-to-play ordinance, which was deemed inadequate and replaced when the stronger MARCO ordinance was introduced in February.

I do not understand why this committeewoman has relied so heavily upon the 2004 model ordinance when less than 21 out of 565 municipalities in New Jersey use this representative’s Common Cause pay-to-play ordinance as their model.

At the May 25 Township Committee meeting, after five months of discussion, Mayor William Scherer asked the three Democrats and two Republicans to work together to create a new stronger pay-to-play ordinance incorporating both language from the recently defeated 2005 MARCO ordinance, as well as the prior 2004 Common Cause model ordinance.

Unable to arrive at a consensus, Mayor Scherer requested that each committee member send their pay-to-play requirements by e-mail to the municipal attorney, who will review these requirements. After achieving a consensus of three on any component, the attorney will draft these ideas into a new pay-to-play ordinance. Three out of five votes are needed to adopt anything in the township.

There has been way too much political bickering back and forth between Manalapan Democrats and Republicans on this issue. This should not be an ideological issue. This ordinance must work whether the township has Democratic, Republican or bipartisan committee members.

This ordinance should be able to withstand the heated pressures of political campaigns and stand on its merits. It is the least that the public expects from this Township Committee.

Every township in New Jersey is unique.

I believe that Manalapan committee members have done the research. If they really work together on this, they could be a shining example to the rest of the state on how to prevent pay-to-play corruption at the political level.

Rhoda Chodosh

Manalapan

Plan is like a foreign invasion on homeowners

Will Jackson Township zoning officials look out for their taxpaying citizens? The application for Equity Builders of Freehold to develop one residential and five commercial buildings in the backyards of homes on Chandler-Ely Harmony Road, a private right of way referred to as Breezy Road in Jackson, behind Harmony-Pittenger Pond Road, and behind Jackson Mills Road, is absolutely like a foreign invasion on the homeowners here.

The commercial cancer growing from planning and zoning which favors developers over the public good needs to be irradiated and surgically removed from New Jersey’s body. Equity’s proposal requests more variances than any individual land owner would rationally request; e.g., no save trees, no traffic impact study, reducing setbacks from 20 feet to 6 feet, changing the required ratio for rain retention basins, reducing road widths, etc. This is a brazen attitude, barely disguising a desire for carte blanche authority.

Haven’t Jackson’s planning and zoning officials noticed the increase in vacant office and retail space throughout Ocean County? Have they noticed that doctors locate near hospitals, MRI facilities, pharmaceutical outlets, are on major roads that are cleared of snow promptly, offer quick travel connections, and are highly visible to attract new patients?

Our neighborhood does not fit the profile for medical services or businesses. Why would anyone think the interior of a block in a residential neighborhood established in days of colonial America would be a superior location for commercial development than those already well known and easily accessible on main thoroughfares? Why not near the Jackson Industrial Park where roads have already been improved and services are available already?

What is there to prevent a methadone clinic or sex abuse treatment facility or chemical company from coming into any of these buildings right in our backyards?

Most importantly, how is it that R-3 zoning which would only permit six homes with septic systems on 19 acres can mystically accommodate a home and five commercial buildings on septic? Why would anyone permit disturbing land next to a DEP contaminated site for water retention, septic, a well, or construction? With such a highly concentrated septic use in a high water table area amid homes who rely on well water (and some old, very shallow wells), will Jackson Township or Equity Builders be responsible for the monitoring of water for pollution, redrilling wells that suffer from this, and providing bottled water until new wells replace those easily tainted?

What about illness? Am I the only one who remembers the polluted wells and cancers in the Legler section of Jackson? Let’s see at 7 p.m. June 1 at the Jackson zoning board meeting.

Jane Wilber

Freehold Township

Editor’s note: On May 24, the attorney representing Equity Builders notified the Jackson zoning board that the application for Ashlie Plaza was being withdrawn and wrote that the applicant did not wish to proceed in light of public opposition.

Postal employees appreciate support for food drive

I really want to thank the residents and postal employees in Freehold for helping to make this year’s National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) food drive a big success. We collected approximately 32,000 pounds of nonperishable items for the local food pantry.

On May 14, the postal workers in Freehold joined their fellow postal employees in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America to deliver much more than mail when they walked and drove along their routes. In addition to their deliveries, carriers also collected nonperishable food donations from their customers participating in the 13th annual NALC food drive — the largest one-day food drive in the nation.

Nearly 1,500 local NALC union branches in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands were involved in the drive.

The effort by letter carriers, with the help of rural letter carriers, other postal employees and numerous volunteers, has resulted in delivery of well over a half billion pounds of donations to community food banks and pantries over the past 12 years.

Major supporters of the NALC national food drive included the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Co., Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, America’s Second Harvest, local United Ways throughout America, and the AFL-CIO Community Services Network.

Experts estimate that 30 million people face hunger every day in America, including more than 12 million children. The food drive is another example of how postal employees do more in the community than just deliver the mail.

Crayson Cheung

Postmaster

Freehold Township

Letter carriers and community members came through

On behalf of the volunteers and clients of Freehold Area Open Door, I would like to thank the letter carriers of the Freehold post office and all those who contributed to their food drive on May 14. The residents of our community were overwhelmingly generous and the postal workers were kept very busy picking up and delivering food to our pantry.

Our pantry shelves are now filled. I am also grateful to the 4-H Club members, Girl Scouts, students and pantry volunteers who spent many extra hours unpacking the food and stocking shelves. The community support for this annual drive is appreciated as well as necessary to keep Open Door functioning as we approach the lean summer months. We are serving more households than we did at this time last year, and I know that those who benefit from this generosity are also thankful to those who contributed their time and food.

The men and women of the post office have our sincere appreciation for the extra work they undertook to help the hungry in our area.

Jeanne Yaecker

Director

Freehold Area Open Door Inc.

Freehold Borough