Weight limit considered for Sharon Station Road Public hearing on lowering speed limit will be held Oct. 19 BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer Upper Freehold UPPER FREEHOLD - The township will spend $4,750 on a Sharon Station Road traffic study. The Township Committee voted 4-1 at its Oct. 5 meeting to appropriate the funding for the evaluation that Township Engineer Glenn Gerken will conduct. Deputy Mayor William Miscoski voted against the measure. Residents in the Woods at Cream Ridge housing development off Sharon Station Road have been asking the township to lower the speed limit and keep trucks off the road during school pickup and drop-off times, which are weekdays from 6:30-9 a.m. and 2:30-4 p.m. Township Administrator Barbara Bascom sent a letter to local trucking companies asking them to voluntarily comply and not use the road during those times. Miscoski opposed the letter, calling it "a waste of paper." A public hearing on lowering the speed limit from 45 mph to 35 mph will be held Oct. 19. Gerken said the cost of the study covers the speed-limit investigation on the road that has already been completed. The study will also include a weight-limit investigation to determine if trucks over a certain size can be prohibited from the road. Gerken said the methodology for the weight-limit study would include intercepting trucks and giving drivers a questionnaire, which would ask their point of origin and destination. He said the study should take six to eight weeks to complete. The cost estimate of the study also includes meetings with the county engineer's office and the Department of Transportation (DOT), according to Gerken. Miscoski said the township has been asking the county to take jurisdiction of Sharon Station Road for many years. He said if the county takes over the road, it would pay the costs to bring what he called "a garbage road" up to standard. Miscoski estimated the cost of upgrading the road between $3 million and $4 million. "That's what needs to be done," he said. "It needs to be safer. If the county takes over, won't they do most of these things?" Miscoski said the goal is to have the county take over the road because it is a connector road between country roads. Committeeman Sal Diecidue said he spoke to the county engineer's office and was told it would cost between $4 million and $5 million to redesign Sharon Station Road with a median in the middle and no passing. "The county should be the head agency," Miscoski said, "and Glenn Gerken should work with them." Committeeman Stephen Alexander mentioned a presentation made last month by Woods at Cream Ridge resident Patrick Nolan. Alexander referred to Nolan's idea of a "global fix" for local truck traffic that would also address issues regarding the proposed westerly bypass and the Allentown bridge. Miscoski said Nolan's "global fix" is to figure out how to get five, 10-ton weight limits to stop trucks from going through Upper Freehold. Miscoski said such a fix would destroy the trucking industry. Gerken said the end goal of the engineering evaluation is to see whether such weight limits are feasible. "The interest is to deal with facts, not emotions," he said. Mayor Stephen Fleischacker agreed, saying the purpose of the evaluation is to gather additional information to see if the weight limit could or could not be substantiated. He said there would be an issue regarding the Allentown bridge, which is scheduled to close for repairs but will not have weight limits once it is fixed and reopened, according to Fleischacker. "We're looking at the ultimate destination of these trucks," he said. Fleischacker said he would object to a Sharon Station Road weight limit if it meant that trucks would instead take Route 539 and pass the school. He added that the township is not sending the county a signal that it wants to reverse its course to have the county take over Sharon Station Road. "The intent is to be responsive to people who have been gathering information to make a better decision," he said. Miscoski said if a legal reason can be found for weight limits on Sharon Station Road, there would never be a reason to put a weight limit on Route 539. "Trucks will go past the school, putting every kid in jeopardy," he said. Miscoski said the purpose of the easterly bypass and the proposed westerly bypass is to keep trucks away from the school. "Trucks will go down 539," Miscoski said. "They will not turn around and go down 537" if Sharon Station Road is not available, he said. Resident Bruce Novozinsky criticized Woods at Cream Ridge residents who came to a meeting last month with their children, who wore T-shirts with "Mr. Mayor, do you care about our safety?" on the front of them and "The forgotten children of Upper Freehold" on the back. He said the children were used as "political body shields" by parents who didn't do their due diligence before buying an $800,000 house. Novozinsky said he knows the Township Committee members and said they all care about kids. He called the T-shirts "a cheap stunt," saying that the parents were ill-informed and irresponsible.