Upper Freehold ends year marked with disagreement
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - Although the mayor proclaimed last January that the governing body was about unity, 2006 proved to be a divisive year for the township.

Evidence of the division included the defeat of a committeeman in the Republican primary, who then ran independently in the general election and lost again, as well as public debate about the proposed warehouse project on Breza Road and truck traffic on Sharon Station Road.

Early last year, Stephen Fleischacker was unanimously chosen as mayor and William Miscoski as deputy mayor, with David Reed sworn in as a new township committeeman.

"This committee is about unity," Fleischacker said at the reorganization meeting. He added that the committee would not study township issues to death and that in 2006 it would plan for the township's future.

Planning concerns arise

On Jan. 19, residents started expressing concerns regarding township planning when they started blasting township officials for the possible creation of town centers in Upper Freehold. Miscoski said the township did not have plans to develop a town center like the one in Washington Township. Fleischacker added that the Planning Board would not use the term "town center," but instead would refer to the areas of higher-density development as "village centers" or "hamlets."

"The difference is the amount of density and [the] size," he said.

At the Feb. 16 meeting, former Mayor Richard Osborn said the township should adopt a Right of First Refusal ordinance to help preserve open space and farmland. Right of First Refusal means that a landowner who decides to sell more than 20 acres of land to someone other than a family member would first have to offer to sell the property to the township, county or state, or to a nonprofit conservation organization, before selling it to someone else.

Osborn said the Right of First Refusal could eliminate the need for zoning changes, slow down school growth, protect the water supply and wildlife habitat, encourage agriculture to stay in Upper Freehold and help maintain a lower tax rate.

Reed agreed with Osborn concerning the Right of First Refusal, saying, "Farmland is the No. 1 ratable as far as keeping kids out of school."

Osborn also said officials discussed the transfer of development rights (TDR) for many years, but that a regional TDR program is better than a township one since a TDR area requires sewer, water and infrastructure.

Revaluation causes uproar

In late January, township residents received their tax revaluation letters in the mail. The last property revaluation took place in 1997, with the old average assessed value of a single-family residence being $252,400. The new average assessed value of a single-family home was $504,100. The revaluation meant that taxes for 1,287 properties would increase while those for 1,304 properties would decrease.

Resident Tim Reilly said the revaluation affected anyone who lived in town for more than five or six years. He said his taxes increased 25 percent in one year as a result of the revaluation.

"It is ridiculous that we got a revaluation at the prime of the market," he said.

Township preserves more land

During a special meeting on Feb. 27, the Township Committee unanimously voted to appropriate $5.5 million to help the township acquire the Cream Ridge Golf Course and other properties for open space, conservation and recreation. The ordinance the committee passed stated that the approximately $5.5 million includes $2.6 million the township would receive as a grant from the state through the Green Acres Program and the $272,500 down payment required by the local bond law.

Furthermore, the township authorized the issuance of bonds in the amount of approximately $5.2 million to finance the acquisition of 108 acres in the area of Route 537 and Millers Mill and Noah Hunt roads, known as the Rozansky property. The bonding would also help finance the purchase of the golf club, which is located on Route 539 and Holmes Mill Road, in addition to farmland adjacent to the course.

The golf course, which is owned by Miscoski and his family, consists of approximately 130 acres, while the farmland parcel adjacent to it, which is owned by Miscoski's mother, Ellen, consists of about 57 acres.

Committeeman serves in Iraq

By the first week of March, Township Committeeman Stephen Alexander, an Air Force reservist, reported to duty in Baghdad. He would later return to the township as the winner of the general election for another term on the Township Committee.

U.F. taxes increase

The township's tax levy increased by about $95,192 to approximately $1.4 million. The township's debt service increased from $715,187 in 2005 to $757,187 in 2006. Including the county, municipal open space and proposed regional school taxes, a homeowner with a house assessed at the township's average paid about $8,515 total in taxes in 2006, which amounts to more than $743 over the 2005 tax bill.

The state Department of Community Affairs (DCA) released property-tax data revealing that the township had the highest percentage change in its tax levy in Monmouth County between 2000 and 2005. Between 2000 and 2005, Upper Freehold's total tax levy increased by $9.9 million. During that time frame, its tax rate increased by 60 cents per $100 of assessed value to $3.07, according to the DCA.

In 2000, 21.8 percent of the Upper Freehold's tax base was considered farm property. That number decreased to 14 percent by 2005. The residential tax base of the township rose 10.3 percent from 2000 to 77.7 percent in 2005. The commercial tax base of the township decreased .3 percent from 2000 to 2.9 percent in 2005, according to the DCA.

"We at the local level," Fleischacker said, "must make sure that any future request for increased municipal spending is well substantiated and absolutely necessary for the health, safety and well-being of our community."

Barn fire kills 24 horses

On March 24, 12 broodmares along with their 12 babies perished in an early morning fire that swept through Perretti Farms.

Diecidue loses footing

Two newcomers announced they would challenge incumbents Alexander and Salvatore Diecidue in the primary election. Robert Faber, 69, and Jeff Ferrier, 35, would vie for the two open committee seats, but Ferrier later dropped out of the campaign.

Ultimately, Diecidue was resoundingly defeated by Alexander and Faber in the June 6 Republican primary in his quest for a second term on the Township Committee. The primary had a historically high turnout of 43 percent of registered voters.

Commenting on his and Faber's win, Alexander, still in Iraq, wrote in an e-mail, "This shows that a wide range of voters, from farmers and longtime residents to our newer neighbors, share the same ideas and vision for Upper Freehold and have been dissatisfied with the pace and direction of our town government over the last two years."

In the past, Fleischacker said that Upper Freehold is a divided community. When asked what he thought the election results said about that division, Fleischacker said, "It is difficult to assess division when the majority of voters elect not to exercise their right to vote. However, let there be no mistake. Of those who took the time to come to the polls and vote, their voices were heard loud and clear."

In October, Diecidue announced he would run as a write-in candidate in the Nov. 7 general election. With 775 write-in votes, he ended up losing to Alexander, who garnered 1,354 votes, and Faber, who received 1,283 votes.

Officials ponder

nixing clustering

At the July 20 Township Committee meeting, the governing body unanimously supported a resolution to ask Township Planner Mark Remsa to look at both the positive and negative effects of eliminating the 35 percent bonus density for developers who use the cluster option when creating a development in town.

Warehouse project

causes division

Three members of the governing body voiced their support for a controversial warehouse development at the July 20 Township Committee meeting. Fleischacker and Diecidue did not voice opinions on the matter because they sit on the Planning Board, which was hearing the New York City-based Rockefeller Group's application to build 1.8 million

square feet of warehouse space on Breza Road.

Although some who opposed the warehouses stated that the project would generate only $600,000 in annual revenue, Alexander said the project would still double what the township currently receives. He said he would like to work with the Rockefeller Group and move forward. Miscoski said he supported the commerce park idea all along since the town needed more ratables. Reed said that he would be in favor of any ratables that would reduce the tax burden.

Sharon Station takes center stage

At the Aug. 17 meeting, the township administrator said lines have been added to part of Sharon Station Road to create a no-passing zone. Residents in the Woods at Cream Ridge development had asked township officials to create a no-passing zone in front of their development due to safety concerns.

The intersection of Sleepy Hollow Road, an internal road in the Woods at Cream Ridge development, and Sharon Station Road also had its line-of-sight problem remedied.

In addition, Woods residents asked for a speed-limit reduction and the restriction of truck traffic from Sharon Station Road.

Miscoski opposed the idea, saying, "Do you know what that does to the rest of [Route] 539? Business is business. Just because you build new houses ... does not mean people should not be able to conduct business."

At the Sept. 7 meeting, Miscoski defended the rights of truckers. He faced a roomful of parents and their children asking for relief from Sharon Station Road truck traffic. Many of the kids at the meeting wore T-shirts that had "Mr. Mayor, do you care about our safety?" on the front and "The forgotten children of Upper Freehold" on the back.

Township officials ultimately proposed a resolution that the township clerk would send letters to local sand and gravel contractors asking for the voluntary redirection of their trucks from 6:30 to 9 a.m. and from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on weekdays during the school year. The Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education had voted the previous evening to cosign the letters. The resolution passed 3-2, with Miscoski and Reed voting against it.

At a subsequent meeting, Keith Prince, the manager of EME Trucking in Plumsted, said he could not redirect his company's trucks away from Sharon Station Road. Prince said the alternative route proposed by the Township Committee would add about a half-hour to the three trips each truck averages daily to the company's facility in Lambertville. According to Prince, the alternative route would cost an extra $139.50 per day per truck, which would amount to about $1,400 more each day.

In October, the committee voted 4-1 to spend $4,750 to conduct a Sharon Station Road traffic study, including a weight-limit investigation to determine if trucks over a certain size can be prohibited from the road. Miscoski cast the dissenting vote. The results of the late-November study confirmed that Sharon Station Road is the shortest and fastest route through the area for truck traffic, according to Township Engineer Glenn Gerken. He reported 7,000 daily trips on the road, including 800 truck trips.

At the Dec. 7 meeting, Alexander cast the lone dissenting vote against asking the county to expedite plans to rebuild and widen Sharon Station Road. The township has pursued certain improvements on Sharon Station Road with the county for many years. It wants the county to realign the road's intersection with Route 539, reconstruct the three bridges on the road and the roadbed, widen the road and improve its drainage, make turning-lane improvements at Route 526 and construct an interchange with Interstate 195 (I-195). Such an interchange would move vehicles through the township in the most direct manner, according to the resolution.

Alexander said that by giving jurisdiction of the road to the county, the township would no longer have leverage on limiting truck traffic on Sharon Station Road. He asked the committee to hold off its vote until it could meet with the county to finalize a traffic plan.

Miscoski disagreed, saying it would cost the township close to $4 million to improve Sharon Station Road should it remain in the township's jurisdiction. He said the county would not stop trucks from traveling down Route 539, and that keeping trucks away from Sharon Station Road would mean sending them past the school. At the meeting, an attorney for Woods residents accused Miscoski of having a conflict of interest with regard to making decisions about truck traffic on Sharon Station Road.

While attorney Steven Edelstein did not identify the supposed conflict of interest, Miscoski previously said that he had received a call from someone in the Woods development, who threatened to "expose" him because EME Trucking sponsors his race car. At the time. Miscoski called the anonymous caller "a coward."

New town hall opens

On Oct. 30, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the new municipal building. The new building would serve the public more efficiently while blending in with the rural character of the community. The land use administrator, court, animal control, emergency management and tax offices would all remain in the old building.

Town calls for state help

At its Nov. 28 meeting, the Township Committee unanimously approved a $4.75 million bond ordinance for the acquisition and development of farmland and open space. The governing body also approved a letter asking the State Agricultural Development Committee (SADC), which administers the Farmland Preservation Program, to expedite the township's applications for preservation. Township landowners have applied to preserve a total of 1,048 acres, which the bonds would help finance.