U.F. residents still seek relief from truck traffic
Township to ask county for more double striping, lower speed limits
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - Residents of the Galloping Brook subdivision are still frustrated over truck traffic near their homes on the easterly bypass and Route 526.

Several residents from the development voiced their concerns at the Feb. 15 Township Committee meeting.

The governing body agreed to send a letter to the Monmouth County engineer requesting that Route 526 have double-line striping from its junction with Sharon Station Road to the borough of Allentown.

Mayor Stephen Fleischacker said he had spoken with Township Engineer Glenn Gerken, who advised the Township Committee to include the rationale for the striping in the letter.

According to Gerken, the initial line striping on the road was done in the 1980s when there were no residential developments along the route. Since then, Galloping Brook and Forge Mill Estates have been constructed along Route 526, as well as many individual houses with driveways on Route 526.

Fleischacker noted that Gerken said Route 526 is a main collector road used for school buses.

Committeeman Stephen Alexander asked that a request also be made about reducing the speed limit near the easterly bypass. Alexander said there is a section going west on Sharon Station Road to the bypass where the speed limit is 50 mph, but in the same section going east the speed limit is 40 mph. He wants both sides of the road to have a 40-mph speed limit.

Township Administrator Barbara Bascom will send a letter to the county on these issues, and the Township Committee expects to vote on a resolution regarding the matter at its March 1 meeting.

Galloping Brook resident Megan Miller said it has been 10 months since residents first came before the Township Committee with the truck traffic problem.

"Since then, hundreds of residents have come forward," she said.

Miller said some township committeemen have accused residents of not doing their homework before buying their properties and of using their children as shields. She alleged that Deputy Mayor William Miscoski, who was not present at the Feb. 15 meeting, was text-messaging someone at a previous meeting when residents came forward to complain about the truck traffic.

"Because of the lack of respect of the Township Committee, residents have reached out to the county," Miller said.

She said that residents met with county engineer Joseph Ettore and found out that Fleischacker had met with the county prior to having signage put up for the easterly bypass. She asked Fleischacker to explain his signage recommendation to residents.

Fleischacker said the signage meeting had occurred a few years ago, when the bypass opened. He said the bypass signs were unclear, and that people were getting lost.

Fleischacker said he met with the county engineer and Allentown Mayor Stuart Fierstein about a month ago. The focus of that meeting, according to Fleischacker, was the phasing of the bridge replacement in Allentown. He said the Allentown bridge replacement would be phased by the county along with bridge replacements on Sharon Station Road and that the county's realignment of Route 539 and Sharon Station Road took longer than planned.

According to Fleischacker, Allentown's position concerning its bridge is that it should not be out for more than one holiday season.

Miller said the county had proposed three plans to alleviate traffic but that township officials are acting like this is a new concept.

According to Fleischacker, one plan would involve rebuilding the road and taking away most of the park near the bypass on the former Reed farm.

Miller said the cheapest way to solve the problem would be to create a sweeping curve near the Hope Fire Company.

Citing the county engineer, Fleischacker said the corner near the firehouse could not be cut. He said there is preserved farmland near the bypass and that trying to take any of it for a road would require action by the governor.

Township Attorney Granville Michael Magee said it basically requires "an act of God" to take land out of the Farmland Preservation Program.

Bascom said that when the township tried to take a piece of the preserved Mullen farm on Walnford Road for improvements, it took three to four years to have the transaction approved. She said the acreage used had to be traded for additional land to be put into preservation.

"If the state has paid for land to be [in] farmland preservation, they won't release it," she said.

Fleischacker said a new interchange for I-195 along Sharon Station Road could be the long-term solution for the truck traffic problem. He said a new interchange is another contentious issue but that "At some point in time, there will be traffic pressure to build the interchange."

If there is a Sharon Station Road interchange, Fleischacker said there would be no need for the easterly bypass.

Those opposed to the creation of a westerly bypass on the other side of town object to building a bypass by the school where schoolchildren are located, according to Fleischacker. He said that in his view, traffic should not be there.