Roosevelt mayor carries on Monmouth horse tradition
Mayor Beth Battel has been riding, training horses for more than 40 years
BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

Elsbeth "Beth" Battel shows her horse Beemer some love during a break from riding.

Perhaps it's no surprise that the mayors of three towns in western Monmouth County, home to the largest horse population in the state, have some connection to the equine industry.

Millstone Township Mayor Nancy Grbelja has pleasure horses and is involved in standardbred racing. Upper Freehold Mayor Steve Fleischacker lives on a farm where his father-in-law raises harness racing horses. But, unlike the other two leaders, only Roosevelt Mayor Elsbeth "Beth" Battel actually earns her living from horses.

Even though she spent the winter on Florida's premier horse show circuit, Battel didn't shirk her civic duties. She flew back and forth for Planning Board and Borough Council meetings and also remained available to her constituents via cell phone and e-mail. She said she couldn't have done it without good help, both in town and at her barn. She commended Municipal Clerk Krystyna Olejnik and Borough Administrator William Schmeling for their efforts while she was away.

JEFF GRANIT staff Elsbeth "Beth" Battel rides Beemer, a dressage horse, at Footlight Farm in Roosevelt on April 5.

The mayor owns Footlight Farm in Roosevelt, where she boards and trains dressage horses as well as show hunters. She grew up in Oradell, Bergen County, in what she describes as a "non-horsey" family.

"I was always begging for a pony and riding lessons," she recalled.

Once she was old enough to ride a bike, she would pedal after school to a hack stable in Paramus to do barn work in exchange for rides. She saved her baby-sitting money for riding lessons and bought her first horse for $150 at the age of 16.

While later attending Wagner College in Staten Island, N.Y., she went to Clove Lake Stables and again worked in exchange for riding. During her sophomore year of college, Battel went abroad to Austria, where riding was offered as a gym credit. In Austria, she learned about dressage, a classical method of riding that at that time was not widely practiced in the United States.

When she returned to America, she attended Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, where on May 4, 1970, four students were killed and nine were wounded when National Guard troops opened fire on the campus during protests over the Vietnam War. Knowing that there was a problem at the school because of the presence of the National Guard, Battel had helped "smuggle" some friends out of the area the day before the shootings.

After graduating from the school with a degree in theater, Battel worked in that industry for about 10 years. She worked mostly backstage and predominantly with lighting, which later influenced the naming of her farm.

Even while working in the theater, she always had a horse or two. Finding the instability of theatrical life difficult, she said she thought she would be better off buying a house and farm where she could take in boarders.

Prior to moving to western Monmouth County, Battel was familiar with the area since she had done hunter paces with the Monmouth County Hunt and "knew the riding was fabulous."

She purchased the farm, which was located across the street from the Assunpink Wildlife Management Area, sight unseen, after a friend of her father's recommended it.

"When I first saw the farm, I was in tears," she recalled.

The 38.8-acre property had a barn that had been converted from a chicken coop.

"Half of the stalls had been built on the low side of the barn," she said. "The back wall was barely 6 feet [tall]."

She did love the location, though, and vowed to someday build a decent barn. The opportunity for her to build a new structure came in 2002, and the new barn is large and airy with an adjoining covered arena for all-weather riding. The office and board room connected to the barn have paneled interiors and were once part of the headquarters of the Hoffman-LaRoche pharmaceutical company.

Elaine Landy, of Millstone, who boards her horse at Footlight Farm, said, "The facility is gorgeous, from the green and gold security gates and gardens, to the many amenities such as great managers, barn help, rubber flooring throughout the aisles and stalls, automatic water tubs inside and out, hot and cold hoses in the shower stalls, grass turnout, trails with hills and natural jumps, storage bins and an additional barn for tack trunks."

She continued, "The sun is always shining at Footlight Farm."

Landy said there are rarely stalls available at the farm and many boarders have stayed there over the past 10 years. She said Battel makes it easy to be a boarder because of her "wonderful personality" and "respect for all of her clients as individuals."

She called Battel an excellent role model for all of the boarders there.

"She is a classy lady - patient, fair, tactful, dedicated - and has a great sense of humor," Landy said.

Battel first became involved in civic duties in Roosevelt when she joined its first aid squad. She served on the squad for 12 years, including seven years as its captain. Because she has always been conservation-minded, she also actively participated in the Fund for Roosevelt, a nonprofit organization in the borough dedicated to land preservation.

Although she has not yet put her property into preservation, Battel said she would pursue preserving it when she is no longer an elected official. She wants to avoid any potential conflicts of interest, she said.

Battel has also served on the borough's Planning Board. She was elected to the Borough Council three years ago. Because she served as council president in 2006, she became mayor when a recall election forced Neil Marko out of office.

When asked what she sees as the most important issues facing the town, Battel said the water/sewer issues are the biggest concerns. The borough engineer recently reported that the borough's 70-year-old water tower should be replaced and that the town's water mains, which have not been cleaned since their installation in the 1930s, also need maintenance.

Battel said there are only 300 households in Roosevelt to pay for all of the work.

"It's a small borough, but the cost must be absorbed," she said. "It's a very old [water/sewer] system."

Just as in other towns, traffic and speeding are problems, but unlike other local towns, any problem with development "is pretty much history," she said.

"We don't have to worry about megadevelopment," Battel said. "Preservation and conservation is pretty much settled."

According to Planning Board member Michael Ticktin, the total area of preserved farmland and publicly owned parkland in the borough amounts to 758.84 acres, or approximately 61 percent of the total 1,240 acres in town.

While some state officials are currently pushing for the consolidation of smaller towns and school districts, Battel thinks such moves would be a shame for Roosevelt.

"We're so unique," she said. "It's very much still the way [the town] was conceived and founded."

Battel called the local elementary school "fabulous" and a place where students are taught a sense of social and environmental responsibility.

"I love the town," she said. "I'm happy, privileged to be part of it."

She continued, "When you see suburban sprawl [elsewhere], it's so nice to get back to cozy little Roosevelt."

Battel also praised the town's sense of neighborliness and sense of community, which she feels are being lost all over the country.

"Roosevelt has character," she said.

This winter, Battel realized a long-held dream and brought her Hanoverian mare Kareer Girl to a dressage competition in Wellington, Fla.

She discovered another kind of community there.

"Wellington is amazing," she said. "The whole idea is a community of horse people. I've never seen anything like it."

She described the area as having many equine communities dotted with small horse farms ranging between 4 and 20 acres. The equine communities are developed with houses, barns and riding rings and have 25-foot setbacks along the roadways, she said, so people can ride their horses throughout. Battel said Wellington is also surrounded by canals with rights of way along them for riding.

Nearby Upper Freehold Township has considered zoning to create equine communities as a means to encourage the equine industry to stay in the area.