Lame Duck Township Committee Continues To Let The Freeholders Skate As It Becomes Clear That Open Space And Overdevelopment Issues May Receive Very Little Attention - Just Like Last Year And The Year Before

Fiure Says “It’s Irresponsible For One Governing Body To Attempt To Influence The Policy Of Another Entity” Regarding Larsen Threats To DMUA Bonds

No Support Yet For Haelig’s $300,000 DMUA Savings Plan

Dover Township - Despite the fact that the whole system of American government has been based on the give and take of constructive criticism ever since the Bill of Rights was adopted in 1790, the lame duck township committee continues to allow the board of freeholders to skate on their share of responsibility for helping to resolve the township’s overdevelopment and open space acquisition emergency.

The character of the overdevelopment emergency has been clear since a Summit Meeting nearly three years ago in March of 2000, and the dimensions of the problem have become even more apparent with every passing month.
Equally clear have been the solutions to the overdevelopment problem which involve significant purchases by public agencies of the remaining open space in the community to take the raw materials of the developers off the table for added development.

It was estimated at the first Summit meeting that if 3000 acres of open space could be purchased with funds provided by some combination of the township, the Dover Municipal Utilities Authority, the Toms River Regional School System, the Ocean County Board of Freeholders and the state government, that much of the added overcrowding and traffic gridlock that is otherwise sure to come could be avoided.

Haelig Began Calling Attention To Overdevelopment
Emergency Nearly Three Years Ago

DMUA Commissioner Robert K. Haelig Jr. began writing letters to the township committee nearly three years ago, pointing out the additional overcrowding and traffic gridlock would be accompanied by a huge annual tax increase that could easily reach $40 million or more, much of which could be avoided if a substantial open space acquisition program went forward on a timely basis.

The purchases could be financed with the township’s existing tax rate if the other agencies cooperated, and if a significant contribution were forthcoming from the freeholder board.

But none of the township committee members has ever criticized the freeholders, whose county planning board has approved all of the overdevelopment, and who, many think, must accept a share of the responsibility for resolving the problem.

The township committee never bothered to respond to Haelig’s letters, and has proceeded with a snail’s pace open space program which, so far, has not resulted in anything close to the substantial acquisition that is necessary to make a real dent in the problem.

Three weeks ago, Haelig presented a program of savings at the DMUA, criticizing the current majority of DMUA commissioners who, he has said repeatedly, have compromised the finances of the authority with unwise expenditures which have produced two consecutive annual deficits and no real open space initiative.

DMUA Could Save Nearly $300,000 Annually

Haelig asked the township committee for support for the savings program which, he noted, would “almost painlessly” save nearly $300,000 annually, but the committee has, so far, not responded with any support.

Part of Haelig’s program of DMUA savings included $65,000 annually from a refunding of authority bonds to take advantage of low interest rates, a project which the DMUA moved.

But the bonds have been challenged by township committee members Richard Larsen and John Furey, who wrote a letter to the state government’s Local Finance Board opposing the bond sale.

To their credit, the two remaining Republicans and one Democrat endorsed the DMUA bond proposal because it would “save ratepayers money”; and one of them, Michael Fiure, even challenged the right of Furey and Larsen to write the letter, which was on township stationery, to express their opinions on the bond issue.

Fiure Says Township Committee Shouldn’t Attempt
“To Influence Policy At Another Agency”

The Asbury Park Press quoted Fiure as saying “It’s irresponsible for one governing body to attempt to influence the policy of another entity”, a statement that would appear to invalidate the constructive criticism that takes place all the time in a free system.

Many public officials engage in such dialogue regularly; Fiure himself offered criticism of the state government, for instance, during his recent campaign, and his colleague, Committeeman Carmine Inteso, has tried to influence policy at the DMUA.

Until now, nobody has suggested there is any other way to produce compromise and progress.

Furey’s statement, if it represents the attitude of the township committee majority, would appear to make it difficult for the necessary dialogue to take place to make progress with the freeholder board on overdevelopment and open space acquisition issues.

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