Voters in Upper Freehold returned two members of the Township Committee to office in the Nov. 7 election. Committeemen Paul Burke and Charles T. Faber Jr. will be sworn in for new three-year terms in January after winning re-election.
The five-man committee will remain all-Republican. Burke and Faber ran uncontested for their seats. Faber won re-election with 1,414 votes and Burke was re-elected with 1,384 votes.
Faber will begin his second consecutive term on the committee.
In discussing his goals for the next three years, Faber said he would like to see more programs offered for the community’s senior citizens. Noting that towns around Upper Freehold offer such programming, Faber said, "Somebody has to take the bull by the horns and step up to run this."
The committeeman said the governing body will also continue its efforts to preserve farmland and restrict residential development.
"The more farmland we can get into the preservation program, the better off we are," he said.
One primary factor that has helped Upper Freehold stave off residential development is the lack of sewer lines in the municipality, Faber said, although he noted, "Even that is getting harder all the time as above-ground treatment is now an option in some cases."
Burke, who will begin his fourth term on the governing body in January, said he plans to follow a number of issues over the next few years. One of those issues will be a review of Upper Freehold’s master plan, the document that guides the development of the community.
"We’ve put a group together to take a look at the master plan and their recommendations will eventually come to the Township Committee," he said. "We want to make sure we’re keeping up with what’s going on in town."
In recent years, members of the governing body moved Upper Freehold toward larger lot sizes – primarily 2-acre lots – with the goal of "holding the line on development as much as possible and keeping as much open space as possible," Burke said.
The committeeman will also focus his efforts on recreation and the planned development of the Byron Johnson Recreation Area near Allentown High School. Groundbreaking was held within the past month, and the site has been staked out. K. Hovnanian, which is building the Heritage Green development in Upper Freehold, is expected to provide up to $600,000 worth of the development costs at the Byron Johnson tract, including the initial site work, Burke said.
Residents voted on two municipal questions in the Nov. 7 election.
On a nonbinding question that asked voters if they wanted to change Upper Freehold Township’s name to Cream Ridge, 1,074 voters said "no" and 654 voters said "yes."
On a binding question that asked voters if they wanted to increase open space taxes by up to 3 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, 1,041 voters said "yes" and 742 voters said "no."
Upper Freehold already has a 1-cent open space tax in place, the proceeds of which are used toward farmland preservation purposes, Burke noted. If Township Committee members enact legislation allowing the municipality to collect up to another 3 cents, the money will be used to help further the town’s open space and recreation goals, he added.
To the owner of a home assessed at $200,000, a 3-cent assessment would amount to $60 annually. The 1-cent open space assessment currently costs that homeowner $20 per year.
In other Election Day results, Republican candidates in the races for president, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and Monmouth County freeholder carried the town.
In the race for president, Texas Gov. George W. Bush outpolled Democratic Vice President Al Gore, 1,241 to 694; in the race for Senate, Bob Franks outpolled Democrat Jon Corzine, 1,268 to 520; in the race for Congress, Congressman Chris Smith outpolled Democratic state Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, 1,459 to 376; and in the race for county freeholder, Ted Narozanick outpolled Democrat Michael Dowling, 1,251 to 400.
A total of 1,920 residents (67.6 percent) of the township’s 2,839 registered voters went to the polls on Nov. 7.