Candidates get set for race

Incumbent Republican Vince Calcagno challenged by Democrat Bob Giangrasso in Washington.

By: Mark Moffa
   WASHINGTON — With Election Day one month away, candidates for Township Committee this week described their platforms.
   Democrat Bob Giangrasso, challenging incumbent Republican Vince Calcagno, described what he called the "gross overspending" of the Township Committee.
   "We are in what I would call a fiscal crisis and also a developmental crisis," he said. "What I’d like to do is change both these things."
   Mr. Giangrasso describes himself as a "fiscally conservative Democrat" who wants to look at the township’s expenditures from a "zero-based perspective." In other words, he said, each line item of the budget should be viewed as if it is not needed; then, its existence must be justified.
   He questioned, for example, the need for a township administrator, a chief financial officer and a planner.
   "In the state we’ve been trying to do more with less," he said. "It’s that kind of philosophy that I’d like to bring to the township."
   Mr. Giangrasso also is opposed to the Town Center, an area of mixed residential and commercial use under construction in Robbinsville.
   "I believe that high-density housing is a killer in the township," he said. Housing lot sizes should be increased, he said, to reduce the number of houses that can be built.
   He thinks the all-Republican Township Committee needs representatives from the Democratic side, and that the committee needs to do more to preserve farmland and open space.
   Some of Mr. Giangrasso’s other ideas include term limits and televised committee meetings.
   Mr. Giangrasso, 50, is a chief administrative adviser to the director of the state Department of Transportation. He has lived in the Country Meadows development off Meadowbrook Road in Washington since 1996. He and his wife, Anne Marie, have three preschool-age children.
   Mr. Calcagno said he is happy with the job the township has done and would like to continue to serve its residents.
   "I want to do my part to help my community and everybody who lives in our community to make our town something we’re proud of," said Mr. Calcagno, who has been a member of the committee since 1994.
   He said he is already familiar with what needs to be done to help the township survive its recent rapid growth. The main issue that needs to be addressed, he said, is the property tax system in New Jersey.
   "We know and understand the concerns that everybody has with regard to living here in New Jersey," he said, referring to property taxes. "We have done much to keep taxes under control as far as the municipal government goes."
   Because the problem is not at the municipal level, he said, he will continue to lobby legislators to change the property tax system and to make changes that would help rapidly growing communities like Washington.
   "There’s no way of directly controlling growth," he said.
   Mr. Calcagno said the committee’s progress on open space and farmland preservation has helped, however.
   "That’s gone a long way to prevent the spread of residential housing into areas we did not want it," he said.
   He cited what he said was recent success in increasing the commercial tax base, saying he has the experience needed to continue the job.
   "The commercial ratable base has more than doubled in the time since 1997," he said. "I certainly have the drive and sense of urgency to look at this and try to understand what the dynamics are."
   Mr. Calcagno also mentioned two issues that have been his trademark over the last seven years — recreation and senior services.
   Recreationally, he said, the growing population of teen-agers is a concern.
   "We have to make sure they have recreation opportunities so they can develop into responsible young adults," he said.
   He also said he was trying to develop a transportation system for seniors who do not have a way to get to the Senior Center to participate in the nutrition program.
   Mr. Calcagno, 40, has lived in Washington since 1988, living for the first five years in Foxmoor. For the last eight years he has lived in the Washington Lees development off Richardson Road.
   He and his wife, Ellie, have four children: 14-year-old Michael, 12-year-old Patrick, 8-year-old Matthew and 3-year-old Meghan.
   Mr. Calcagno works as a principal engineer for Telcordia Technologies in Piscataway.