GOP candidates tee off on county land deal

Freeholders

By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer

GOP candidates tee off
on county land deal
Freeholders’ purchase
of watershed land
called into question
By sue m. morgan
Staff Writer

OLD BRIDGE — Spending $11 million to buy already protected lands under the guise of preserving open space is how the Democratic-controlled Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders is helping a fellow Democrat, according to the two Republican candidates now running for seats on the board.

Standing in the tall grasses of the Runyon Watershed, located along Route 516, Republican candidates Roger Craig and Joe Paone told fellow party officials and supporters Saturday that the freeholders’ planned $11 million purchase of the watershed area from the landowner, the city of Perth Amboy, is merely a means of bailing that city’s chief executive, Mayor Joseph Vas, out of a financial crisis.

The freeholders deny the claim and dispute the statement that much of the land would have been protected from development in the future.

Many GOP supporters held signs reading "Open space, not open waste," a mantra continuously repeated during both candidates’ speeches at Saturday’s event.

Vas, whose city gets its water supply from the 1,100-acre tract, needs the money from the land sale to fill a $1.6-million gap in his budget for the coming fiscal year, Craig and Paone said.

Because the land is already protected from future development by the state’s 1990 Watershed Moratorium Act, the freeholders’ claim that they purchased the tract, which includes over 500 acres of wetlands for preservation as open space, does not hold up, the candidates said.

Both candidates stressed their support of preserving open space, but not of lands that are already protected.

"What the freeholder board is doing isn’t about open space. It’s about open waste," said Paone, who lives in the Colonia section of Woodbridge.

"This is just another example of a Democratic-controlled freeholder board helping a fellow Democrat," he added.

In addition, both pointed out that Old Bridge has already zoned the watershed land as environmentally restricted and shielded from future development.

"It’s an absolute waste to spend taxpayer money on land that is already protected," Craig said.

"This land is not going to be developed, and the freeholders know that," Paone said.

Craig also accused the board of enabling Vas in his efforts to finance development projects in Perth Amboy.

"He’s getting a quick $11 million to fund them," he added.

Open space funds should instead be used to preserve threatened land in other parts of the county, especially in North Brunswick, South Brunswick and East Brunswick, Paone said.

"The county should be using that money in our best interest by buying land that is not protected," said Craig, a South Brunswick-based real estate agent.

Athletic fields used by the Old Bridge-based Sayrewood South Rebels football league and the Sayrewood South Little League would be owned by the county under the land purchase deal. County officials have reportedly told those leagues that they can use those fields indefinitely.

However, Paone called the deal cut with the leagues by Crabiel and the freeholders "disingenuous."

"It doesn’t cost $11 million to [keep ball fields]," he said.

The Runyon Watershed is bordered by Route 516, Bordentown Avenue and the South River. The 165-acre Peter A. Mannino Park, which Old Bridge hopes to develop into a full-scale recreational area, is located within the watershed and is adjacent to the land that the county is acquiring.

Vas agreed to sell the access rights to the 165-acre Mannino Park to Old Bridge for the assessed price of $16,500 last month. That decision came on the heels of the freeholders’ decision to purchase the Runyon Watershed from Perth Amboy.

Freeholders Director David B. Crabiel, who along with Freeholder Camille Fernicola is running for re-election, countered the Republicans’ assertions that the watershed land is environmentally protected.

Prior to pursuing the purchase, the freeholders checked with state officials to see if the watershed lands were protected by the 1990 Watershed Moratorium Act, Crabiel said.

"We weighed this very carefully," Crabiel said.

The state is legally required to delineate which parts, if any, of the watershed could be developed in the future, Crabiel explained.

However, because the state never took action to delineate the land, it is possible that the tract is vulnerable to development, he said.

"We checked and there is no delineation line," Crabiel said. "No delineation was ever done by the state of New Jersey."

Consequently, as many as 600 acres could be built upon, Crabiel stated.

Out of concern that a future administration in Perth Amboy could decide to sell that land to developers, the county bought the watershed to prevent that action, Crabiel said.

"A developer could put 600 homes right there on Route 516," Crabiel said.

"What we’ve done is prevent 600 homes from being built," he said.

However, Vas would not agree to sell just those 600 acres, he said. The only deal Vas would accept was the sale of 1,100 acres at $10,000 an acre.

The final negotiations yielded a sale where the county purchased about half the tract outright, and acquired the development rights to rest. Vas will still retain 210 acres for well fields, Crabiel said.

The acreage was appraised by Carl Fleming, a Woodbridge-based appraiser and Republican Party supporter, Crabiel noted.

In addition, the county expects to work out a contract with the Old Bridge sports leagues that play on the land, Crabiel said. There is no contract between the leagues and Perth Amboy now, he added.

Ward 5 Councilman Richard Greene, a Republican, said he does not believe that county taxpayers should be paying to bail out Perth Amboy.

"I’m paying taxes to support the [city] of Perth Amboy. My money is going into [Vas’] budget," said Greene, who is also chairman of the Old Bridge Republican County Committee.

The county should instead purchase privately owned properties to ensure their preservation as open space, Greene noted.

"That is where that $11 million should be going," he said.