Feelings on local campaigns aired at council meeting

By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

Feelings on local campaigns
aired at council meeting
By vincent todaro
Staff Writer

EAST BRUNSWICK — With the Nov. 5 election just a couple weeks away, tension continued to rise at Monday night’s Township Council meeting, as Republicans and Democrats jockeyed for position with help from their supporters.

At a meeting that drew an unusually large crowd, representatives of both sides seized a chance to air their feelings in response to recent candidates’ debates.

Township resident Paul Endler told the council that in recent weeks, Republicans have been disseminating false information, and urged people to do their own homework and find out what the truth is.

"Do your research, find out what’s going on," he said.

He praised the work of the Democrats and, in particular, Council Vice President Saul Fink, who is running as a Democrat for re-election along with newcomers David Stahl and Catherine Diem. The three council terms are also being sought by Republicans Anthony Riccobono, Robert Tagliente and Christi Calvano.

The Democrats, Endler said, "are people who care."

Endler also spoke about Diem, saying she has worked hard as a PTA member.

"I want people like that on my council," he said. "They are the ones that are going to make East Brunswick the place I want my family to live."

On the other hand, Riccobono, saying the Democratic Party is the camp that has been spouting lies and inaccuracies, used the forum to confront Fink.

Riccobono took issue with the claim that, prior to the administration of Democratic Mayor William Neary, Republicans allowed more than 1,200 homes to be built in the township. Riccobono served on the council and Planning Board during that time.

He said there were only two major residential development applications during that time, and he voted against both as a Planning Board member.

Though Fink holds that the surge in development took place during the Republicans’ rule, Riccobono argued that many of the homes built at that time had already been approved by the prior Planning Board and Democratic administration.

Others were built because the developers finally met the conditions and requests made in earlier years by the Planning Board, when the actual applications had been approved.

"Those 1,200 homes don’t apply to me," he said.

Riccobono also said Democrats were wrong to take credit for projects such as the creation of the Crystal Springs Aquatic Center and Lenape Park. Each, he said, was the brainchild of local Republicans.

In fact, Democrats were against the later addition of a swimming pool at Crystal Springs.

"You want to blame me for these things; I’m standing here now," he said to Fink, who did not respond.

Fink later said he believed Riccobono had misrepresented the councilman’s statements, and that he did not respond because he was not certain what Riccobono was accusing him of. He said he believed Riccobono was "speaking out of anger" and should not have addressed the council in such a manner.

Riccobono also told the council he abstained as a Planning Board member from voting on the controversial Rainforest club. The Route 18 nightclub was later shut down after a judge ruled that the owner had misrepresented himself to the Planning Board.

Riccobono said he abstained from votes involving the club because he personally knew the owner.

Riccobono also discussed the Republican council’s tax increases during the early 1990s. He said money was needed for services in response to the township’s predicament after those winters’ large ice and snow storms, thus causing the tax hikes.

Fink later said he believed the governing body at that time should have been better prepared to deal with the weather emergencies so that sudden tax increases would not occur.

The Democratic council was backed by some speakers, including Richard Walling, a current member of both the Planning and Zoning Boards.

Walling said residents need to "filter out the nonsense" that comes from the GOP before election time.