Jack Anglin
Upper Freehold resident: Speak out on bypass issue
Guest Column
Jack Anglin
Upper Freehold resident: Speak out on bypass issue
I am writing this letter to voice my opinion of the meeting held on Wednesday, July 9, at the Upper Freehold Elementary School regarding the proposed westerly bypass around Allentown. The meeting, as it turned out, generated a significant turnout, with many people for the bypass as well as opposed, which leads me to my first concern — the rift that is being created between residents of Upper Freehold and Allentown. It is appalling to see this occur.
Abe Lincoln summed it up best when he said, "A house divided cannot stand." We shouldn’t be debating over which town should handle the burden of this problem but work together to come up with a viable solution appealing to all. Do I believe a bypass is necessary? Absolutely. Do I think this is the best possible solution? No. The current proposal leaves many safety concerns to be addressed.
The purpose of the bypass was to alleviate Allentown of traffic congestion as well as make the streets in and around town safer for pedestrians. The congestion problem may be partially solved by this, but the safety issue is not. The proposed bypass is slated for placement between Heritage Green and Byron Johnson Park. The distance of the road from the park is 60 feet, and from some homes of Heritage Green, even closer. This road is designated to have a 40 mph speed limit, 12-foot-wide lanes, and one in each direction with 6-8-foot shoulders. That adds up to 40 feet.
Now mind you, the park also has a walking path around it as well, which would be extremely close to the roadway. This road is built to accommodate large trucks (tractor-trailers, etc.). The trucks — and for that matter, cars — will not follow the posted speed limits, since most drivers do not.
The only real way to effect a solution to this is by vigilant traffic enforcement by the police — the only problem is, Upper Freehold doesn’t have a police department, which leaves this responsibility to the state police, who happen to have a barracks in Hightstown. At best we can only expect a token police presence. People obviously will learn the road is never patrolled and will instinctively speed.
Now, you have a busy county road with large trucks barreling down it with a park on one side and Heritage Green on the other. Children do dart out unexpectedly when you least expect it, and there is no way any vehicle, even those who obey the speed limit, could stop in time. To add more fuel to the fire, you also have the Four Seasons community. The community when completed will have over 800 residents, many of whom would like to walk to the park or even to town. Now, between the two communities and about a dozen homes on Ellisdale Road the total population comes to around 1,200 people. That number represents approximately 25 percent of the population of Upper Freehold Township — all conveniently located within a stone’s throw from the proposed bypass.
The county engineer at the meeting repeatedly used the term "proper planning." This is certainly not the case if such a road could be placed so close to a highly populated area. This is just the tip of the iceberg for this dilemma. The studies done on this proposal are over a dozen years old and in dire need of being redone.
Some viable options, none of which seemed to appeal to the county engineer, were presented at the meeting. Based on his reactions to these suggestions, I got the impression he was already resigned to building the bypass as it was shown. People may think their voice isn’t heard, but between the two communities (Four Seasons and Heritage Green), Monmouth County officials will be forced to take notice. They may think we don’t care, they couldn’t be more wrong. Elections are held in November, and we will be keeping a scorecard on these officials to see if they want to help or hinder us. Let notice be served to them that come November, we will remember.
Jack Anglin is a resident of Upper Freehold