BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — Though he is admittedly not as vocal as his predecessor, Ward 1 Councilman Robert Volkert says he, too, has fought hard for constituents in his own quiet way.
After being sworn in to his Township Council seat Dec. 1 to take over for the late Joseph G. Hoff, who passed away Nov. 16, Volkert pledged to complete some of the veteran official’s unfinished projects in Ward 1.
Volkert, a Democrat, now is running unopposed in a special election. Despite the lack of opposition, Volkert, 69, has spent recent weeks walking first ward neighborhoods canvassing for votes.
Jacqueline Smith, a township resident who had initially filed as a Republican to oppose Volkert, said Monday that she has withdrawn from the race. She was still working with the Middlesex County Board of Elections to have her name removed from first ward ballots.
Known famously in local Democratic circles as Hoff’s hand-picked successor, Volkert was unanimously voted into the Ward 1 seat by his present-day council colleagues. He was one of three candidates selected by the local Democratic Party to take over for Hoff, who last won re-election in 2001.
Should voters return Volkert to office, he will have the option of again running for the same seat next year. All six of the four-year ward council seats will become available at that time.
In the meantime, Volkert remains focused on getting through the coming year.
“We’ll be finding out what some of the concerns of the residents are and we’ll be moving forward on those,” Volkert said.
Completing Hoff’s unfinished pet projects was on top of Volkert’s agenda once he settled in. Eleven months later, he is asking constituents to look at the results.
Last month, officials from both the township and Middlesex County broke ground for the second phase of the Old Bridge Waterfront Park now under construction in the Cliffwood Beach section.
A third phase of the waterfront park — linking the existing first phase of the park located in the Laurence Harbor section with the emerging second phase — is the next hurdle, Volkert said. Like Hoff before him, Volkert plans to continue lobbying township and county officials to get the third phase of park construction rolling.
Also in line with Hoff’s wishes, 26 residents of the township’s Genoa section will soon be hooked into the Old Bridge Municipal Utilities Authority (OBMUA) sewer lines. In September, the OBMUA and township officials broke ground for the $1.1 million project that has been long-awaited by Genoa residents. Completion of the sewer line extension is expected next spring.
While looking to improve the quality of life in the first ward, Volkert stressed that holding the line on residential property taxes is his top priority.
“I want to continue to represent the residents of Ward 1 and to continue working on lowering taxes,” Volkert said.
An ongoing road repaving project throughout the ward will move forward, street by street, he said.
“Repaving of the roads will continue in Ward 1,” Volkert said.
Unlike Hoff, Volkert does support the planned municipal golf course proposed for the former Rose and Lamberson farms. However, he stressed that it should be run as a public-private partnership.
“I don’t think we should invest $7 [million] to $8 million in a [municipally run golf course],” he said.
Volkert pledged to work with the township’s Economic Development Corp. to secure new tenants for the Globespan office building in Laurence Harbor. For more than two years, the building has remained vacant after its builder, Red Bank-based Globespan, ran into hard economic times. Globespan never moved into the building it had constructed.
Last week, EDC Executive Director Russell Azzarello confirmed that Health Net, a Connecticut-based health insurance provider, plans to locate its New Jersey branch on the building’s fifth floor in December.
Ward 1 constituents are curious about the building and want to know if it will ever be used, Volkert admitted.
“People do ask about it. They want to know why it’s been empty for so long,” Volkert said. “We don’t want to see a vacant building.”
A resident of Laurence Harbor since 1941, Volkert is a longtime member of the township’s Democratic Party and served on the township’s Board of Education from 1987 to 1993 and later in 1999.
A U.S. Air Force veteran, Volkert is retired from his profession as a drafting technician with Jersey Central Power & Light Co. He previously served as a township special police officer for 24 years.
Volkert and his wife, Colette, have two sons, Robert Jr. and Michael, and a daughter, Judith.