BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
EDISON — It’s not quite a feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys.
However, the quest for open space in the township has unearthed political rifts between the more affluent north and the blue collar south sections of town.
The south gets the short end of the open space preservation stick, said South Edison resident Anthony Russomanno, a local Democratic municipal committeeman and known adversary of Mayor George A. Spadoro.
Russomanno said that according to zoning records, less than half the amount preserved in the northern end was preserved in South Edison: 19 acres in South Edison and 46 in the north section.
Activist and Open Space Committee member Jane Tousman, a North Edison resident, said she doubted that the purchases were that skewed.
“While I agree with the critics’ contention that there is definitely more building in the southern end of town, I have to challenge their belief that so much more open space has been preserved in the northern end,” said Tousman.
Counting acres is pointless, said Councilman Parag Patel.
The township buys what it can when it can — anything to save green and the quality of life, he said.
Tousman, a Republican, believes the bulk of the open space fight is a different type of political fight — a show of the split between north and south.
“We’ll just see if Mr. Russomanno runs for office next year,” she said.
But Russomanno said he is not interested in running for office.
“I just care about the truth being told to people when their money is at stake,” he said. “The people who were with me on this are both Republican and Democrat. The voters saw the proof and obviously they spoke up with their votes.”
Former Republican Township Councilman Robert Engel agreed that money has been wasted.
Russomanno’s fight is a bipartisan one, he said.
The open space preservation issue is being used as a political tool by the Spadoro administration, Engel said.
“Some of these connected people do have good intentions, but those intentions just cannot come at any price to save political face and cost taxpayers more and more money,” he said. “We have to realize who is really benefiting from these endeavors and make sure connected developers and politicians are not the true beneficiaries of these ‘quality-of-life preservation’ deals.”
Russomanno, who has run for office in the past, spent $2,200 of his own money on advertisements and fliers condemning the tax and the component question to use 25 percent of the money from the tax for historic preservation.
“If I were just politically motivated, I would not be spending my own money,” he said. “My wife wanted to kill me, but it was worth it. It‘s close to my heart, this issue. It’s funny how when elected officials don’t do their due diligence in informing the public, and you do it for them, then suddenly you have a motive or you must be running for office.”
Campaigning against open space initiatives would be political suicide for someone running for political office, Russomanno said.
“I’d have to be a maniac to run a campaign against the open space tax like this, if I wanted to run for office,” he said. “It’s considered a big political plus to back open space taxes.”
Russomanno also questioned why there are signs posted on open space properties crediting the mayor and his administration for the purchases.
A developer donated a small piece of property by New Brooklyn Road during the administration of former Mayor Samuel V. Convery Jr.
“For the longest time, there was a sign posted on the property that said ‘Edison Township Green Acres Property — Samuel V. Convery Jr., Mayor,’ ” Russomanno said. “A few months ago, someone comes over and rips that sign out of the ground and replaces it with one that credits Spadoro with the acquisition.”