BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer
LAKEWOOD — Taxpayers will have to dig deeper in their wallets this year to improve their quality of life.
At the May 5 Township Committee meeting, Mayor Charles Cunliffe announced that the committee would vote to amend the $50.8 million municipal budget it introduced last month by however much more it would cost to address residents’ quality-of-life concerns.
“People from all corners of the town are asking for the improvement of the quality of life in their neighborhood,” he said.
The budget that was introduced in April would have increased the municipal tax rate by 1.9 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. It was scheduled for a vote on May 19. How much higher that amount will now go up may depend on how much additional funding township professionals request.
Cunliffe told department heads he would give them “a second bite of the apple” by asking them to propose additional funding by May 11 in staffing or equipment. The amount the committee approves will determine how much more property owners must pay for peace of mind.
It will be worth it, according to Cunliffe.
“It’s not going to be popular or pleasant to raise taxes … but I want people to know that the township is going to be responsive” to its citizens, he said.
Deputy Mayor Meir Lichtenstein asked that the budget increase also include $40,000 a year that would be required to clean up the downtown area on weekends.
At a meeting in March, Committeeman Menashe Miller first suggested funding a cleanup of the downtown area on weekends, rather than waiting until Monday.
Committeeman Robert Singer was not present at last week’s meeting, but had protested the suggested increase at the March meeting. He told the Tri-Town News on May 10 that he would not vote to approve the amended budget. Singer also criticized Lichtenstein for proposing that the committee also fund the $40,000 for the weekend cleanup of the downtown area when Lichtenstein and other committeemen had already voted to raise taxes this year.
“Obviously Mr. Lichtenstein doesn’t care about the taxpayers,” said Singer. “I voted against the budget’s introduction and I’m going to vote against” any amendment. “You should be tightening your belt to retain the services you have, not putting yourself further in debt.”
That was not the consensus of other committeemen or the mayor, who expressed his approval of Lichtenstein’s suggestion to fund the cleanup.
“The point is well made,” said Cunliffe.
The committee also heard a presentation by Princeton Public Affairs, a Trenton-based lobby group. Lichtenstein asked Dale Florio and Andrew Sinclair, representatives of the firm, to present their proposal on how to address three concerns that also impacted Lakewood’s quality of life: easing traffic congestion along the Route 9 corridor by dualizing the state road; constructing sidewalks and roads in the area of the new recreational sports complex; and having legislators change the formula that funds state aid to the school district.
Florio said that unless the gas tax is raised, transportation dollars would continue to be scarce in the state. He also said that educational funding issues would be the most difficult to change since the state was in the worst financial state in years. However, he expressed confidence that his firm could aid Lakewood in achieving those goals.
While Lichtenstein said he wanted to see a formal business proposal before offering the firm a contract, Cunliffe appeared to be pleased by the presentation before committee members.
“You can be our cheerleader, our mouthpiece, our megaphone down in Trenton,” he said.
Township Administrator Frank Edwards said on Monday that no proposal which included the cost of Princeton Public Affairs’ services to taxpayers had yet been submitted to his office by the firm.
Quality of life was also reflected in the first reading of a noise ordinance that evening. The ordinance was intended to address complaints by residents at the Fairways adult community at the previous meeting. At that time, several residents said a residential house nearby was being rented by automotive enthusiasts who were creating so much noise at night that residents could not sleep. The noise included loud music and engines that ran continuously.
Lichtenstein asked about the limits of defining noise under the new ordinance.
Yehuda Shain, who is running for a seat on the committee in the Republican primary, asked if there would be an exemption in the ordinance for religious purposes. His concern was whether church bells might also be considered noise under the new definition.
Township Attorney Steven Secare said that under the proposed ordinance loud and offensive noise must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Some residents maintained that excessive noise was not the only disturbance of their quality of life, but part of an ongoing pattern of intrusions meant to drive them into selling their homes.
Resident Leonard Scazzo told the committee that in the last few years investors had been buying up properties in his neighborhood and turning them into rooming houses.
“There’s as many as 20 people” in some homes, he said.
Scazzo said that many commercial vehicles with out-of-state plates were also seen in his neighborhood.
Cunliffe referred the issue to Public Safety Director Wayne Yhost and Director of Code Enforcement Ed Mack.
Other people who addressed the committee were not all residents, but shared the same concern that the governing body was intent on closing the Lakewood Airport. While some residents who spoke earlier expressed their concern that they were being driven from their homes, speakers who followed worried that the growing demand for residential land could result in one of Lakewood’s largest commercial properties becoming another housing development.
“We don’t need more housing in Lakewood,” said resident Noreen Gill, who told the committee that she had been a member of the panel that voted to purchase the airport years ago. “Ask anyone who travels [through town]. Why do we need more congestion in this town? Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Lakewood was.”
Cunliffe reacted angrily to a comment by Gill in which she told him that the quality of life in town was zero.
“You’re free to say what you want, but when you say the quality of life in this town is zero, I take exception,” the mayor said. “As a businessman, I travel [to a lot of places where the quality of life] really is zero.”
Glenn Bradford, co-chairman of the statewide nonprofit group Solutions To End Poverty Soon, agreed with Cunliffe.
“Coming from an actual ghetto in L.A., I can honestly say Lakewood’s quality of life is 90 percent or better,” he told the committee. “I love planes, but a home is the American dream.”