Towns getting ready to tackle the coming year

By: Purvi Desai
   Town governments have the chance to start anew with reorganization meetings next week, and around the area, newly reorganized governments hope to preserve more land, stabilize taxes and control growth.
   Three municipalities may choose new mayors — the Millstone, Upper Freehold and Plumsted township committees can appoint someone new to satisfy the one-year position, but Allentown’s leadership is expected to remain in the hands of long-serving Mayor Stu Fierstein.
   Below is a breakdown of the coming reorganizations of Millstone, Upper Freehold, Plumsted, Roosevelt and Allentown. The Washington Township Council will not reorganize until July 1.
Millstone
   The 2007 Township Committee will remain unchanged from last year, and will consist of five Republicans.
   Committeeman Elias Abilheira and Mayor Nancy Grbelja, who has served as mayor since 2004 and who is the only female mayor in Millstone history, both won the November elections to retain their seats.
   "I think this committee works really effectively together," Mr. Abilheira said. "We have a lot of projects that are going to continue through the change in the new year."
   He said the major things the township officials will work on include a ratable study for Route 33, a recreation study to put together a long-term comprehensive plan for the next 10 to 20 years and implementing a solar initiative for the schools and township buildings.
   Other priorities are to provide more opportunities for the youth, seniors and adults, who aren’t involved in recreation, he said.
   "This was a good year, after two very hard years," Mr. Abilheira said. "This is the year we’re able to transition into moving forward to improve things more as opposed to most of our time being devoted to fix past problems," he said.
   Millstone’s reorganization is Jan. 3 at 7 p.m. in the township Municipal Court building on Millstone Road.
Upper Freehold
   The Township Committee traditionally rotates the one-year position of mayor between its five committeemen, meaning the committee likely could choose a new leader at its Jan. 4 reorganization meeting. The current mayor on this all-Republican committee is Steve Fleischaker.
   Deputy Mayor Bill Miscoski said the goals of the Township Committee for the upcoming year are "to finish what we started," referring to the Master Plan.
   "We’ve come a long way in the Master Plan process," he said, "We hope to get it totally completed this year. Last year we were very successful in all our open space projects and recreation projects. I believe it’s been a lot of open dialogue with the public on the new Master Plan.
   "I believe we have a very good planner that’s working on it,’ Mr. Miscoski continued. "I really believe that Mayor Fleischaker has done an excellent job in 2006."
   Incoming Committeeman Bob Faber said the committee wants to achieve more preservation and slow growth a little bit as far housing goes. He said he thinks the Township Committee of 2006 did "as much as they possibly could do" for the town with the limitations placed by ordinances.
   "Some of the zoning would probably have to be changed," Mr. Faber said, as a means of curbing growth in the area. "This 35 percent bonus has to be gotten rid of." He explained that the township currently provides developers with a 35 percent bonus on whatever they build within the town — which he said has to be changed. "We have get ready and we have to all work together as a committee," he said.
   The reorganization meeting is set to be held at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building on Route 539.
Plumsted
   Two long-serving members of the Township Committee, Joe Pryzwara and Bonnie Quesnel, will make an exit ahead of the township’s reorganization meeting.
   Ron Dancer, the township’s mayor for the last 17 years, said the reorganization, slated for Jan. 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the Municipal Building on Evergreen Road, will be "somewhat of a bittersweet transition."
   "Our reorganization meeting will mark the end of public service of our deputy mayor, Joe Pryzwara, and township committeewoman, Bonnie Quesnel," Mayor Dancer said. "Both served for approximately 15 years as dedicated public servants helping Plumsted improve its quality of life and helped keep our community rural and affordable."
   Mayor Dancer is, however, optimistic about 2007.
   "We are looking forward to the new administration in Plumsted (with) newly elected (Committeemen) Mike McCue and Eric Sorchik, who are extremely qualified," he said. "I look forward to working with them to continue to make Plumsted the most desirable community in which to reside and educate our children and provide employment opportunities."
   The Township Committee will remain fully Republican.
   Mr. Dancer, who is expected to continue as mayor, said the number one priority for is to maintain Plumsted’s ranking in Ocean County of having the lowest tax rate, the lowest crime rate, the highest number of acres preserved from development. He said the Township Committee also plans to focus on tax stabilization.
   "In 2006, the Township Committee had a budget that was actually about $700 less than the previous budget," he said. "The amount of taxes to be collected was about $750 less than the year before. In 2006, the municipal portion of the property tax bill remained stable for the 16th consecutive year at 12 cents per $100 of assessed property values."
   The current average assessed property value in Plumsted is $150,000. Mayor Dancer said the average tax bill including school, county, fire district and local government is $4,815. Of that, he said, the local government tax bill established by the Township Committee is $31.50, which is a little less than 1 percent. The school portion of the tax bill is $3,424 or 75 percent, the county portion is about 20 percent or $979, while the unpaid reserve for uncollected taxes is 3.8 percent or $184.50. The fire commission is 4 percent of the total property tax bill, which is $195, Mayor Dancer said.
   The second goal for the Township Committee is to continue with its land preservation, Mayor Dancer said.
   "The Township Committee continues to aggressively seek both farmland, woodland and open space for its preservation program," he said. "Every year, we are adding more farms and more woodlands to (our) preservation program. Just within the last month, we were fortunate to add two additional farms — the 98-acre Scenic View Horse Farm, on Long Swamp Road, and the 38-acre Hughes Christmas Tree Farm, on Holmes Road."
   Mayor Dancer said the township has five additional farms that have applied for preservation in 2007.
   "It will certainly be our goal to add to the more than 3,000 acres that are permanently preserved and protect the township from future residential development," he said.
   The third goal for the township is economic revitalization, Mayor Dancer said.
   "In economic revitalization, we have seen in 2006, the revitalization of the shopping plaza now located at the intersection of routes 539 and 537," he said. "We attracted two major banks — the Yardville National Bank and the Roma Bank — and they are the anchors for additional businesses in those commercial business district plazas. We look forward to continuing economic revitalization in the appropriate commercial zoned areas in the district as well as our downtown revitalization."
Allentown
   Mayor Stu Fierstein is expected to remain mayor in 2007, a position he has held since 2004. The all-Republican Borough Council will be comprised of all the same members who served on it in 2006.
   "Our reorganization meeting is on Jan 4, and I think we’ve completed a very hectic year with a number of issues including the warehouse issue that took place on Breza Road," Mayor Fierstein said. "I think there are still of issues that face our communities with regard to property development, preservation and schools, and I look forward to working, in the new year, with our neighbors and school board, and joining together to do what is best for our communities."
   Local residents staunchly disapproved of a general development application made by Rockefeller Group Corp. IDI, in early 2006, to build a 1.8-square-foot warehouse on Breza Road. The group pulled its application Nov. 28, citing a lack of agreement with the property owner.
   "The governing body, which remains intact from this year’s election, will look forward to getting through the financial crisis of budgets and get back to the issues at hand," Mayor Fierstein said.
   The reorganization meeting will be held at the Municipal Building on Main Street at 7 p.m.
Roosevelt
   The reorganization meeting will be held Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Borough Hall, on Route 571.
   Committeeman Bob Silverstein said the goal for the council in the coming year is to figure out "how to help people to get along better in town."
   "It’s our hope in the council that people can have differences in opinion but get along," he said. "The community is all about getting along peacefully together."
   Council members serve for three years, and the mayoral term is for four years.