UPPER FREEHOLD — New Jersey State Trooper Randy Pangborn promised the governing body that problem traffic areas in the township will be targeted.
Township Committee members at their Jan. 21 meeting told Pangborn, the state police liaison to Upper Freehold, about the many complaints they had received about traffic issues.
Deputy Mayor Lorisue Horsnall Mount has often spoken about speeding vehicles on Meirs Road, where she lives. She said drivers use the road as a cut-through from Route 537 to I-195 by going down Meirs to Davis Station Road and then through Imlaystown and Imlaystown-Hightstown Road to New Jersey Turnpike Exit 11. The situation is especially bad from 6:30 to 8:30 a.m., according to Mount. The speed limit on her section of the road is 30 mph, and there are numerous signs, she said.
“I’ve complained and called the state police. I’m disappointed with the patrols we’re getting in the area,” she said. “I was told we would be patrolled — but I haven’t seen it.”
Mount added that the traffic going through the village of Imlaystown is very heavy, and houses there are right next to one another.
Pangborn said the state police are responsible for coverage ranging from the Delaware River to the beaches of Belmar. He said they receive 200 calls a day and are shorthanded.
“We’ll never have enough troopers out here,” he said.
However, he gave his word to the committee that he would bring teams of troopers out to ticket offenders.
In other traffic issues, Mayor Stan Moslowski Jr. said he received a letter from John Coiro, the president of Allentown Inc., which provides research-animal housing and services, along with a petition signed by many of his employees about the condition of Sharon Station Road. Allentown Inc. is located on the corner of Sharon Station Road and Route 526.
Moslowski said he told Coiro that the township was no longer in possession of the road, because it was taken over by the county at the end of 2009. Under the terms of the agreement with the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the county will assume jurisdiction of and provide improvements for the approximately 1.5-mile section of Sharon Station Road between county Route 526 and county Route 539. The county expects to include the design of Sharon Station Road improvements in its 2010 capital improvement plan.
Moslowski said the county did a good job recently in removing trees along the road.