LoriSue Horsnall Mount will serve as Upper Freehold mayor for a second consecutive year, while Steve Alexander will serve as deputy mayor.
This is Alexander’s ninth year on the governing body, and while he served as mayor for two years, this is his first time in the deputy mayoral position. Dr. Robert Frascella was sworn in for his second term on the Township Committee at the Jan. 5 reorganization meeting.
The same five members of the all-Republican governing body will serve for the fourth consecutive year. The other members are Bob Faber and Stan Moslowski Jr.
“The five of us work really great as a committee,” Frascella said. “We occasionally have disagreements, but that’s what it’s all about.”
He added that his previous three-year term was a great experience and that it is a pleasure to serve the residents of Upper Freehold.
Township Administrator and Chief Financial Officer Dianne Kelly agreed that the committee is a very good working unit.
“There’s an excellent exchange of ideas and newways of thinking of things,” she said.
During the regular business meeting, the committee introduced an ordinance regarding the use of township public funds for the purchase or acquisition of development rights and/or full title rights for farmland preservation in the municipality.
The State Agricultural Development Committee, which oversees the farmland preservation program, has ruled that preserved farmland can be used for the growing or cultivating of crops that violate federal law. Although the proposed ordinance does not name marijuana specifically, last month the township passed an ordinance prohibiting any activity noncompliant with federal law from going before the zoning, planning or other applicable entities in the township.
The proposed ordinance states that the township shall not expend or commit township or other public funds for preservation unless the property owner provides to the township, prior to acquisition, a signed and notarized affidavit stating that he or she will not rent, lease or conduct any farming operations that grow and cultivate crops in violation of federal law.
Once the property is preserved, the property owner must also furnish annually to the township a signed and notarized affidavit that he or she continues to not rent, lease or conduct such operations. The affidavit must also state that the filing of a false affidavit or being in violation of the provisions of the affidavit permits the township to seek de-designation of farmland preservation, full recouping of monies expended by the township for such preservation, as well as legal fees, interests and costs of a suit if litigation occurs, to protect the township’s interests.
The public hearing is scheduled for Jan. 19 at 6 p.m.