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UPPER FREEHOLD: Four candidates for two Township Committee seats

Voters to decide between experience and change

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
UPPER FREEHOLD — Township voters will notice something on their sample ballots in a few weeks that they don’t see too often: Democrats running for municipal office.
It’s a four-way race on Nov. 6 for the two available seats on the Township Committee, whose five members are all Republicans. Both available Township Committee seats are for full three-year terms.
The Republican incumbents seeking re-election are Township Committeemen Steve Alexander and Bob Faber. The challengers are Democrats Flo Foley and Bob Goldman, two political newcomers making their first bid for elected office.
Mr. Alexander, 47, of Cliffwood Drive, is an attorney and Iraq War veteran who has lived in the township for 12 years. He was first elected to the Township Committee in 2003, served as mayor in 2008-2009, and currently serves as the town’s deputy mayor. He is now seeking his fourth term in office.
Mr. Faber, 75, of Emleys Hill Road, is a lifelong Upper Freehold resident and farmer. He has been a member of the Township Committee since 2007, served as deputy mayor in 2011 and is seeking his third term in office.
Mrs. Foley, 72, of Mayflower Court, is a retired family nurse practitioner, who immigrated to the United States when she was 26 and became a U.S. citizen in 1982. Mrs. Foley moved to the Four Seasons Community with her late husband, Paul, in 2004.
Mr. Goldman, 51, is a North Brunswick High School science teacher who also has a herd of seven llamas at his Eat a Peach Alpaca Farm on Potts Road, where he has lived since December 2010.
The Messenger-Press asked all the candidates what their goals are if elected to the Township Committee. Both incumbents and challengers were also asked for their thoughts on what the Township Committee has done well during the past three years and what it has not.
Mr. Alexander identified holding down municipal taxes, preserving farmland and controlling growth through the zoning changes as the Township Committee’s three major achievements.
“The Upper Freehold Township Committee over the last three years, frankly over the last nine years, has done a great job of controlling taxes,” Mr. Alexander said, emphasizing that only 7.5 percent of a resident’s total property tax bill is kept by the municipal government to pay for local services. Most of the taxes that residents pay go to the schools and county government, not municipal government.
“No. 2, we’ve done the best job in the entire state of working with our large landowners and farmers in preserving land in Upper Freehold,” Mr. Alexander said. He noted he accepted an award this week on behalf of the township from the state Secretary of Agriculture Douglas Fisher recognizing Upper Freehold as the municipal leader in preservation with 98 farms totaling 9,219 acres preserved.
“No. 3 is our zoning and controlling our growth,” Mr. Alexander. In 2008, we moved to 6- and 10-acre zoning and that ensured Upper Freehold could control its growth so that we’re not building a second middle school or a second elementary school or a second high school,” Mr. Alexander said.
Areas that still need to be worked on are small-scale economic development and the township’s affordable housing obligations, known as COAH, he said.
“We’ve given our best efforts such as COAH and economic development, but there are so many variables that are out of our control,” Mr. Alexander said. “COAH is an issue that hangs over our head, but we are addressing it despite the limitations that we have such as no sewer, no water, no sidewalks.”
As for economic development, “we don’t have or want the infrastructure that is required for giant economic development, but we have to look at attracting small businesses that are consistent with our way of life,” Mr. Alexander said. He cited the new Tractor Supply store and Kiddie Academy as examples.
Mr. Faber also identified the Township Committee’s farmland preservation efforts, particularly Princeton Nurseries, as its biggest successes. He also cited the Township Committee’s successful fight to keep Breakwater Alternative Treatment Center from opening a medicinal marijuana cultivation facility in Upper Freehold.
“What we did in keeping the marijuana farms away from Upper Freehold was a big thing,” Mr. Faber said.
“We’ve also worked hard to keep our tax rate in check,” Mr. Faber said.
If re-elected, Mr. Faber said he would continue to make farmland preservation a top priority, but is also interested in attracting smaller commercial ratables.
“I don’t want a Home Depot or something like that,” Mr. Faber said. “We need the type of things that fit our community.”
The unresolved COAH problem also needs to be addressed, Mr. Faber said. “Hopefully the state’s going to help us on that and lower the COAH figures,” he said, referring to the township’s state-mandated low-income housing obligations.
Mr. Goldman, who grew up in East Brunswick, said property taxes and the lack of township services, such as garbage collection, have been a source of frustration for him and would be a priority if he was elected.
“I don’t want to put anyone down,” Mr. Goldman said, referring to the incumbents. “I’m sure they’re doing the best they can. But what I’m upset about, and I think a lot of other people are upset about, is that we’re paying a lot of money in taxes and getting practically nothing in return,” Mr. Goldman said.
“Taxes are too high,” Mr. Goldman said. “I’m not a big fan of giving people a lot of tax money and getting zero in response.”
Mr. Goldman said he thinks more should be done by the township to address the needs of its senior citizens, and he would make that a priority if elected.
Noting that there had not been a Democrat elected to office in Upper Freehold in decades, Mr. Goldman said he knows his chances of winning are slim.
“If I don’t win, but the things we say in the campaign prompt them to make some improvements, then I’m going to feel as if I’ve won,” Mr. Goldman said. “Doing what’s best for the community shouldn’t be a Democratic or Republican thing and I think we’ve got to do better.”
Mrs. Foley was traveling and did not return messages seeking a phone interview before deadline. However, she emailed a position paper to The Messenger-Press, which said she was running for office because Upper Freehold “has lacked a Democratic presence for over 20 years.”
“I have decided that now is the time to help build the Democratic Organization in Upper Freehold Township,” she wrote. “I will support the re-election of President Obama and the (election of) Brian Froelich to Congress.”
Mrs. Foley said her priorities, if elected, would be the needs of seniors, the school system, health-care, property values, property taxes, and safe and available recreation facilities.
“When elected, I will listen, learn and lead with my co-council members,” she wrote. 