The Tinton Falls Borough Council approved a resolution opposing plans to privatize 300 housing units at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck last week and sent a letter to the Department of the Navy calling the plan “irresponsible and “contrary to the interests” of residents.
The letter raises three main objections to the action: impacts on the Tinton Falls School District and the Monmouth Regional High School District, concerns about inadequate security at the naval station, and a lack of alternative actions.
The letter, which was sent in conjunction with a similar letter from the district’s Board of Education, was formally accepted by the council Jan. 20 and is now available as public record on the borough’s Web site, www.tintonfalls.com.
Under the terms of an agreement with the U.S. Navy for nearly 20 years, the district has educated the children of naval personnel stationed at Earle, and has received funding from the federal government to do so.
The privatized housing units, known as Laurelwood Gardens, are located within the borders of Colts Neck, and the Colts Neck Board of Education claims that the Tinton Falls district is obligated to educate any new students, military or civilian, who reside on the base.
The Tinton Falls Board of Education filed a lawsuit last year that maintains that the district’s agreement is to educate the children of Navy personnel, not civilian children living on the military base.
The Laurelwood Gardens project contains 300 rental housing units consisting of three- and four-bedroom units.
“As you are aware,” the letter states, “the Borough of Tinton Falls and the Tinton Falls School District have for more than 20 years diligently and generously agreed to educate the dependents of Naval and military personnel stationed at Naval Weapons Station Earle under prior agreement with the Department of the Navy.
“The mayor and the Borough Council of Tinton Falls fully support the efforts of the school board of the Borough of Tinton Falls and that of the Monmouth Regional High School District and are steadfastly critical of both the analysis, the accuracy, methodology and the conclusions reached in the DEIS [Draft-Environmental Impact Statement composed by the Navy] regarding the impact on school-aged children to be sent to the Borough of Tinton Falls schools.”
The letter goes on to state that both the Mahala F. Atchison and Swimming River elementary schools are currently overcrowded with class sizes that exceed the state average, and that since any new students from Laurelwood Gardens would not be dependents of military personnel, the Federal Impact Aid currently received for the children from Earle would no longer be applicable.
The council also remains unconvinced that having civilians living on the site of a naval weapons station would not subject nearby residents to added danger.
“Borough residents are aware of the award of an $8.16 million contract to improve security at the main gate facility for NWS Earle,” the letter states, “yet the proposed Laurelwood plan ignores those security concerns, provides an open invitation for nonclearance individuals to actually reside within portions of the former military base and allows free access to all persons, including those that may target the safety and security of our communities.”
According to the letter, the Laurelwood privatization plan does not provide for added security around the homes, nor does it require background checks for residents or their guests.
“There is no credible explanation to support the Navy’s hypothesis that such security concerns are not important at the Laurelwood location while they are an $8.16 million emergency at the main gate of Earle,” the letter states.
The last point of concern discussed in the letter reflects the criticisms of a group of residents of Tinton Falls and Colts Neck known as Neighbors Opposed to the Privatization of Earle (NOPE).
According to the letter, the council “joins with the concerns expressed by NOPE, most particularly in their criticism of the D-EIS, that the Draft-Environmental Impact Study callously and blatantly ignores alternative rights that the Navy could exercise, including its legal right to terminate the lease and compensate the developer through a buy-out process available under Title II of the National Emergencies Act of 1976.”
The letter also states that the D-EIS does not address the issue of “provision of other municipal services, including mutual aid assistance for police personnel, fire personnel, EMS and first responder medical personnel” and other services that would have to be made available to any residents.
“In short,” the letter concludes, “the creation of a new community containing 300 existing housing units with varying numbers of bedrooms of various demographics, residential needs, etc., without proper economic impact assistance and/or planning for infrastructure is, in the opinion of the Mayor and the Borough Council of the Borough of Tinton Falls, irresponsible, and contrary to the interests of the residents of the Borough of Tinton Falls.”