Three members of Upper Freehold Township’s Open Space and Farmland Preservation Committee, including the chairwoman, have resigned.
Chairman Liz Kwasnik, Kathy Ricci and Audrey Wendolowski submitted their resignations to the governing body and are no longer serving on the committee. The volunteers said they left their posts to fulfill other obligations they have at home, work and elsewhere in the community.
“Because of the high standard each of us holds to our participation in activities, and because these activities require time and devotion that would take away from serving on the committee, we felt that this is an appropriate time to take a leave of absence,” Kwasnik said.
All three women believe land conservation will continue to be an important component of the township’s identity.
Kwasnik and Ricci said it was their privilege to serve four years on the committee that they joined together in 2007. After a friend and fellow resident asked Kwasnik to consider joining the panel, she spoke to Ricci, her neighbor and close friend, about the opportunity. They met with Wendolowski, an acquaintance and longtime committee member.
“Before we knew it, we were active committee members with a lot of work ahead of us,” Kwasnik said.
In 2008, the members declared the committee’s mission as managing and responding to open space and farmland preservation issues and ensuring highquality and timely responses to the Upper Freehold Township Committee. Serving in an advisory capacity to the governing body, members of the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Committee provide facts and evidence of both tangible and intangible advantages of open space and farmland preservation in the community.
Kwasnik said one of the committee’s greatest accomplishments in the past four years was earning a matching grant from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions for the township’s open space plan, a vital component of the master plan.
“We collaborated with a planner to prepare the open space plan within budget and presented it to the public and Township Committee for acceptance in 2009,” she said .
The group also spent countless hours developing Resolution 228-08 to increase the tax levy in Upper Freehold for land conservation purposes, Kwasnik said.
“Thankfully, the citizens of our town voted for the tax increase,” Kwasnik said. “They realized the value of investing in preservation today to secure their future quality of life and that of all future generations in Upper Freehold.”
Kwasnik said open space provides sustenance for humanity.
“It can be in the form of some quiet time fishing along the banks of a lake, capturing photos of the spring flora and fauna at the mill at Walnford, participating in a soccer game at Byron Johnson Park, passing by the rolling farmland and horse farms along Hill Road or taking a canoe or kayak trip along Crosswicks or Doctor’s Creek,” Kwasnik said .
She said Upper Freehold distinguishes itself from other New Jersey municipalities by maintaining one of the largest concentrations of preserved farmland in the state and preserving a rural quality of life.
“The community feels so strongly about open space and farming that it adopted a country code and holds it in high regard,” Kwasnik said. “In densely populated New Jersey, this community understands the urgency of open space preservation. Once developed, land cannot be returned to its natural state.”