GOP hopefuls favor return
to recreation commission
By dave benjamin
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN — The two Repub-lican candidates running for Township Committee favor a return to a recreation commission and criticized the governing body for its action this year that eliminated the commission.
Republicans Tom Toto and Anthony Musich are challenging incumbent Demo-crats Rebecca Aaronson and William Scherer for two three-year seats in the November election.
Earlier this year, the committee voted to eliminate the recreation commission and establish a recreation advisory board.
"We strongly object to the recent action of the Township Committee whereby they dissolved the volunteer recreation commission," Musich and Toto said in a joint statement. "The recreation commission was created many years ago to allow for public input into the recreation programs of this township. Members were appointed based upon their commitment to various sports and youth activities in the town. This removed much of the outright partisan politics from recreation, and as a result, we had an outstanding program which was recognized statewide."
According to the candidates, "By dismissing the commission, the Township Committee has put control of the programs under a business administrator rather than the parents and coaches, where it worked so well for all these years."
Musich said, "The committee has now placed itself in the unenviable position of dealing directly with various factions and sport groups themselves, and this has created a political morass out of what was a well-functioning program that met the needs of our children."
The candidate added, "A recreation commission would be responsible and responsive to the community and our children without the present political influence."
"We believe that if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it," said Toto. "Therefore, we pledge that if elected, we will re-establish the recreation commission with representatives of all sport and recreation groups in Manalapan."
Aaronson and Scherer responded, saying, "For years, we have heard complaints from residents and sports groups alike that recreation was unresponsive to their needs, so something needed to be done. It wasn’t fair to these residents to say that our hands were tied and that we couldn’t help them. During the public portion of the process, most of the dissenters were the commissioners, not the public. In fact, the sports groups all came forward and commended us for taking steps to address their needs.
"We asked all the past commissioners to stay on the advisory board, yet many resigned before they even gave it a chance. The compliments we get on how well things are working now speak for themselves," Aaronson and Scherer said.