Residents Tell Congressman About Health Care, Social Security Woes

By Chris Lundy - February 6, 2010
It wasn’t changes in health care and other issues that brought questions during a town hall meeting with a congressman, it was the lack of changes.

A group of more than 100 residents of nearby towns, a majority of them seniors, attended the town hall-style meeting at the Berkeley Municipal Building last month held by Rep. John Adler (D-3rd).
Howell Township is represented by Congressman Chris Smith (R-4th).

Those who spoke to Adler described trying to survive when their health bills go up and their Social Security doesn’t.

Celia Frederick, Berkeley, said she fell between the cracks of the health care system after she turned 60. She went through several options, including finding a full-time job just for the benefits. She pays $42 a month now.

“It’s insult to injury,” she said.

Ed Dickerson, Ocean Gate, questioned how the head of a pharmaceutical company can get a $1 billion buyout “while people are struggling with their co-pays.”

Councilwoman Judy Noonan said that she has heard doctors tell patients to get treatments now because there won’t be Medicare payments around later.

Toms River resident Bob Shehata said he had to drop his health insurance when he couldn’t afford it any longer. Then when a bill comes around to reform health care, it becomes a political issue rather than a people issue.

“The Republicans fight the Democrats, the Democrats fight the Republicans. And we’re the ones who suffer,” he said.

Adler said he voted no on the health Reform Bill because there was no cost savings.
“We need health care reform, but it has to make sense,” he said, describing the bill as 2,000 pages with nothing in it.

One real change that is needed is a restraint on lawsuits to keep doctors’ liability insurance in check, he said.

Social Security, and the lack of an increase in the cost of living adjustment, was another issue.
Nick Sasso, Toms River, asked why someone can’t stop the government from “raping” the Social Security fund, and why no one has paid any money back into it.

Adler said that the government should be cutting back on spending the way most families have, but it’s not. He also said that there needs to be alternatives to dipping into Social Security.
He said he introduced a bill that would provide $250 to people living on Social Security, Veterans Disability Benefits and other federal retirement programs. It’s not enough, he admitted, but it’s a small step.

Michael Adler of Bayville, who is unrelated to the congressman, said the recent 10 percent unemployment figure is faulty because it doesn’t count “the people who have given up and the people who have used up their unemployment.”

Despite the emotional topics, the crowd was very polite airing their grievances. Many of the questions had an air of helplessness about them.

Carol Milin, for instance, noted how overwhelming the process of trying to get a law passed is. “You go to vote on a bill, and then they add 350 pages on it.”

Adler, who at one point referred to the Senate as “dysfunctional,” said that bills should be smaller so the average person can read them.

After the meeting, Joseph R. Rullo, who is running against Adler this year, said, “John is an old friend. And I respect him.” However, members of Congress should get the same health care that veterans and seniors have, he said.

Students Learn The Art Of Recycling

By Andrew Martins - February 6, 2010
For students in kindergarten through fifth grade, the color of the season is green. An art contest, with the focus being on recycling and preservation of the environment, has started in all six of the Jackson elementary schools. Each school will have its own winning submission that will wind up on new paper recycling bins for every classroom.

The Board of Education and the Department of Public Works collaborated on the project in an effort to teach the importance of recycling.
“In our younger elementary school divisions, it’s difficult to reduce paper consumption because it’s such an important tool for them,” said Jackson Board of Education member Theresa Schiazza. “So we thought it would be a great educational tool to create an interactive program to make the children really aware of recycling and the benefits of recycling.”

The new bins, made of corrugated cardboard by a Tallahassee, Florida company called KeepTidy, will make their way to every elementary classroom on April 1. Funded by the Department of Public Works Educational Recycling Fund, the initial cost to purchase the bins and start this program totaled about $3,000.

As a district, Jackson schools create an estimated five tons of paper waste each month. While there are already recycling bins specifically for paper in each classroom, getting the students to design the logos for their bins would be just the beginning.

“If you teach students to recycle in elementary school, it’s going to be a process. As they continue to grow and go from elementary to middle school and then to high school, they’re going to carry that process with them,” said Recycling Coordinator Patricia Wood. “We’re actually speaking to the Board of Education and the superintendent about possibly adding recycling to their curriculum throughout the school year.”

The project as a whole kicked off at the beginning of the month and already the children are busy working on their submissions. During Mrs. Blemmer’s second grade art class on Wednesday, little hands grasped their crayons eagerly as children had already started to take the program’s message to heart.

“[Recycling is important] so the Earth won’t be covered in garbage and it won’t kill the Earth,” said second grader Michael Burrows, 7. “My picture is like on one side, no one is recycling and on the other side, [they are] recycling. It’ll remind the classes to recycle.”

“Now that I know how to recycle, every time I mess up on a piece of paper and I mess up on the back, too, I’ll recycle it,” continued Burrows. “And I’m going to use a ruler in case I need to draw a straight line.”
Judging for all the submissions to the contest will be completed by February 22 by members of a student run environmental group in Jackson’s high schools.

Throughout the month of April, student submissions to the contest will be displayed around prominent locations in Jackson. Places like Town Hall, the Jackson Library and other local businesses were cited as potential venues for the students’ work.

“We’re trying to get all of the artwork out there throughout the entire town to celebrate Earth Day,” said Schiazza. “We’re presenting this to the children that every day is Earth Day but we decided to bring it into the schools on the first of April to create a celebration.”

Plans For Route 9 Hotel Keep Marching Forward

Zoners To Hold Special February 22 Meeting For Hotel Plan

By Keith Hagarty - January 30, 2010
Talks to build a multi-story hotel in the works in Howell are going on nearly two years. And they’re not over yet.

The Township Zoning Board of Adjustment announced it will be holding a special February 22 meeting to discuss plans to build a Holiday Inn and day care center on Route 9.

Plans call for the construction of a 50-foot-high, 124-room, four-story Holiday Inn Express with an accompanying two-story, 10,000-square-foot Children of America day care center on 26 acres south of Interstate 195, at the intersection of Route 9 north and Northwoods Place.

The facility would also have an indoor swimming pool with a solarium, a fitness room and two meeting rooms. It is located in the highway development (HD-1) zone.

The scope of the plan made it necessary for the board to dedicate an entire upcoming meeting to the application, said Chairman John Van Noy.

Representing Regal Plaza Howell Associates LLC, Attorney Ron Gasiorowski, of Red Bank, objected to the notice provided to the public at the start of the board’s last hearing on the plan in September 2009.
“[The notice] says as follows: they’re seeking preliminary and major site plan approval to construct a hotel facility and day care center located along Route 9,” said Gasiorowski. “But when I looked at the application and the proposed site plan, in addition to those two uses, they’re also seeking to create a (third) parcel of land for future development.”

Gasiorowski objected to the notice, claiming it did not reflect the applicant’s fully intended use for the site, and therefore could be viewed as confusing to neighboring residents.

“This plan as it is before you, if approved by you, would move that at a later date, the applicant can come forward and place another use on that property,” the attorney explained to the board.

However, Van Noy noted that there are no concrete plans before the board as to what facility, if any, would eventually be built on the third parcel.

“We weren’t saying that we were granting a third use. That never came up in any meeting,” Van Noy said. “What we were saying is we’re concerned about traffic issues on Route 9, and the entrance and exit off Northwoods (Place), and as such we want to take into account now a worst-case traffic scenario, and that’s what we asked them to do. It only affected traffic.”

Van Noy noted that any use for the third parcel of the site would have to come back to the board as a brand new application.

“There would be no presumption that they had the right to a third use (on the site),” said Van Noy. “We’re just trying to do due diligence in the future planning process that we will have covered all basis.”
In response, Gasiorowski asked the board to remove the term “proposed future development” from the third parcel definition in the site plan. “It’s so at a later date, whether it’s before this board or another board, there’s no implication,” he said.

The attorney’s suggestion was a valid one, said Van Noy, agreeing that the third parcel should possibly be referred to as merely “open space” until an official proposed use is offered by the applicant.

Applicants Outline Their Plans
When the board last heard testimony on the project, the applicant’s traffic engineer, Maurice Rached, spoke of the board’s concerns about the traffic impact.

“We were asked to consider what would be the worst-case scenario for development,” said Rached, who contacted the board’s traffic engineer, James Watson, to discuss the matter further. “We agreed that a high turnover restaurant would be the appropriate land use to be used in a traffic study for the purpose as desired by the board.”

The applicant determined that a 7,500-square-foot restaurant could be feasible for the property.
“In the morning, in the a.m., we anticipate the day care to generate 72 vehicles in and 64 out, and with the hotel in the same period in the a.m., we anticipate 40 trips in and 24 out, and for the high-turnover restaurant, we anticipate 53 trips in and 48 out,” said Rached.

For the evening peak traffic time, Rached said the study for the hotel indicates 41 vehicles and 35 out, for the day care use it would be 65 trips in with 74 out, and another 77 in and 62 out for the restaurant.
Based on the traffic numbers, the applicant’s traffic study looked at the intersection of Route 9 and Northwood Place, conducting a before and after analysis. The analysis determined the intersection would experience delays.

“Going eastbound, the delay will increase in the a.m. peak from 44 seconds to 49.8 seconds, so it’s roughly an increase of about five seconds,” said Rached. “The same applies to the other movements going east and west for the intersection of Route 9, Northwoods Place and Stanley [Boulevard].”

The board raised concerns about whether the applicant, in lieu of a sit-down style restaurant, may eventually decide instead to build multiple fast food restaurants, which could create an even higher volume of traffic. However, Rached said at this time, the applicant has no intention for any such use.

“I spoke with the applicant and the other professionals, and we all felt that fast-food is not compatible, is not something that is anticipated and in my opinion, is not something that will happen,” he said.
The board asked whether the applicant would agree to a stipulation by the board precluding the construction of a fast-food restaurant as a condition of approval.

“The applicant has indicated that he is willing to do that,” said the applicant’s attorney, Todd Cohen.

School Officials Preparing For State Aid Cuts

Board Members Say Budget Hole Could Be Up To $6 Million

By Daniel Nee - January 30, 2010
School officials are preparing for what could be a difficult budget process this year.

In December, outgoing Governor Jon S. Corzine announced that school districts may need to dip into their surplus accounts to cover a reduction in state aid payments to school districts that normally act to ease the local property tax burden. With speculation swirling over whether incoming Gov. Chris Christie’s administration will support the plan or scrap it in favor of a new one, district officials are facing their own questions over how to begin formulating the 2010-2011 school budget.

The final school funding formula from the state will be announced between March 16-18, said Ronald Sanasac, acting board secretary. School officials agree that given the state’s financial condition, cuts in local school aid to suburban districts such as Howell are likely.

Board member Timothy O’Brien asked the board to prepare for potential reductions by modeling a 25 percent cut in state aid into the 2010-2011 preliminary budget so officials can judge what areas to cut and how to make up for the shortfall. The 25 percent figure represents about $6 million.
“The bottom line is that they really don’t know what the final numbers will be,” said Superintendent Enid Golden. “But there is definitely gloom out there.”

Golden said closing additional schools would not be her recommendation; however, “anything can happen.”

Though the state has proposed cuts to school aid, districts are still bound by state laws that prevent the board from proposing a budget that exceeds four percent hikes in either the average taxpayer’s bill or the overall figure of the budget itself. According to Golden, “new revenue sources” may need to be located.
O’Brien says setting up a charitable organization that would solicit donations to be directly used for educational costs could be an option.

“If there are individuals in the community who would be willing to donate to a [charity], perhaps money from there would go into the curriculum,” said O’Brien.

Still, such ideas are not quick fixes for problems that the board will be facing in the next few months. The 2010 school elections – where budgets are either approved or turned down by voters – are set for April 20. The budget must be prepared weeks before the election so the public has time to digest the figures before voting.

“We’re talking about a $6 million hole in our budget next year,” said board member Dr. Stephen Levine.
There was no figure released at last week’s meeting regarding the current level of funds in the district’s surplus account, though state regulations mandate a district keep a small percentage of its operating budget in surplus for emergencies. Typically, surplus funds are utilized for budgetary emergencies such as a sudden repair to a school facility or if a special-needs student moves into the district mid-year and requires costly services.

The board’s finance committee will discuss the matter at its next meeting, with the full board continuing to take up the issue at its February meeting.

Town Hall Not Destined For Southard After All

Southard Vote Dominates Council, School Board Meetings

By Daniel Nee, January 16, 2009
After two votes by two bodies of local government, one thing is certain: the Southard School is not becoming Howell’s next Town Hall.

The Township Council made it official at a special meeting held last Tuesday where the governing body voted unanimously against signing a lease with the township Board of Education to lease the former elementary school for the next four decades.

Last August, the council and school board entered into what was termed as a “handshake agreement” where the school district would retain ownership of the Southard building while the township would lease the building cost-free for 40 years. In exchange, the township would provide land to the school district if the need ever arose for an additional elementary school or a high school. A formal lease was drawn up but was never signed by either party, though school officials were intent on carrying out the agreement and had turned down lease offers from prospective tenants under the assumption that the township would be moving in.

But Tuesday night’s vote put an end to the township’s interest in the building and shed light on a new option for township officials – purchasing the Global Corporate Center on Rt. 9. The building could come at a price tag of about $8 million with another $2 million coming in the form of moving and light renovation costs, according to township officials who produced a synopsis of a report on options for the township, which will be released to the public next week.

The current municipal complex on Preventorium Road is in need of either far-reaching renovation or replacement, according to township officials. Large amounts of asbestos present in the structure mean some areas are deemed off-limits to children. Township offices are separated between four different buildings. Additionally, consultants working with the township say a municipality with Howell’s population cannot be properly served by the small complex presently in operation. Renovating the current complex could cost about $7 million.

Mayor Robert Walsh said he is in favor of purchasing the Global building, arguing that if the township owns the property, it could lease out portions to generate revenue. Three other council members – Deputy Mayor Angela W. Dalton, William Gotto and Susan Schroeder Clark – also voiced their support for the purchase.

The matter also spilled into Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting, with some school board members expressing their disdain over the council’s backing out of the planned lease agreement.
“I feel the need to express that, as a citizen, if I was a member of the council, I would have said to the [school] board, ‘I’m really sorry,’” said Board President Patricia Blood. “We now have to do with Southard School what is best for the Board of Education and the taxpayers. Maybe this turn of events will work to our benefit.”

“I think the Town Council should have been more upfront with us,” agreed board member Mary Ceretani.
The board is now left with two options for Southard: pursue leasing the building again or consider selling the property. Presently, the federal Head Start program leases a portion of the facility. The board instructed acting Board Secretary Ronald Sanasac to contact an appraisal agent to obtain updated estimates of the building’s sale and rental value.

“We have to look at all our options, because we don’t know how the state aid is going to be in the future,” said board member David G. Flaherty.

Some members of the board, however, balked at the idea of selling the Southard building, citing questions over how Howell will fare in the current statewide transitioning to kindergarten through 12th grade school districts.

“We don’t know if we’re going to have to be a K through 12 district,” Ceretani said, cautioning against selling the property.

“I’d rather see a rental right now,” agreed board member Gene Tanala.

The school board indicated it would begin accepting lease offers on the Southard building as soon as possible. The Township Council will again take up the issue of relocating the municipal complex at its January 19 meeting.