Campaigns focus on big ticket projects

Written by Mary Linehan Thursday, September 27, 2012 12:01 pm

Republicans want focus on drainage, but supported aspects of plans in the past

LOWER TOWNSHIP – Republican candidates here announced their plan for the future of the township in a release last week, trying to distinguish themselves from the Independents for Lower ticket.

The Republican ticket, headed up by mayoral candidate Erik Simonsen, is calling for “holding the line on taxes, moving to line item budgeting, investing in roads and flood control first, and making the streets safer.”

Simonsen, the former Ward 2 councilman, is running with incumbent Deputy Mayor Kevin Lare and sitting Ward 2 councilman Walt Craig – himself a former mayor of the township.

The Independents for Lower candidates are Mayor Michael Beck, communications professional Norris Clark for deputy mayor, and environmental scientist Jim Neville for the Ward 2 seat.

“It is great to have a big projects wish list, but these tough economic times require us to be serious about the use of taxpayers’ money in Lower Township,” said Simonsen.

Simonsen said the Republican majority on council has fought hard to hold the line on taxes. Two out of the past three years, the council has delivered a zero tax increase, he said.

“It hasn’t been easy as the mayor has proposed big spending projects, but we stood and fought for the taxpayers and we will continue to,” said Simonsen.

The “big spending projects” referenced by the plan include a proposed multi-million dollar fishing pier and new police administration building.

“In terms of big projects, we need to deal with problems at hand rather than moving to big projects,” said Craig. “The North Cape May drainage situation has been an issue for 25 years. A fishing pier might be nice, but the people on Rosanne Avenue can tell you they have fishing piers off their back porches every time it rains.”

Beck said no township money has been spent on fishing pier proposal, and it would only move forward with grant funding. He said township council approved a $65,000 contract with a local engineering firm to provide a plan to help flood-prone neighborhoods in September. The contract passed unanimously.

On a new police administration building, Beck said he supported an advisory committee’s recommendation to replace the Public Safety Building at the county airport.

“The studies show that with the $100,000 in utility bills that we pay every year there, and the $500,000 to $800,000 price tag for stopgap repairs to the roof there, it is not cost-effective to house our police department in the back of the airport in the 10,000 square foot building,” said Beck.

“And, in terms of community safety and police presence, the department belongs in the Villas – on Bayshore Road – in the middle of the communities it serves,” he added. “You are not going to find any literature that suggests it is a good idea to put your police at the back of an airport, off the main road and not accessible by public transportation.”

Simonsen was a member of the advisory committee tasked with studying options for the World War II-era Public Safety Building. He and Lare, also a voting member on the advisory panel, were not present at the June 7 vote to determine the committee’s recommendations.

The remaining five members of the advisory council voted unanimously to discontinue use of the Public Safety Building at the county airport as police headquarters, and to relocate the police department to a new annex encompassing the old police station at the townhall complex. The board also recommended that the township purchase the building adjacent to townhall.

Simonsen’s advisory panel appointee, Daniel Shousky, presented the finding to council in the summer. The committee report indicated that Police Chief Brian Marker and township manager Michael Voll supported the recommendations.

Lare voted in favor of the township’s purchase of the Manzoni building adjacent to townhall. The real estate purchase was recommended to advance the Public Safety Building committee’s recommendations.

Craig abstained, without explanation, from the vote on the Manzoni building.

At a June 4 work session, township council, including Lare and Craig, indicated unanimous support for plans to move forward on the fishing pier. Lare said that he believed the fishing pier project “to be an outstanding idea we should move full steam ahead on.”