Bedminster Republicans

EDITOR: Property taxes in New Jersey are too high.

The average taxpayer in Bedminster Township pays significantly less in property taxes than our neighboring municipalities. Our 2018 tax rate is the same as it was five years ago, in Larry Jacobs’ first year on the Township Committee. This is not by accident; it comes from budget discipline, innovation and an appreciation for the taxpayer.

Jacobs is uniquely qualified as a leader on our Township Committee. Larry is the architect of the Bedminster-Bernardsville-Peapack and Gladstone shared court which has saved taxpayers over $900K in three years. Larry negotiated the five-year rate freeze when New Jersey American Water purchased EDC. This year, along with Renee Mareski, Larry created a Farmers Market in River Road Park to promote our local agriculture.

Larry and Renee value our open space and understand that the best way to preserve large farms is to make them vital and prosperous. The Farmers Market is a tremendous success because of Larry and Renee.

It has been a few years since a resident of The Hills sat on the Township Committee. This year we are fortunate to have Renee Mareski, running for the Township Committee. Renee is our Environmental Commission chair, past president of the Crestmont Home Owner’s Association and representative to the Hills Village Master Association.

Renee grew up riding horses in the Somerset Hills and worked with the Bedminster School on environmental educational programs. Renee knows The Hills and municipal government. She will be an exceptional Township Committee member.

I leave elected service to Bedminster in December after nine years on your committee and six as your mayor. I have served with some truly outstanding public servants. This current committee is the finest group during my tenure.

Bedminster’s future is in very good hands with Larry Jacobs and Renee Mareski on our township committee. Good government is the result of your vote.

Please join me in voting for Larry and Renee on Nov. 6.

STEVEN E. PARKER
Bedminster Mayor

EDITOR: I see the Democrat candidates for Bedminster Township Committee, Jacob Caplan and Denise King, are touting town-wide garbage pickup as part of their campaign platform.

I suspect they believe that by instituting trash collection as a township service, residents should be able to realize economy of scale savings. Sounds reasonable, right? Unfortunately, the devil is in the details.

The problem with this proposal is that many of us have already independently contracted for trash pick-up, either individually or as a member of a neighborhood association. This arrangement allows residents to tailor the level of service, and thereby cost, to their needs. An individual or couple in a small condo probably doesn’t generate the same volume of trash as a large family.

I have been a resident in Bedminster since 2007. I have had the liberty to change my garbage disposal service when I wanted to, no different than changing my car insurance company. When I wanted better service and/or price, I shopped around and found what suited my family’s needs.

My wife and I grew up in Middlesex County, we also lived in Ocean County before moving to Bedminster. In those cases, we had municipal trash collection. No choice, one size, service at best effort, and rising costs that reflected higher taxes which grew periodically.

By way of another example, my friends live in a town that recently added trash pick-up as a township service – and raised their taxes accordingly. Prior to the conversion, they were paying an independent contractor a modest monthly fee for a small container. Once the township began providing the service, they were assigned a huge container that two elderly people couldn’t fill in a month of Sundays. Their cost went up accordingly, nearly doubling what they had been paying previously.

Therein lies the problem with these one size fits all approaches. You lose the ability to control your own destiny, and often wind up subsidizing your neighbors. Unless you can meter usage, as is the case with utilities, you ultimately pay for someone else’s trash.

I’d much rather support competition among multiple providers, who are incented to meet my individual needs and allow me to directly control my costs. Competition promotes better pricing and better service and puts the freedom of choice back in the consumer instead of the ever-increasing costs that will be reflected in our tax bills.

My neighborhood is filled with different trash cans from different garbage disposal companies. All making their choices on their own, for their needs, without being told how it will work with no choices of change.

I urge residents of Bedminster to consider the implications of supporting any proposal that takes the decision-making authority away from the homeowner or condo association.

I’m voting for Larry Jacobs and Renee Mareski on Nov. 6, and I urge the residents of Bedminster to do the same.

ROBERTO FRAGASSI
Bedminster Township

EDITOR: Recently, upon announcing the retirement of Clarence Dillon Library Director Sandy Putnam, Bedminster Mayor Steve Parker commented, “When we first hired Sandy, we were looking for a new library director. What we got was an executive.”

The same could easily be said of Committeeman Larry Jacobs. Like any business, managing the day-to-day affairs of the township requires experienced leadership, financial prowess and the trust and respect of one’s peers. Not only does Larry excel in each of these dimensions, he does so with tremendous presence and unbridled enthusiasm. He is an executive in every sense of the word.

Larry has led the committee through six years of budget work, scrutinizing every line item to protect the interests of taxpayers. The results he has delivered are unequivocal: Bedminster leads in low taxes in all of Somerset County.

His work on expanding shared services, most recently through the shared municipal court arrangement, has provided a model for how towns throughout Somerset Hills can save taxpayers money while improving service.

In addition, as the Township Committee representative on the Land Use Board, he has maintained a laser sharp focus on ensuring the health of our business corridor, so as not to place an undue tax burden on our residents.

Like every successful leader, Larry is never content with the status quo. His vision for a meaningful quality of life improvement became a reality this spring with the launch of the Bedminster Farmers Market. Not only has the market proven to be an overwhelming success, it has become an opportunity for the community to gather together every Saturday morning.

Enter Renee Mareski. As chair of the Environmental Commission, Renee and her team mobilized to launch and provide ongoing support to the Farmers Market. She has also championed many forward reaching initiatives, including educational programs – e.g., Moth Night, Bat Night – school outreach and, most recently, a grant to install electric vehicle charging stations at the municipal building.

As a 20-year resident of The Hills, Renee has been actively involved in her Homeowner’s Association, both as former president of the Crestmont Association and, most recently, as the Crestmont representative to The Hills Village Master Association. She also volunteers in the local community, serving as a horse riding instructor for children with special needs. Renee is “all in.”

Bedminster is a better place because of the tireless contributions Larry and Renee make to our town. They have dedicated their time and energy to municipal service, and can leverage their deep experience to address the challenges and issues that will confront us in the years to come.

Come Nov. 6, I strongly encourage you to vote for the team that leads by example – Larry Jacobs and Renee Mareski.

R. COLIN HICKEY
Committeeman
Bedminster Township

EDITOR: With campaign season upon us, I’m hearing a lot of chatter about the role of homeowners associations (HOAs).

Here in Bedminster, we have at least 21 separate and independent HOAs, each of which represent an individual neighborhood. These HOAs manage, among other things, the budget, capital planning, landscaping, construction and snow removal for each neighborhood.

On a regular basis, an open election is held for positions on each HOA board, and any resident may run for office in their particular neighborhood. HOAs represent the most local and direct form of government – they are managed by, and comprised of, your immediate neighbors.

Your monthly homeowner’s dues are based on the ability of your individual HOA to manage its budget, plan carefully and hire effectively. Good decisions keep monthly dues and any special assessments low.

Conversely, poor management decisions can needlessly drive up costs and deliver poor services. The good news is, residents have a say. If you don’t like the way things are being run, vote for change.

Here in Parkside, that’s exactly what we did. After watching our neighborhood languish for years, I decided to run for – and was elected to – the Parkside HOA. We changed our management company and most of our vendors, including those handling porter service/maintenance, trash and snow removal. We focused on collecting back dues and made affordable payment plans to help people catch up – and significantly improved our budget as a result.

We prioritized capital improvements, which included repaving our parking lots, fixing drainage and repairing sidewalks. We have begun to phase in landscaping updates, one area at a time, as our budget allows, and cut down on the little expenses that can add up: postage, printing and service calls. And we have done all of this without increasing maintenance fees or assessing the unit owners.

The results are there for all to see – our neighborhood is once again a highly desirable place to live.

The Township Committee, for its part, has done an excellent job over the years of supporting our needs as Hills residents and HOA members. They’ve helped us reduce expenses for critical items, particularly, hydrant maintenance and electric power for streetlights.

But in doing so, the municipality has also been steadfast in its desire to never interfere with the operations of the individual neighborhood associations.

By comparison, it is my understanding that the Democrat candidates, Jacob Caplan and Denise King, have publicly indicated that they would like to somehow insert themselves into our day-to-day management decisions.

The folks best capable of managing the unique needs of each neighborhood are the residents themselves, not bureaucrats.

As Ronald Reagan once said, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Larry Jacobs and Renee Mareski have made it a cornerstone of their platform to support the needs of the HOAs without compromising their autonomy or independence. I hope you’ll join me on Nov. 6 in voting for them for Bedminster Township Committee.

MICHELE HOFFMAN
Bedminster Township

EDITOR: I returned home the other day to find campaign literature left by the two Democrat candidates for Bedminster Township Committee, Jacob Caplan and Denise King.

Their first bullet point proposes building a park on the state Department of Transportation (DOT) site opposite the entrance to Hills Drive.

Are they serious?

Years ago, a developer had considered acquiring that land for redevelopment and providing the DOT with an alternate location for its maintenance yard. Rightly so, that proposal was met with a chilly reception from residents of The Hills, and was swiftly rejected.

This issue has been dead for years. Now it seems the Bedminster Democrats want to reopen that proverbial can of worms.

To my knowledge, the DOT site is currently in productive use and is not for sale. Regardless, the Bedminster Democrats propose acquiring it and building a new park at this location for use by Hills residents, of which I am one.

This plan is ill-conceived and severely flawed, as follows:

The location has been used for many years for road maintenance and material storage. It is now considered contaminated, so any alternate use would require costly site remediation. Why would the taxpayers – we, the residents of Bedminster – ever want to take on the burden of this toxic clean-up?

The site has no pedestrian access, as it is located at the busiest intersection in town. The thought of parents or children attempting to cross Routes 202 and 206 at the jug handle on foot is a frightening proposition. As this is a state-owned highway, the township has no control over right-of-way or the ability to construct alternate access, e.g., a flyover bridge.

If constructed, this park would be an inaccessible island unto itself, surrounded by a moat of highways and byways.

There are already two pedestrian-accessible parks located adjacent to The Hills, Burnt Mills Park and Pluckemin School House Park. These are both less than three-tenths of a mile from the DOT site, and provide 15 acres of recreational space, including athletic fields, basketball and volleyball courts, playgrounds, a dog park and pavilions.

Caplan and King propose using the Open Space Trust Fund to finance the transaction, as if it were free money. The Open Space Fund is taxpayer money, and the use of those funds for land acquisition is subject to open public meetings, where residents have the opportunity to participate in the evaluation process alongside professional planners and preservation experts – the type of meeting at which this exact proposal was considered and rejected several years ago.

Investments of this magnitude should not be mandated by empty campaign promises.

Towns cannot condemn and seize state-owned land, and any purchase or condemnation of the DOT site would likely cost tenfold or more than what currently exists in the Open Space Trust Fund, let alone the costs for demolition of the existing structures, decontamination and then construction of a park.

In short, this proposal is no walk in the park. Instead, it is a half-baked plan by two candidates sorely out of touch with reality and fiscal responsibility. If this is the Bedminster Democrats’ leading proposal, I hesitate to think what else Caplan and King have in store for Bedminster taxpayers should they ever be elected.

SEAN BLINN
Bedminster Township

EDITOR: The current Bedminster Township Committee and administration have and continue to serve our community very well.

Services are provided with quality and professionalism and at more than fair costs to taxpayers. There are always exceptions, but I strongly recommend that voters move beyond any single issue and consider all that is exceptional with living in Bedminster.

Issues facing our federal and state governments are not in the control of local officials and need to be discounted in local voting decisions.

I offer the above assessment based on 45 years as a independent Bedminster resident and 25 years of municipal public service, including 12 years as a committeeperson and three as mayor. And as someone who has monitored Bedminster operations and taxing over the years.

I strongly support sticking, in this case, with what is working; there is no need for change at the local level.

Vote on Nov. 6 for Larry Jacobs and Renee Mareski for Bedminster Township Committee.

JOSEPH H. METELSKI
Bedminster Township

EDITOR: As the seasons change, Bedminster becomes an even more special and unique place to live.

This autumn, residents can visit the Farmers’ Market each Saturday at River Road Park and other nearby great events such as the Raritan Headwaters’ Old Fashioned Country Fair on Sunday, Oct. 7, the Far Hills Race Meeting on Saturday, Oct. 20, and of course, our Bedminster Charities’ Fall Fest on Saturday, Oct. 27.

Whether on the Hike and Bike Trail or enjoying the spectacular backdrop of the Somerset Hills – Bedminster is quite beautiful and bucolic.

Maintaining Bedminster’s rural character, agricultural integrity and the ability to enjoy our open space continues to be of utmost importance to the Township Committee as well as our residents.

Our Township Committeeman Larry Jacobs and our Environmental Chair Renee Mareski have both worked diligently, along with our township team and Environmental Commission, to ensure that we stay true to our township’s rural, recreational, agricultural and equestrian roots while making improvements in Bedminster that matter to our residents.

Both Larry and Renee first served as volunteers for Bedminster on boards and commissions before assuming their present leadership roles and since that time, they have both been extremely dedicated to Bedminster.

By serving as volunteers in that capacity, they were able to learn how Bedminster works organizationally, structurally and, very importantly, financially. This foundation has absolutely been a key element in Larry and Renee’s continued success as leaders in our community.

The challenges Bedminster will face in the future, both budgetary and otherwise, will require the experience and knowledge that Larry and Renee already possess and utilize on our behalf on a daily basis. They have both forged crucial relationships throughout our community, such as with our school board, our township staff, members of our volunteer boards and commissions, and our neighboring communities.

These relationships are imperative as we seek to implement additional shared service opportunities, which will continue to translate into savings for our residents.

It is this background, experience and knowledge of Bedminster that make Larry and Renee truly the best candidates for Township Committee.

I am very proud to work with them as colleagues and hope that you will join me in supporting Larry and Renee for Bedminster Township Committee on Nov. 6.

STACI SANTUCCI
Bedminster Township
Committeewoman

EDITOR: Please join me on Tuesday, Nov. 6, in voting for Larry Jacobs and Renee Mareski for Bedminster Township Committee.

In sports parlance, voting for Larry and Renee is a layup.

As a current Township Committee member, it has been a privilege to serve with Larry over the past two years. Bedminster residents can rest assured knowing that through his vision, hard work and tireless dedication, Larry earns his stripes.

Unafraid to roll up his sleeves and take on an issue, we have successfully relied on Larry’s guidance on key matters affecting land use, affordable housing and our environment. Also acutely aware of Bedminster’s bucolic way of life, Larry has spearheaded numerous open space initiatives and has been instrumental in stewarding our inaugural farmers market this summer and fall.

As is the case with all five Township Committee members, Larry is a budget hawk who shares our passion to deliver quality, transparent, government in the most economical way possible. Plainly put, if you are a Bedminster resident, you owe it to yourself to reelect Larry Jacobs to Township Committee.

Hills resident Renee Mareski currently serves our community as the chair of our Environmental Commission. Under Renee’s leadership and vision, we have witnessed its incredible resurgence.

Renee and her team have successfully rolled out interactive, educational programs involving bees, bats and butterflies just to name a few, and have provided meaningful governmental services such as well water testing and seeking grants for township infrastructure for alternative energy.

Renee is a longtime Bedminster resident and her local roots run deep. In addition to her chairwoman duties, Renee is and has been a consistent attendee and participant at our regular Township Committee meetings.

Renee’s proven commitment to Bedminster renders her uniquely qualified to hit the ground running on day one.

Thank you for reading and considering my endorsement of Renee Mareski and Larry Jacobs for Township Committee in Bedminster this year.

DOUGLAS A. STEVINSON
Bedminster Township
Committeeman

EDITOR: As one of 22 residents of The Hills development who the mayor and Township Committee have chosen to serve on Bedminster boards – Land Use, Board of Health, Environmental Commission, etc. – and past and present board member of community associations at The Hills, I am in a unique position to attest to the relationship between the neighborhood associations and local government.

Our current Township Committee has been very responsive to the needs of The Hills’ various neighborhoods and the two Republican candidates are well suited to continue and improve that relationship.

Larry Jacobs, formally of the Fieldstone neighborhood, was instrumental in getting the Interstate Route 287/Rt. 206 off-ramp completed, finished the Hike and Bike Path connecting River Road and Burnt Mills Parks, and negotiated a rate freeze with the Environmental Disposal Corp. (EDC) when they were acquired by New Jersey American Water.

Renee Mareski, of Crestmont, and a past home owner association board member, has distinguished herself as chair of the Environmental Commission where she initiated the very popular farmer’s market and joint educational/outreach programs with the Bedminster School.

Larry and Renee are accomplished leaders, will continue to keep your property taxes the lowest in Somerset County and preserve our quality of life so Bedminster can continue to be the wonderful township we all cherish.

I submit this letter as a resident of the township of Bedminster and not in my capacity as board member of any community association at The Hills. The opinions offered are my personal opinions and do not reflect the position of the governing board of any community association at The Hills.

DAWN MARCH
Edgewood Road
Bedminster Township

EDITOR: As a citizen of Bedminster, I am so proud to see two intelligent, experienced candidates – Committeeman Larry Jacobs, and Renee Mareski – running for Township Committee.

For at least the last 10 years, Bedminster has had a dignified, civil, responsible governing body. They have successfully maintained our quality of life while keeping taxes low.

Recently, Bedminster was ranked one of the top towns in the state of New Jersey for doing an outstanding job of holding down property taxes.

As a sitting member of the Township Committee, Jacobs has been an integral part of making that happen. As a citizen who has been deeply involved as a volunteer in Bedminster for years, Mareski has proven her commitment to our township. If they are elected, our taxes will remain low, Bedminster will remain civil, and our quality of life will remain exceptional.

Vote Jacobs and Mareski for Bedminster Township Committee on Nov. 6 to keep this momentum going.

KATHY CHRISTIE
Old Stonehouse Road
Bedminster Township

The Bedminster Republican Municipal Committee is proud to announce the nomination of Township Committeeman Larry Jacobs and Environmental Commission Chair Renee Mareski for the Bedminster Township Committee for 2018

Committeeman Jacobs is in his second term on the township committee; he is responsible for creation of the Bernardsville, Peapack-Gladstone and Bedminster Shared Court that has saved more than $500K in just three years. He brokered the preservation of more than 650 acres of open space and intervened in the New Jersey American Water purchase of EDC ensuring a rate freeze for residents of the Hills. Larry is an environmental attorney and his wife, Mimi, a former PTO president has been residents of Bedminster for more than 20 years, with their children attending the Bedminster/Bernards schools.

Currently he is proud to announce a township budget with NO increase in the amount to be collected from the taxpayers. He is also leading the initiative to create a Farmer’s Market in River Road Park to promote Bedminster farmers and local agriculture, the market is set to open in June.

Renee Mareski, is the chair of the Environmental Commission, is a life-ling resident of the Somerset Hills and, with her husband Joe, and dog Jenny is a 20 year resident of the Hills beginning in Parkside and now in the Crestmont section where she is member of the home owners’ association governing body. A graduate of St Laurence University with a Master’s Degree in Animal Science from the University of Kentucky.

As a chair and member of the Environmental Commission Renee has promoted joint educational programs with the Bedminster School (like Moth Night, and the upcoming Bat Night) along with oversight of the Lamington River restoration project in Pottersville.

Please join us in voting for Larry Jacobs and Renee Mareski for Bedminster Township Committee on June 5th

Announcing the new Bedminster Republican Social Club!  We are forming to bring like-minded Republicans in Bedminster and the Somerset Hills together to not only keep abreast of local, state and national issues….but also to have a good time and enjoy the company of our fellow members of the Grand Old Party (and folks interested in learning more about the GOP locally)!

The club has a Facebook Page , give it a visit, like us and keep in contact with issues of interest to Bedminster.

The Case for Shared Services
A few years back I was at a meeting with a group of other local mayors discussing how Somerset County competes with other parts of the nation in attracting big business and jobs to the area. We discussed the county’s positive attributes; educated/motivated workforce, good schools, beautiful communities, all of what we love about the area. Then one mayor lamented that it was too bad we cannot do much about property taxes. At first I was outraged; imagine a group of mayors, who sign their municipalities’ budgets, conceding to the status quo of high property taxes. Then was chagrined…I understood too well that if you simply look internally at the costs for services, along with the ever-increasing costs of health care, labor, and energy, one could be pessimistic to lowering the cost of local government. Each mayor only looked at his or her town as an island; where the only resources were within their borders. Instead we need to look regionally, to see what each of us has to offer to our neighbors and what can be exchanged for the betterment of all communities.
The cost of living in New Jersey and the bite property taxes have on the average resident is the greatest threat to our way of life in New Jersey. We need to take a business-like view of local government services, with scrutiny on redundancy, inefficiency and overhead. The answer lies in shared services which allow for economies of scale, competitive bidding, and improved service for the taxpayers.
There are already examples of successful shared services locally. Far Hills Borough, contracts Public Works with Bedminster Township. Bedminster and Far Hills also share a volunteer Fire Department, First Aid Squad and the Clarence Dillon Public Library.
Municipal Courts: Consider the shared municipal court of Bernardsville, Bedminster and Peapack-Gladstone. Each town struggled to maintain a court facility, employ a staff with a credentialed Court Administrator, and hire a judge, prosecutor, and public defender. Each town only had enough cases to hold court for a few hours, two or four times a month. This was a tremendous overhead for a small amount of production. The new shared court serves three municipalities, employs one staff (less than half of the three combined), one judge, prosecutor, and public defender. The new court meets one day a week. Previously court services were a drain on each of the three municipalities, now the court is self-sufficient and has saved more than a half a million tax dollars for the three towns over since inception in 2015.
We need to use this model to look at other services that our towns provide that could be improved:
Police: The single greatest cost driver for any municipality, and, aside from the school, the service most important our residents. We look to our police to keep us safe and we should always strive to have a capable, well trained and well equipped force that deploys its resources efficiently and effectively. In the Somerset Hills we have small (under 20 officers) and very small departments (under 10). Each department has a Chief, a second in command, and a detective bureau. Each town must maintain a jail/detainment cell, weapons/ammunition, a fleet of vehicles/radios, etc. Small and very small departments impede officer career development; there are few candidates to compete for fewer positions, and less opportunity for advancement. Growing a new “chief”, required by state law to be promoted from within, is difficult with such a limited pool of candidates. Shared services in police services could be as modest as sharing shifts, shared regional training/resources, or a full-fledged merger into a regional force. Patrol coverage can be maintained, personnel professional development and training can be enhanced, and significant tax dollars can be saved.
Building Code Inspections: If you have ever put an addition to your home, you know that there are a myriad of permits and inspections before/during/after construction. Many small towns only have enough demand to hire inspectors one or two days a week. Taxpayers utilizing this service are often frustrated when they are ready for an inspection only to find they must wait a week or more until it is “our day” for the inspector to serve our municipality. This is a service that should be available every work day. Lost time during construction costs money and slows progress. This is a service that should be regional, perhaps even at the county level.
Library: The Clarence Dillon Public Library, already a shared service success, is vibrant and serving as a library/culture and community center. Peapack-Gladstone has a library in a few rooms in Boro Hall and has struggled to build a stand-alone facility. If Peapack-Gladstone joined CDPL, it would gain a more robust library with greater service to the twin borough’s taxpayers.
Recreation: In the Somerset Hills, we have recreation departments that put forth quality programs but struggle to serve enough “customers” to make them self-sufficient. Our towns are not equal in terms of athletic fields, indoor facilities and population and municipalities struggle to match facilities with demand. Spending on turf fields, pools and recreation programs often falls short in tight municipal budgets when compared to roads, police and first responders. All of our children will go to high school together; shouldn’t they play together in youth recreation? Regionalization of recreation programs is the answer.
There are plenty of opportunities for local governments to innovate to save money and/or provide better service for our taxpayers. The obstacle is political will on the part of local leaders (mayors, council/township committee members). Often they cite the loss of local identity and a small group of vocal opponents clamor to “save” their boutique service. They will say the taxpayers are ultimately willing to pay a premium for this inefficient distribution of services. With newly elected leaders in many of our municipalities, urge them to work with their neighbors to make local government more efficient through shared services.

Steven Parker, Mayor Bedminster Township