Hazlet: Whose Record Is It, Really?

Local politics...Let me be honest and candid here for a moment.... Local politics very often brings out the best and the worst in people. 

I say this with a more experienced eye and voice than most ....I was once a local politician.... and in case you never indulged your ego by putting yourself out there in the eye of the public let me assure you, it can be addicting.

I say this for a reason.  Let me explain. The other day a political flier was dropped off at my house and I was appalled at what I read.  Mayor Tinker and Committeeman Brady were making a claim that "Our record speaks for itself".  Off hand that is something that one would think to be a great start.  I read on.  The flier then listed 9 "accomplishments".  At face value it sounds impressive, let's take a closer look.

In case you are wondering who I am..... I was elected to the Hazlet Township Committee in 2007 and proudly served from 2008 to 2010.  I lost my re-election bid and have since tried to stay out of the distasteful world of local politics.  However, I am proud of the accomplishment of my brief tenure.  Now let me get to my point.

The political flier was a perfect example of "political addiction". Tinker and Brady are trying to take credit for things that they had very little to do with.  Imagine that...Politicians embellishing their resume.....

For the sake of brevity let me explain only 2 of the 9 points. 

In 2008 I explored the possibility of having a regional library built in Hazlet replacing the libraries of Hazlet, Keyport, Union Beach, Keansburg and Holmdel. 

After a few months my idea was turned down by the Monmouth County Library Commission.  With that decision and my determination, it became apparent that the best course of action was to find funds to renovate Hazlet's existing library. 

In early 2009, I had several discussions with Hazlet's CFO and other sitting Committeemen and the funds were found in several "unclosed" bond.  (This money is dollars which were not spent from various other completed bonded projects.)

So in 2009 $128,000 was swept together for the purpose of cleaning up our library.  The engineering firm of CME did their evaluation and a plan was put in place for the renovation work to start in the January/February 2010 time frame. 

In November of 2009 control of the Township Committee was turned over the Scott Aagre, Dave Tinker and Jim Brady.  At that point, for some still unexplained reason, work on the library was postponed until April 2011.

I have no doubt that we will now be told some reason for the above mentioned delay, but I refuse to allow the political wool to be pulled over our eyes.  Let me be clear here.....The delay was an attempt by these 3 elected officials to make it seem like the Hazlet Library renovation was one of their accomplishments instead of giving the credit to the previous administration.

If this was the only example of such tomfoolery I would simply go about my business, curse this action for only my wife to hear and continue to look forward to my next Project. That's right there's more....

Tinker and Brady are trying to claim that they have "re-instituted" a "Road Program".  Their flier takes credit for the paving of Davern Ave, Bethany Rd and Hazlet Ave during their 3 year tenure of control 2010, 2011 and 2012.  They never mention that the previous administration had a road program and that during 2007, 2008 and 2009 over 35 streets were paved at little or no cost to the tax payers. As for their taking credit for Hazlet Ave, let's take a look at the facts.

I live near our train station and felt that the portion of Hazlet Ave surrounding the train station was in dire need of being repaved.  After several meetings of my initiating discussion of this point, CME was instructed to apply for a grant to have Hazlet Ave paved in 2008. 

Hazlet was awarded a grant for $220,000 in the summer of 2009. Work was to begin in the spring of 2010. Once again unexplained delays occurred and the road work on Hazlet Ave was put off until the fall of 2011.  Let me be clear here as well..... This was another attempt to embellish their meager list of accomplishments.  They pushed the work to Hazlet Ave off so as to make it look like they were able to get something accomplished.

There is more that can be said about their claims to have a "record", however,  I've written too much already.  There are 5 other facts/points which should be brought to light....perhaps another time. 

Let me close with this thought..... Republican or Democrat.....Conservative or Liberal.... Anyone who tries to mislead the public needs to be exposed for what they are....political addicts...and it is time for the voting public to have an intervention on their behalf and vote these addicts out.  Seek out the facts and vote intelligently.  Let's not be fooled again.