On tonight's agenda for the Middeltown Township Committee Workshop meeting there will be a discussion about capital improvement projects and existing bonds and what to do about them. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do with the bonds the town is sitting on, namely the bond that was issued to fund the artificial turf projects for Croydon Hall and Trezza Field.
If we can all remember back to this past January when residents of Lincroft teamed up with members of the Pop Warner Chargers football organization when they found out that the long promised field restoration for Trezza Field (the home of the Chargers) was not going to happen, instead the funds for the turf project at Trezza Field was going to be diverted to West Front Street Park,caused so much trouble for Gerry Scharfenberger and Pam Brightbill earlier this year that they decided to cancel the turf projects all together in April.
The sudden decision to cancel the turf projects left everyone stunned at the time and questioning what was going to happen with the $2.6 million bond that was issued to fund the projects. The bond's language as written was very specific, the funds couldn't be used for anything else other than field restoration.
The following audio clip contains comments made by Middletown Attorney Brian Nelson, Middletown Township Town Administrator Tony Mercantante and mayor Gerry Scharfenberger during Workshop meetings on February 1st and March 1st,and seems to confirm that. The audio documents what the three men had been saying about the bonded money that was to be used for the construction of turf fields prior to the sudden announcement that the field project was going to be cancelled and the bonded funds returned.
Fast forward now to the last Township Committee meeting held on July 19th.
Lincroft resident and founding member of the citizens group SONIC (which opposed the turf project at West Front Street Park), Mary Mahoney, addressed the Township Committee about the unused Turf Bond that was to be used for artificial turf fields at Trezza Field, West Front Street Park and Croydon Hall. She wanted to know what was happening with the bonded money,
was there any plans to use it for anything else, how much of it had been spent and why wasn't it retired as of yet to save the township interest payments on it.
She seemed to have taken the the Township Committee and those that make the decisions on such things by surprise. Listen to it below:
About 1:10 into her comments CFO Nick Trasente is heard saying that the bond funds could be used for other facilities, used to pay down debt or retired, which is contrary to earlier remarks made by Township Attorney Brian Nelson and Scharfenberger, who had stated at earlier meetings and can be heard above in the 1st audio clip, that the bond had to be retired if not used for turf fields and couldn't be used for anything else.
So, what are Gerry and the boys planning on doing with the funds from this bond? It seems that they are trying to figure out a way to apply it to the budget in order to decrease 14% tax rate increase in this years municipal budget that has not been adopted yet.
If this is a concern to anyone then you should attend tonights meeting at Town Hall, it starts at 8pm. Get there early for a good seat.
15 comments:
Nothing ever changes in this township. Figures don't lie, but LIARS KEEP FIGURING !!!
Get rid of these two faced,double talking,double crossers!
The abuse of the hard earned taxpayers dollars has reached it's peak under this majority.
Taxpayers and voters in Middletown.it's now up to you.Don't be fooled by the rhetoric from this group.They are not to be trusted.
Vote to change this in November.
The audio files do not work.
Anon 12:33
Which audio file does not work for you. I just tried them both and they are working fine.
Maybe it has something to do with your browser or controls.
Works with Mozilla, but not IE.
That's interesting, there has never been a problem with audio clips before.
Thanks
Just got the audio working by down loading adobe flash.
Mrs. Mahoney made some good points.
Why is it that most of us knew to adjust our budgets more than a year ago and the Mayor did nothing.
I believe the bond was actually bonded in 2006, which makes this even more incredible that it's still sitting there.
And yet no answer as to how much this has cost the tax payer.
They just can't seem to give an honest answer to anything.
Waste and mismanagement and it's come back to bite big time.
Finally got to hear this. Great job Mike. This shows the double talk from the Mayor and the tapes don't lie.
The more I hear about Mary Mahoney the more I like her. She's no politician and seems to show more sense than the Mayor. Quite refreshing.
Anon 4:25
Thanks for the good word, I appreciate it.
Mary Mahoney has surprised many of us,she is honest,intelligent and hard working, when elected she will serve Middletown proud.
It will be refreshing to see an intelligent public servant on the Middletown Twp. committee as Mary Mahoney would be.
You can hear the Mayor, Mercantante and Nelson all contradicting themselves. This proves this administration can not be trusted.
Nice work Mary for not forgetting about the Bond. It shows you care what happens to the tax payer's money and exposes the waste and poor planning we've had here in Middletown.
This is one example of many.
Mike,
Didn't the original bond cost $2.6 mil. Where did the $300K go?
Anon 6:32
Engineering fees to T&M
Money wasted on a plan for West Front Street that nobody wanted. Classic of how out of touch this mayor and the rest of this gang are.
When do they ever learn and start to listen to the people ??? if ever ???
We need new leadership on the Middletown Township Committee and we have needed it for several years !!
Make not mistake about it,Gerard Scharfenberger is not good for this township and mismanagement and politics are his way of life.
The turf fields is only one of many of his failures.
Time for change.
If I were part of the Pop Warner organization I'd bury them with this.
The voters of Middletown,all of them, have an opportunity to bury this bunch of untrustworthy committee members in the next two elections. Get rid of Scharfenberger in November and Brightbill & Fiore next year for candidates that care about the residents of this town.Massell is useless and Merchantane also !!! There's not a straight talker among them. We have all had enough of their sick politics.
The turf fields are only part of their total incompetence. The current budget and the increases of the last five years are more of it.
Their lies are reprehensible.
Politics be damned,time to run this town with professionalism and intelligence. We cannot afford the current majority ,their lack of realistic priorities and their outright lies any longer. They cannot be trusted regardless of the issue at hand...Turf fields fiasco is just classic of their mismanagement !!
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