Freeholder Director John Curley said yesterday that there is no support on the Freeholder Board to purchase the development rights for Manalapan Township Committeeman Andrew Lucas’ 98 acre farm on Iron Ore Road, despite the fact that the purchase, which was approved by the Board in May of 2011, has been cleared of an ethics violation complaint by the State Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board and was approved by the State Agriculture Development Committee.
“If elected officials want to apply for government money for their properties, they should resign from office,” said Curley, “we should not be using the positions the voters entrusted us with to enrich ourselves.”
“Andrew Lucas has not been forthcoming about the details of his purchase of this property. The freeholders will not approve this purchase.”
Lucas, Manalapan’s former mayor and a former GOP candidate for freeholder, purchased the farm which had been slated for development in March of 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Soon thereafter he started the process of selling the development rights, for $1.152 million, through funding through the State, County and Township. Lucas participated on Township Committee discussions of his application.
The purchase approved by the Freeholder Board in May of 2011 was held up by an ethics complaint filed by former Manalapan Mayor George Spodak. The State Agriculture Developement Committee conditioned its funding on an satisfactory ethics review of the transaction. Local Finance Board Chairman Thomas Neff wrote Lucas last month to inform him that his application had been approved because he consulted with the Manalapan Township Attorney about his application. Neff’s letter also said that the Board would use Lucas’s case to provide clear guidance to future office holders to recuse themselves from applications that they have an interest in.
Spodak is outraged that Neff and the Local Finance Board cleared the ethics of the transaction. “I don’t think they even read my 111 page complaint,” said Spodak. “I sent Neff a letter appealing his decision but have not heard back from him.”
The county monies approved in 2011 for the purchase are no longer available. An article in the Asbury Park Press said that the county is applying for federal money to fund the purchase.
Curly said the the freeholders have not approved any federal grant application and will not approve the purchase.
Earlier yesterday, Monmouth Democratic Chairman Vin Gopal issued a statement condemning the transaction as an example of Republcian cronyism, “Club Monmouth.” Gopal was critical of Neff’s ties to the Monmouth GOP as evidenced by his $750 to Monmouth GOP Chairman John Bennett’s leadership PAC while Bennett was President of the State Senate. Prior being appointed to his position with the Department of Community Affairs, Neff, an attorney, was an employee of the Republican Senate Caucus.
Informed of Curley’s opposition to the Lucas farm purchase and his representation that the other freeholders, all Republicans, also oppose it, Gopal said, “What has changed since they approved it last year? Only Amy Mallet (then a Democratic freeholder) voted against it in 2011.”
The final debate of the race between U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and State Senator Joe Kyrillos for a 6 year term in the U.S. Senate was taped for television yesterday afternoon. It will air at 9:30 this morning on ABC in Philadelphia and at 11 on ABC in New York. NorthJersey.com reports on the debate here.
Kyrillos will be attending the 14th Dushahra Celebration in Edison this afternoon at 3:50. This morning he makes a South Jersey swing, appearing at the Southern Jersey Jewish Coalition Brunch at the Hotel ML in Mount Laurel at 10:30. At 11:20 he will be attending the Blackwood Pumpkin Festival before heading to Atlantic County for the Smithville Irish Festival at 1:20.
Governor Chris Christie will be campaigning with Kyrillos in Princeton tomorrow, 10:30am at the Princetonian Diner on Route 1.
A group called Friends of Longstreet Farm Animals wants the livestock animals at the Holmdel park to be neutered so they won’t breed and be sold for slaughter, according to an article in the Asbury Park Press.
The leader of the group, Suzanne Dragan of Aberdeen, says she presented the Freeholder Board with a petition with 1,175 signatures and 100 postcards asking that county raised animals no longer be slaughtered.
Freeholder Director John Curley said he sought a compromise with Dragan’s group. When no compromise could be reached, Curley said “I love a good BLT,” while announcing that the farm would continue to breed and sell animals that end up as groceries.
Bruce Gollnick, the assistant director of the county park system, said that farm is trying to do a better job managing the breeding program to control the population so that animals do not have to be sold.
Why?
It seems to me that the proceeds of sales should be defraying the cost of operating the park. No? A breeding and sale program could be/should be an educational opportunity for Monmouth County students of all ages.
Breed more, sell more, slaughter more and serve Longstreet Burgers at the Monmouth County Fair.
Dragan said, “Shame on the freeholders for not listening to their constituents” by continuing the sale of animals that end up being slaughter.
Death threats, charges of racism and the disapproval of his neighbors couldn’t get Bill Skuby to remove a photo altered to depict President Obama as a witch doctor from the window display of his high end mens clothing store in Spring Lake.
Click on photo for full view
Skuby removed the photo, “for now” he says, that has generated strong reactions, both pro and con, from his window display yesterday. He said respect for the office of President of the United States and the bullying that his bi-racial granddaughter has experienced since the controversy has emerged moved him to remove the photo that has generated nationwide attention. He said he will decide whether to put the controversial photo back into the display on Monday.
Skuby has been using one of his windows for edgy advertising for years. His Halloween display mocked President Obama last year too. This year he added the witch doctor photo over the words Obama Care with the C in Care being a Soviet hammer and sickle and a black hat with F.Y.B.O. embroidered in white on the front and S.L.N.J. Tea Party embroidered on the back. The hats are for sale for $25 and Skuby says the proceeds are going to charity.
This year Skuby’s display is making an impact beyond the borders of the tony town on the Irish Rivera.
Spring Lake resident Barbara Parnell walked past the display on Monday and found it to be “overtly racist.” Parnell called the clothing manufacturers who supply Skuby’s store to complain. She told them that the press had been alerted. “I plead the 5th amendment,” Purnell said when asked directly if she alerted the press. Later during a phone interview she said that one of the people quoted in the Asbury Park Press’s initial article about the display, not her, alerted the media to the display that she said “does not represent the Spring Lake business community.”
While Skuby seemed to be enjoying and cashing in on the publicity on Tuesday and during radio interviews on Wednesday morning, when MMM visited his store on Wednesday afternoon the ugly phone calls and emails from all over the country as well as the negative reaction of his fellow business owners on Third Ave were taking a toll on him and his wife Gail.
“90% percent of the reaction has been positive and supportive, but the 10% has been over the top,” said Skuby, “I’ve gotten six death threats and someone threatened to destroy the store if the display is not removed. I’m resigning from the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Improvement District, putting my house on the market and moving my business out of town when my lease expires at the end of the year.”
During a phone interview on Thursday, Skuby said that about half of the negative responses he received were not about race, but about respect for the office of the presidency. “That’s what got me to take it down. I’m not sure I will keep it out of the window, but I see their point.”
The group that exposed corruption at ACORN, NPR, NJEA and SEIU has recorded employees of the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America, the community organizing arm of the Obama campaign encouraging people to vote twice and helping them to do so in the upcoming presidential election.
Think voter fraud is not a problem in New Jersey? Watch the video until the end. A New Jersey Democrat in front of a Bob Menendez sign recognizes O’Keefe from the ACORN video sting. Its pretty funny.
