READINGTON TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE
READINGTON TOWNSHIP, HUNTERDON COUNTY, NEW JERSEY
HOLLAND BROOK SCHOOL
READINGTON TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY
FEBRUARY 21, 2006
6:30 P.M.
IN THE MATTER OF
READINGTON TOWNSHIP PUBLIC HEARING
COMMITTEE MEETING
......................
B E F O R E:
THE READINGTON TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE
_________________________________
MAYOR GERARD SHAMEY
JULIA ALLEN
THOMAS AURIEMMA
FRANK GATTI
BEATRICE MUIR
VITA MEKOVETZ, Township Clerk
A P P E A R A N C E S:
CONNELL FOLEY, LLP
85 Livingston Avenue
Roseland, New Jersey 07068
Attorneys for the Township Committee
BY: JAMES RHATICAN, ESQ.
SHARON DRAGAN, ESQ.
Attorney for the Township Committee
JACQUELINE KLAPP REPORTING SERVICES
Certified Shorthand Reporters
59 Old Croton Road
Flemington, New Jersey 08822
(908) 782-0874
2
1 MAYOR SHAMEY: Good evening, ladies
2 and gentlemen, I'm sorry for the delay. I
3 would like to welcome all of you to the
4 February 21, 2006, meeting of the Readington
5 Township Committee. I would like to begin by
6 announcing all laws governing the Open Public
7 Meetings Act have been met, and this meeting
8 has been duly advertised.
9 Let's salute the flag.
10 (Whereupon, Mayor Shamey led those
11 present in the salute to the flag.
12 MAYOR SHAMEY: This is a meeting of
13 the Readington Township Committee, we have
14 some things to take care of before we get to
15 the public hearings. We have just come out of
16 executive session, and we have a couple of
17 bits of business to take care of. The first
18 item on the executive agenda today was
19 personnel, we have a letter from our
20 Recreation Director requesting that the
21 Committee hire Lisa Hellings as the yoga
22 instructor at $30 an hour.
23 MS. ALLEN: I will make that motion.
24 MS. MUIR: I will second that.
25 (On roll call, all members voted in
3
1 the affirmative.)
2 MAYOR SHAMEY: The contract
3 negotiations for the three professional
4 services contracts that come under contract
5 negotiations. Is there a motion to approve
6 the professional services contract of our bond
7 counsel, McManimon & Scotland, LLC?
8 MS. MUIR: So moved.
9 MR. GATTI: Second.
10 (On roll call, all members voted in
11 the affirmative.)
12 MAYOR SHAMEY: Next, the professional
13 services contract for Martin Allen, Esq. as
14 our tax attorney. Is there a motion to
15 approve Mr. Allen's professional services
16 contract?
17 MS. ALLEN: So moved.
18 MR. GATTI: Second.
19 (On roll call, all members voted in
20 the affirmative.)
21 MAYOR SHAMEY: And lastly, is the
22 professional services contract for our public
23 defender, Patrick Clare, Esq. Is there a
24 motion to approve Mr. Clare's professional
25 services contract?
4
1 MS. ALLEN: So moved.
2 MR. AURIEMMA: Second.
3 (On roll call, all members voted in
4 the affirmative.)
5 MAYOR SHAMEY: Okay. Let me back up a
6 step. We have the consent agenda, all items
7 listed with an asterisk are considered to be
8 routine by the Township Committee and will be
9 covered by one motion. If there is anything
10 that a member or anyone else wishes to bring
11 to our attention, in that case, it will be
12 removed from the general order of business and
13 from its regular sequence on the agenda.
14 These are marked with an asterisk. Any
15 comments or statements from the Committee on
16 the consent agenda? This also, by the way, is
17 for approval of the minutes of January 17,
18 2006, and January 20, 2006.
19 Is there a motion on the consent
20 agenda and approval of minutes for those
21 meetings?
22 MR. AURIEMMA: Motion to approve the
23 consent agenda.
24 MAYOR SHAMEY: Is there a second?
25 MR. GATTI: Second.
5
1 (On roll call, all members voted in
2 the affirmative.)
3 MAYOR SHAMEY: Now, we will go quickly
4 before we get to the public hearing that we
5 are going to skip over correspondence, there
6 are three items of correspondence which are on
7 your agenda, copies of them are up front.
8 Does any member of the Committee have
9 any comment or question with regard to any of
10 the three items under consideration? Okay.
11 Moving on to old business, there is
12 none.
13 Do we want to take care of this piece
14 of new business or take care of it at the end
15 when we have the three public hearings?
16 MR. AURIEMMA: Let's do it at the end.
17 MAYOR SHAMEY: The right side says now
18 and the left side says later. I will break
19 the tie and suggest that we dispose of this
20 item now, because it is related to the Triple
21 D, which was covered in executive.
22 Do you want to speak to this, Julia?
23 MS. ALLEN: The first item of new
24 business is an ordinance authorizing the
25 conveyance of the farmland preservation or
6
1 agricultural development rights, easement to
2 the Hunterdon County Farmland Preservation
3 Program. Triple D, LLC, is the 38-acre farm
4 that we just spoke about, and I would make a
5 motion to pass the ordinance authorizing the
6 conveyance of the development rights to
7 Hunterdon County.
8 MAYOR SHAMEY: Is there a second?
9 MR. AURIEMMA: Second.
10 MAYOR SHAMEY: Roll call.
11 (On roll call, all members voted in
12 the affirmative.)
13 MAYOR SHAMEY: The second meeting in
14 March, is that okay?
15 MS. ALLEN: Yes.
16 MAYOR SHAMEY: Public hearing on that
17 will be March 20th. Okay.
18 We have four public hearings, and we
19 will get to the one that most, I assume, most
20 everybody is here for. This is the public
21 hearing on Ordinance No. 04-2006. Is there a
22 motion to close the regular meeting and open
23 the public hearing on this ordinance?
24 MR. AURIEMMA: Moved.
25 MR. GATTI: Second.
7
1 MAYOR SHAMEY: All in favor, say aye.
2 (On roll call, all members voted in
3 the affirmative.)
4 MAYOR SHAMEY: By way of introduction,
5 ladies and gentlemen, this is the public
6 hearing on Ordinance No. 04-2006, which is an
7 ordinance that is entitled "Bond Ordinance
8 Providing for Acquisition of Airport and Land
9 or Interest in Land for Preservation, Block
10 48, Lot 23; Block 55, Lot 33; Block 56, Lots
11 1, 3, 6 and 8; Block 39, Lot 24; and Block 67,
12 Lot 2, owner: Solberg Aviation/Hromoho), in
13 and by the Township of Readington, in the
14 County of Hunterdon, New Jersey, Appropriating
15 $22 Million therefor, and Authorizing the
16 Issuance of $21,700,000 Bonds or Notes of the
17 Township to Finance Part of the Cost Thereof."
18 This ordinance was introduced at this
19 Committee's meeting of February 6, 2006, at
20 which time the Township Committee also adopted
21 a resolution which authorized the law firm of
22 Connell, Foley, LLC, to undertake certain
23 investigations of the subject property, that
24 is the property that has just been enumerated,
25 Solberg Airport and Hromoho Properties.
8
1 The purpose of the investigation is to
2 conduct preliminary assessments including
3 investigations and surveys and, more
4 importantly, to obtain appraisals.
5 Both the bond ordiannce, as well as
6 the resolution I just referred to, are
7 necessary if we are to continue to have
8 negotiations with Solberg Aviation about the
9 future of the airport and about the open space
10 surrounding it, which are to be meaningful.
11 The appraisals are, of course, necessary to be
12 sure the Township has current and accurate
13 information with which to offer a fair amount
14 of compensation in our discussions with the
15 Solbergs and the bond ordinance places the
16 Committee in a position to make a contingency
17 pre-cash offer to Solberg Aviation for the
18 open space that the Township is interested in
19 preserving and for certain development
20 restrictions on the airport property.
21 It should be noted clearly that
22 municipal acquisition of the airport is not
23 contemplated at this time. This is not an
24 eminent domain ordinance. This is a bond
25 ordinance. It is the preference of this
9
1 Committee that ownership of the airport remain
2 in the owners, that is Solberg Aviation. So I
3 cannot stress enough to you the fact that this
4 a public hearing on a bond ordinance. Just
5 give me one moment.
6 The bond ordinance can be analogized
7 to taking out a home equity line of credit on
8 your house. What it does is it puts the
9 Township in a position to draw down on that
10 allotment of money. If the Committee is to
11 adopt this ordinance and pass this ordinance
12 this evening, we will not have spent a dime of
13 that $22 million, it is a bond ordinance only.
14 Again, it puts us in a position to have money
15 on the table to show the Solbergs and Solberg
16 Aviation that we are serious in our effort to
17 negotiate a resolution to our issues.
18 So what we are going to do this
19 evening is as follows: I am going to present
20 some background information to the audience,
21 just to get people caught up to date. For
22 those of you who were not present at the
23 January 17th informational meeting, it will
24 help bring you up to date as to recent events.
25 Mrs. Allen will present certain
10
1 information relevant to the various funding
2 opportunities that are available to the
3 Township, and funding sources. We will then
4 have Mr. Gatti, who is our finance liaison,
5 speak to anticipated tax impact, keeping in
6 mind that these are hypothetical scenarios
7 that we will be working with. They are not
8 numbers to which we can or wish to be bound.
9 They are examples based upon the hypothetical
10 home assessed at $400,000, and they are also
11 numbers that have been arrived at just by
12 virtue of our experience and our Farmland and
13 Open Space Act programs. So again, there are
14 numbers that we can work with, and they are
15 good examples to use. Again, perhaps not
16 exact.
17 Following Mr. Gatti's presentation on
18 tax impact, and he will also speak to the
19 municipal debt, and all this will move along
20 as quickly as possible, because we have been
21 through much of this before.
22 There have been numerous questions
23 raised, both by residents and in the press,
24 with regards to the various powers and
25 authorities of the various levels of
11
1 government that are involved in any situation
2 such as this, and that is us, the local
3 government, the State Government and the
4 Federal Government.
5 Numerous questions have been asked.
6 Relevant, pointed questions that I am going to
7 attempt to address and answer to the best of
8 my abilities.
9 We will then have a public comment
10 portion following those presentations, and I
11 will speak more to that procedure that we will
12 be following for that when we start the public
13 comment portion. So with that said, just a
14 couple of other things: We intend to
15 summarize our goals. We will again talk about
16 debt with the funding operations and funding
17 sources and tax impacts. I note that Mr.
18 Solberg was in the hallway, but I do not know
19 if I see him in this room. If any
20 representative of Solberg Aviation wishes to
21 present any information, they will be given
22 the opportunity to do so this evening. They
23 are invited to do so, as they have always been
24 invited to do so. Then again, we will open it
25 up to the public for comments.
12
1 Now, if you will give us a moment, we
2 are just going to shift the microphones to
3 that table and ask Jay Rhatican to vacate, if
4 he would.
5 Thank you for your patience. We are
6 trying to figure out the best way to do this
7 logistically, and this seems to make sense,
8 because we will be referring to certain
9 slides, and we have other material that we can
10 work off of. So I will wait for somebody to
11 tell me that that things is up and we can
12 begin.
13 Mr. Gatti, as soon as you give me the
14 green light, we will get started.
15 We will begin with slide one. I am
16 going to move through this as quickly as
17 possible, ladies and gentlemen, because I know
18 there are a lot of you that want to comment.
19 But there is a lot of additional material that
20 I think needs to be addressed to the public,
21 and before we start, is there any way that we
22 can leave some type of light on back here so
23 maybe I can read?
24 Just to review. The Township has had
25 longstanding goals of preservation of Solberg
13
1 Airport. Going back to the Township Master
2 Plan in the mid 1990s, and earlier than that,
3 this site has been identified by both the
4 local government, by Hunterdon County and by
5 the State of New Jersey as a high priority
6 preservation area. It is always and continues
7 to be a goal of the Township to maintain the
8 airport and see the airport maintained in its
9 current configuration, and when we talk about
10 configuration, we necessarily talk about
11 runway length. Finally, consistent with
12 longstanding policies of the Township, it has
13 always been the goal of this Township for
14 years, if not decades, for preservation of
15 this tract and preservation of the 650 acres
16 of open space surrounding the airport.
17 Now, back in August of 2005, the bond
18 ordinance which was similar, if not the same
19 as the ordinance that is here for considera-
20 tion this evening, was introduced and then
21 withdrawn by this Committee at its August 22,
22 2005, meeting. This taking place following an
23 agreement being reached with Solberg Aviation
24 to conduct good faith negotiations in an
25 attempt to resolve this longstanding issue
14
1 that has been here in our township. Six
2 negotiation sessions took place over a five-
3 month period. Those were attended by
4 Committeewoman Allen, then Mayor Gatti, our
5 counsel, Jay Rhatigan, the three Solbergs and
6 their lawyer from Morristown, he is an
7 attorney, Lawrence Berger. I believe that is
8 it.
9 On January 2, 2006, at the final
10 negotiation session, the negotiations were
11 effectively terminated. It was reported back
12 to this Committee by Mr. Gatti and by Mrs.
13 Allen that the Township's insistence on
14 maintenance of this runway length that is
15 currently 3,735 feet, was of paramount
16 importance to this Township, and this Township
17 was not interested in seeing the runway
18 lengthened at all beyond that length. They
19 were told at that point that, essentially, we
20 were wasting our time. This is through their
21 counsel.
22 The parties got up, they shook hands
23 and walked out.
24 We then conducted a public information
25 hearing or meeting, rather, in this room on
15
1 January 17th, and it was at that point that
2 rather detailed information was presented to
3 the public with respect to the negotiations,
4 with respect to some general aviation
5 materials and information. Environmental
6 experts spoke, we had a noise expert as well,
7 and much, if not all, of this information is
8 posted on the Township website and I would
9 urge our residents to please take the time, if
10 you can, and review this information. It may
11 generate questions, comments, criticisms and
12 what have you. But it has all been posted.
13 Again, on February 6th, the Township
14 Committee authorized an appraisal to be done
15 with respect to the property.
16 Slide three. Where are negotiations
17 today? As reported at the January 17th
18 meeting, the Township's position is as
19 follows: The Township is offering Solberg
20 Aviation $22 million, and the Solbergs would
21 retain the airport as it exists today. It
22 would be preserved. The existing runways
23 would not be lengthened; however, there is
24 only 3,000 feet paved right now, and there is
25 a remaining 735 feet that could be paved.
16
1 That is something that there would be no
2 objection to. So it keeps the existing
3 runways not to be lengthened, that is, from
4 their licensed length. The hangar space, in a
5 nut shell and, as reported at the January 17th
6 meeting, Solberg Aviation's initial demand was
7 for a 5,600-foot runway, the same being told
8 to us as being non-starter or anything less
9 than that, and then one million square feet of
10 office and hangar space is being requested.
11 In the course of the negotiations, the runway
12 length demand was slid back a bit by Solberg
13 Aviation to 5,000 feet, and the requested
14 hangar and office space was reduced to 500,000
15 square feet.
16 Just by point of comparison,
17 Morristown Airport, if any of you are familiar
18 with it, has about 500,000 square feet of
19 Hangar and office space.
20 The Township would acquire and
21 preserve the 600 acres of open space. The
22 open space around the airport would be
23 permanently preserved, and the cost of up to
24 $22 million would be reimbursed through State
25 open space grants. Mrs. Allen will speak
17
1 specifically as to the funding issues, so I
2 will not delve into those areas at all right
3 now. There has been some confusion, and a
4 little bit of misinformation, as to what is
5 and what is not available, and we will speak
6 to that.
7 Both the airport and the site's
8 considerable natural resources would be
9 protected under this scenario.
10 Currently, as most recently expressed
11 in the private negotiation sessions that I
12 referred to, the Solbergs' position is the
13 following: That the airport be allowed to
14 expand, in the sense the runway would be paved
15 out to a 5,000 foot paved primary runway.
16 That is slightly longer than the requested
17 runway that was contained in the airport
18 Master Plan and the Airport Layout Plan of
19 1991, which called for a 4,900 foot runway.
20 For some reason, it has grown to 5,000 from
21 that. They would also like to pave out to
22 3,700 feet the cross-winds runway.
23 Now, there is a diagram here that has
24 been handed out before, and it gives the lay
25 of the land and configuration of the runways
18
1 with regard to the roads that are nearby, with
2 regards to the location of the school and the
3 middle school. So it is helpful to get your
4 hands on that so they can be put into
5 perspective. They are requesting 500,000
6 square feet of hangar and office space, and
7 they have proposed certain restrictions on
8 noise and nighttime operations, the specifics
9 of which I am unaware.
10 They also indicated that the future
11 expansion would be limited per the 1999
12 Airport Layout Plan, which again the runway
13 length exceeds that. So obviously, that would
14 have to be fleshed out a little bit more.
15 The remaining open space over to us
16 for preservation is those parcels not
17 necessary or essential to the expansion plans
18 of the airport. For those parcels which are
19 rather carved up and scattered throughout the
20 overall tract, Solberg Aviation is asking $36
21 million.
22 We would like to move forward with
23 more productive negotiations, because we feel
24 that it is time to negotiate seriously. All
25 we have had to work with so far with regard to
19
1 the position of Solberg Aviation has come from
2 two sources, one has been the positions that
3 have been enunciated by Solberg in the private
4 negotiation sessions which we have made known
5 to the public, and the other information that
6 has been presented to the public by Solberg
7 Aviation is that which has been reported in
8 the newspaper articles, editorials and letters
9 that have been sent out by Solberg Aviation.
10 The two are 100 percent inconsistent with one
11 another. We need to know the truth. It is
12 time for some honesty, and we need to know
13 exactly what the position of Solberg Aviation
14 is, and we need to hear it from one voice, not
15 three, one.
16 So it is time to get serious about
17 negotiations and, therefore, we have
18 commissioned the appraisals to be commenced
19 and, therefore, this bond ordinance. We will
20 put the money on the table for use in our
21 future negotiations, if they take place.
22 Now, on to slide six. Why $22
23 million? Why bond for $22 million? Well,
24 this is a not to exceed number. And again,
25 and analogizing it to taking out a home equity
20
1 line for $22 million and spending 10 or 15 or
2 whatever, it is the same concept. It is a not
3 to exceed amount. It has some basis,
4 recently, in our recent offer to the Solbergs
5 last summer of $22 million for the 650 acres
6 of open space, but it is not the offer to
7 Solberg for the entire tract, including the
8 airport.
9 Why buy the open space and not the
10 airport? Well, a couple of reasons. As
11 indicated earlier, it is the Solberg family's
12 preference as well as the preference of this
13 Committee, that ownership of the airport
14 remain in Solberg Aviation. Readington
15 Township can achieve its longstanding planning
16 and policy goals, which stands for four
17 decades of coming to be in the state they are
18 in today in terms of our Master Plan and its
19 amendments, and all of that has gone on for
20 four decades. Those goals could be
21 accomplished by preserving the 650 acres of
22 open space and purchasing the development
23 easement on the 76 acre airport.
24 At this point, we are going to move to
25 slide eight, I will turn the microphone over
21
1 to Committeewoman Julia Allen, who will speak
2 to open space funding options and the funds
3 available, and she will attempt to answer,
4 hopefully, in advance, many of the questions
5 you may have about funding and also any of the
6 questions that have already been raised. So I
7 will turn it over to Mrs. Allen.
8 MS. ALLEN: Good evening. With
9 respect to open space funding options, the
10 most heavily relied on funding option for
11 Readington Township has been and will continue
12 to be the State Green Acres Program. Under
13 the State Green Acres Program, there are
14 several different programs available to
15 preserve open land. One is the direct State
16 acquisition. This is a program in which the
17 State buys the property, it is retained by the
18 State, and 100 percent of the value is paid
19 for by the State.
20 Just to summarize, the acquisitions
21 are made by the State with 100 percent State
22 funds. The money is still readily available
23 for projects of statewide significance. The
24 land is purchased and retained by the State.
25 The land would be managed by the State as a
22
1 wild life management area; the land can be
2 prepurchased by the Township, and this has
3 been done in five different instances already
4 in Readington Township. Most recently, the
5 Fallone property on Rockefeller Mills Road,
6 and the YEF property on Lamington River.
7 The State is more likely to be
8 interested in large contiguous tracts for this
9 program. Solberg Airport is designated as a
10 natural heritage priority site, making it a
11 State priority, and Solberg Airport is one of
12 the best examples of grassland habitat of
13 threatened and endangered species, and as
14 such, has statewide priority for preservation.
15 The next, under Green Acres, is the
16 Municipal Grants Program, and this is a 50
17 percent share. The grants are available to
18 townships that have adopted open space plans
19 and have a dedicated open space tax and an
20 open space trust fund. Readington has both.
21 The grants are made at 50 percent of the land
22 value. Value as in all open space
23 preservation programs is determined by
24 appraisals. Readington has obtained grants
25 for almost ten years under the Municipal
23
1 Grants Program. The land reserved as a result
2 of this funding would be owned by the Township
3 and available for the Township's recreational
4 purposes, and that would be both active and
5 passive.
6 The next is the New Jersey
7 Environmental Infrastructure Trust Program.
8 This is not a grant program, it is a loan
9 program with low interest. The money comes
10 from Federal sources, the Federal Clean Water
11 Act, and the way the low interest loan works,
12 75 percent of the value is loaned interest
13 free and 25 percent of the value is loaned at
14 market rate interest. The Township would own
15 the preserved land, but the land would have a
16 conservation easement, which allows absolutely
17 no disturbance, and possibly some massive
18 recreation opportunities.
19 The next and last possibility that we
20 are anticipating, but there are other
21 possibilities that would be available to us if
22 we needed them, but the last is the County
23 Open Space Trust Fund, and that, generally,
24 traditionally, is paying 20 percent on the
25 cost share of qualifying projects. The
24
1 municipality can apply to the County for
2 financing a project in the Open Space Trust
3 Fund and they generally approve one that
4 represents the County Master Plan, and Solberg
5 property is found on the County Open Space
6 Plan.
7 Next slide.
8 One question that appears to be asked
9 fairly often is, are open space funds
10 available? The answer to this question is
11 predominantly answered by explaining the
12 provision of the Garden State Preservation
13 Trust Act. This is an Act that was passed in
14 1998, after a November 1998 referendum in the
15 State of New Jersey, because of a favorable
16 vote. Money was constitutionally dedicated
17 for open space purposes, a total of $2 million
18 over a ten year period from 1999 to 2009, of
19 which $1.7 million has already been
20 appropriated in the fiscal years 2000 to 2006.
21 There is still some money available for new
22 projects for fiscal years 2007 to 2009. This
23 money will be available for new projects, and
24 this is an iron clad procedure that sets up
25 this money and dedicates it for open space, as
25
1 I said before. It was a constitutional
2 amendment that set up the trust fund. Undoing
3 that trust fund would also take a
4 constitutional amendment, which would include
5 a vote of all of the citizens of the State of
6 New Jersey.
7 Needless to say, nobody anticipates
8 this happening. No governor or legislature
9 can touch this money and use it for any other
10 purpose without going back to the voters of
11 the State of New Jersey. So we are confident
12 that this money will be available to us, and
13 the money that has already been allocated,
14 which in Readington's case is considerable,
15 will be forthcoming.
16 In the Garden State Preservation Trust
17 Act funds, both the Green Acres Program and
18 the Farmland Preservation Program, Green Acres
19 uses 60 percent of the funding and farmland
20 preservation is approximately 40 percent.
21 The next source of funding is the
22 Federal Clean Water Act, and this is the
23 source of the low interest loan from the New
24 Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust that
25 is set aside for projects that protect water
26
1 quality. This money is plentiful for
2 townships that follow a very rigorous grant
3 application procedure.
4 The third source of money that we
5 talked about was the County Open Space Trust
6 Fund, and the citizens of Hunterdon County
7 recently voted on a three cents per $100 of
8 assessed valuation to be collected annually
9 from all of the townships in Hunterdon County
10 over the next five years, beginning in 2006.
11 This is continuing a trust fund that was set
12 up in the year 2000 and continued through
13 2005. Readington, last year, in 2005,
14 contributed almost a million dollars or
15 $971,000 to this fund, and Readington is
16 entitled to reimbursement on projects of its
17 choice, and projects of importance to the
18 County. This project, as I mentioned, is on
19 the County Open Space Fund, so that is about
20 it.
21 MAYOR SHAMEY: I want to turn it over
22 to Committeeman Frank Gatti, who will speak to
23 the tax impact on the average homeowner.
24 Do you need help down there?
25 MR. GATTI: No, I am set.
27
1 I just want to state that as a
2 township, we can bond up to three and a half
3 percent of our equalized value of property,
4 which currently stands at approximately $3
5 million. So based on today's equalized value
6 of property in Readington Township, this
7 Township can bond up to $103 million, as it
8 stands right now. Our debt is approximately
9 $47 million. Of this amount, the Township is
10 due approximately $17 million in reimburse-
11 ments from farmland preservation and the Open
12 Space Fund, which Julia Allen just spoke
13 about.
14 Sixty-five to 70 percent of our debt
15 comprises land debt. If this bond passes
16 tonight, our debt will be approximately $69
17 million, which represents 2.35 percent of the
18 equalized assessment basis that I previously
19 spoke to you about, which is well within the
20 three and a half percent limit.
21 I would like to point out that our
22 current bond rating here in the township by
23 Standard & Poor's is double A, which is one of
24 the highest ratings. But what is the impact
25 on the average homeowner? The theoretical
28
1 $400,000 home, I believe the assessment in
2 Readington Township is 380,000. For the sake
3 of numbers, we are using $400,000. Basically,
4 what it boils down to is that if we are able
5 to achieve getting these open space funds,
6 which we have been very successful in the
7 past, our long-term bonding would be $60 per
8 year for this $400,000 home. Again, that is
9 with the anticipated Green Acres grant and the
10 low interest loans that are available to the
11 New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust.
12 I would like to point out at this time
13 that these numbers were calculated by our
14 chief financial officer, Tom Powers, who works
15 for us in the township. So the worst case
16 scenario is none of this will happen. We will
17 not get the open space. The funds are all not
18 going to come through.
19 Well, if that is the case, what the
20 Township would be able to do is the Township
21 will be able to still go ahead and do the
22 $22 million bond. We can get notes for a
23 period of three years and, basically, for
24 those notes, we will have to pay the interest
25 only on those notes, and after the three-year
29
1 period, then you are required to bond. So for
2 the first three years, the impact of this
3 $400,000 home would be roughly $55 a year.
4 After that time, when we do the bonds, we go
5 out and solicit to various financial
6 institutions or bond council, and based on
7 today's rates, it would cost the average
8 homeowner or the average $400,000 homeowner
9 about $65 a year. Starting in the year four,
10 $165 per year. Again, this is the worst case
11 scenario. I want to make sure we are all on
12 the same page as to what the bond is. Even
13 though we are discussing the bond tonight, we
14 are, hopefully, going to vote on the bond
15 tonight. That doesn't mean tomorrow we wake
16 up and start paying the $65 or $55 a year.
17 What happens is that gives us the ability to
18 continue negotiations with the family, the
19 Solberg family and, hopefully, we will be able
20 to consummate the deal. At which time we will
21 give them a downpayment, create a contract
22 with a downpayment and then once, I guess, the
23 contract is signed, the $22 million would be
24 given to the family, and the Township would
25 have to work on starting the funding. And as
30
1 previously mentioned, this Township has been
2 successful in the past with prepurchasing land
3 and then going out and finding money. We have
4 a fairly good feel for what commitments we
5 will get ahead of time, and that process has
6 already been started.
7 I would also like to point out at this
8 time that based on today's numbers, this
9 Township does have some additional ratables
10 that will be coming on in the future for this
11 Township. We have two senior developments
12 that are being planned, and in addition, we
13 have the Belle Mead property up by Route 78,
14 which could provide for approvals for about
15 600,000 square feet of office space. So that
16 will offset the numbers I have discussed.
17 That is it, thank you.
18 MAYOR SHAMEY: Thank you very much.
19 The next area we would like to address is, as
20 I indicated earlier, just the various levels
21 of authority and where we stand and all that
22 as local government. Because issues have been
23 raised in that regard, and you are asking
24 questions can this be forced on us and how
25 does this work. What authority does the local
31
1 government have, et cetera, et cetera. So I
2 will try to go through this as quickly as I
3 can.
4 First of all, by what authority does
5 the FAA have control over airports? Well,
6 there are certain statutes, Federal statutes
7 that are relevant to airports, and those are
8 the ones enumerated on that slide. I will
9 read them to you. The Airport and Airway
10 Improvement Act deals a lot with physical
11 characteristics, and states among one of its
12 policies that, "Any airport expansion is
13 funded through the Act to be undertaken to the
14 maximum extent feasible." Therefore, it is
15 based on efficiency and safety. The Airport
16 Noise and Capacity Act, which is known as
17 ANCA, established a national aviation noise
18 policy. So generally speaking, under these
19 Federal statutes that exist and have been
20 promulgated, numerous Federal regulations
21 which pre-empt local regulations of airports,
22 it comes back to the Interstate Commerce laws
23 of the United States Constitution. If an
24 airport owner accepts Federal funds, the
25 airport must comply with a host of these
32
1 regulations, including prohibition on
2 discrimination of types of aircraft. As I
3 said, the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of
4 1990, it manages the national noise policy,
5 and the FAA has interpreted this to mean that
6 local issues relating to noise must take a
7 back seat to national policy. And I will cite
8 a case on that shortly.
9 Again, if the airport owner accepts
10 FAA money, it comes with grant conditions in
11 the form of restrictions of what you can do in
12 terms of limitation on noise and operations.
13 I have already spoken about the Airport Noise
14 and Capacity Act.
15 The regulations under that Act are not
16 dependent upon Federal funding, but the
17 failure to comply with them renders an airport
18 operator unable to receive that Federal
19 funding. So the FAA is concerned, their main
20 focus in on operations and noise and the like.
21 On the State level, that would
22 probably take us to the next slide. There is
23 State legislation, this is slide 12, by what
24 authority does the State of New Jersey have
25 control over airports? We have the State
33
1 Aviation Act, which entrusts the supervision
2 of aeronautics to the Commissioner of
3 Transportation, and the New Jersey Airport
4 Safety Act of 1983 broadened the
5 Commissioner's power.
6 Now, on the State level, first of all,
7 much has been raised about what land use
8 control does the municipality have. Well, the
9 municipality already has diminished land use
10 control as a result of the State legislation,
11 which restricts the heights and the land use
12 of sensitive areas around the runways. But
13 there is still some site plan control on the
14 local level. Even if a local site plan --
15 even a local site plan approval would be
16 restricted in the event of an FAA funding
17 being received, and the FAA, generally, takes
18 the position that local planning controls are
19 pre-empted by Federal law. Additionally, on
20 the State level, the New Jersey DOT
21 regulations bar an airport from having planes
22 use the airport as long as the planes are
23 physically capable to use the airport as
24 applied by the FAA regulations.
25 Just to talk a little bit about the
34
1 local level and bring it all together to the
2 best that I can -- first, one last thing on
3 State law, that requires that the State law --
4 the State law requires that N.J. DOT approve
5 any airport expansion such as that proposed by
6 the Solbergs in the 1997 Master Plan. NJ DOT
7 is empowered to override any local decisions,
8 if to do so is in the best interest of the
9 State Aviation policies. Although land use is
10 not pre-empted by State law, the local
11 Planning Boards or Board of Adjustment would
12 retain site plan review and approval powers,
13 and although the NJ DOT must give some
14 consideration to those authorities, Board of
15 Adjustment, Planning Board, they need not
16 defer to their decisions. In other words, the
17 State has the final say, not the Federal
18 Government.
19 Now, a couple of other things about
20 local zoning: Although the underlying zoning
21 does not permit an airport use and would
22 otherwise require a variance for expansion of
23 a non-conforming use, that is due to the fact
24 that the airport is grandfathered in. It is
25 in a residential zone, it is a pre-existing
35
1 non-conforming use, so to expand as it stands
2 today, one would have to go to the Board of
3 Adjustment for a variance. This is New Jersey
4 law that does require host municipalities to
5 enable an ordinance to make it a conforming
6 use. Readington has never enacted such an
7 ordinance. That ordinance was litigated at
8 one point, and although upheld as to
9 constitutionality, this is the statute
10 requiring us to rezone that I am talking
11 about. The Court ruled that the case really
12 was not what they call ripe for adjudication.
13 They didn't come to a ruling on it, and the
14 reason they didn't come to a ruling on that
15 statute is that the DOT had not yet
16 promulgated the regulations that that Act
17 requires. So the process was not yet
18 complete. There is nothing to work to in
19 terms of regulations that would implement that
20 statute. We have never adopted that
21 ordinance. We have never, although there was
22 discussion between the Township and the State
23 many years ago about adopting such an
24 ordinance, those discussions ended and we do
25 not -- right now it is a pre-existing non-
36
1 conforming use.
2 With an application to be made for
3 expansion and denied, of course, it would
4 invite litigation, at which time maybe that
5 statute would be litigated again.
6 How does that all tie together? How
7 likely is it that this would happen? How
8 would it all play itself out? That is the
9 real question here, I think.
10 Solberg Airport is a designated
11 reliever airport under a Federal -- it is
12 called the National Plan of Integrated Airport
13 Systems. This is a 2005-2009 report, and
14 Solberg Airport, Solberg Aviation both
15 requested and then received reliever airport
16 status. What that does is it allows the
17 airport -- it makes that airport eligible as a
18 sponsor to accessing grant funding for the
19 Airport Improvement Fund. All control over
20 what improvements are planned for an airport
21 are initiated by the airport sponsor. So I
22 want to be clear about that. It is not that
23 the FAA goes around the country looking for
24 airports to expand, the sponsor comes to them.
25 So the expansion plans are initiated
37
1 by the sponsor and approved and potentially
2 funded by the FAA, and that is without any
3 intervention or input by local or State
4 authority, which I will get to in a moment.
5 The process of expansion is laid out
6 in Federal regulations, and this is what took
7 place starting back in 1997 to 1999 and 2000.
8 The sponsor develops an airport Master Plan
9 which was done, which was then reviewed and
10 determined to be complying with FAA regs, and
11 then an Airport Layout Plan was drawn up based
12 on that document. The FAA gave Solberg
13 Aviation, back in 1999, conditional approval
14 of its Airport Improvement Plan and its
15 Airport Layout Plan. We need to be clear and
16 to remember that that has already been done,
17 and that was based upon a 4,890 foot main
18 runway. I was involved in that process as
19 well as many members of the Committee, and the
20 sponsor has to conduct an environmental
21 assessment based upon something called the FAA
22 Environmental Handbook, and the sponsor has to
23 come up with a finding of no significant
24 impact in a variety of areas. That would be
25 noise, air pollution, impact on historic
38
1 sites, water resources, et cetera. If any
2 area does not meet the appropriate standard,
3 then you must do a full environmental impact
4 study. It is a higher level of scrutiny, but
5 only as to those items that don't pass muster
6 the first time.
7 This process was started by Solberg
8 Aviation through a consultant hired by the
9 State of New Jersey called Clough Hargher, and
10 I participated in those proceedings, as did
11 Mrs. Allen and others on the Committee.
12 Before I speak to those a little bit further,
13 I just wanted to back up a step.
14 The Master Plan and Airport Layout
15 Plan of Solberg Aviation, again, they are
16 conditionally approved by the FAA and the DOT
17 of 1999. It should be noted that both of
18 these approvals were granted over strong local
19 objections, including written objections from
20 the Readington Township Committee and
21 Branchburg Township Committee, the Somerset
22 County Board of Freeholders, our State
23 Senators and Assembly people, over those
24 strong local objections, and statewide on the
25 part of our State representatives. Those were
39
1 ignored. The FAA granted conditional
2 approval.
3 Troubling evidence of how much import
4 they give to the concerns of the community.
5 So that process took place, and I
6 participated in it, but when I use the word
7 "participate", I use it loosely and
8 facetiously. That is because when the process
9 gets to that point, and we have been there,
10 we, the local governing body, we, the
11 community of Readington Township, we cease
12 being participants and we are then spectators.
13 This was a self-fulfilling prophesy,
14 there was no doubt in anyone's mind what the
15 outcome of those proceedings was going to be.
16 The only thing that stopped them was the
17 Township had commenced its eminent domain
18 proceedings and the State went in and went
19 with the Solbergs.
20 In terms of public input of this
21 environmental assessment, it consisted of
22 going into a rather large room and you can sit
23 with somebody at a table, log in your
24 comments, your concerns and what have you.
25 There would be a table relative to noise,
40
1 relative to water quality or whatever. It
2 wasn't this large participatory meeting where
3 representatives of the State and a consulting
4 firm were asked questions directly and had to
5 answer them in front of others, it was kind of
6 a booth kind of setup.
7 In addition to that, we also conducted
8 a series of, I won't call them hearings, they
9 are more like meetings, and those were
10 attended by representatives of Readington,
11 Branchburg, Hunterdon and Somerset County
12 Chambers of Commerce, Solberg Aviation, and I
13 am trying to think of who else participated in
14 those hearings. What those meetings were, it
15 was not a give-and-take session, it was simply
16 reporting back to us what the findings were.
17 Again, it was non-participatory, it was just
18 that here is what we have, the process as I
19 stated publicly before, and I stated it
20 directly to the State hired consultants, the
21 process was insulting, at best.
22 The treatment of real estate values,
23 for example, in one of the reports they
24 issued, and again they were 80 to 90 percent
25 complete, the only thing left was a final
41
1 report and a finding, and we all had no doubt
2 that there was going to be a finding of
3 significant impact. But just as an example of
4 how ridiculous this was and how insulting this
5 was, in my view, the treatment as to the
6 proposed impact on the expansion of real
7 estate values was a scant paragraph on the
8 bottom of one page that talked about how a few
9 realtors had been consulted and then felt
10 maybe, except for a certain few areas,
11 generally speaking, it really shouldn't have
12 any impact on real estate values. That was
13 it. So the process was a cruel joke.
14 The question has been raised, if you
15 can give me a minute here, is there a clear
16 and present danger of an expansion and can it
17 happen. Well, you know, corporate jet travel
18 is alive and well. Teterboro and Morristown
19 are at capacity. Small jet manufacturers and
20 operators are expanding operations nationwide.
21 Current capacity, again, is strained. The
22 National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems,
23 although this is a planning document, it is
24 not a budget document, but it does set aside a
25 line item of, I'm sorry, $12,750,000 for
42
1 improvements at Solberg Airport. When Mr.
2 Solberg circulated a letter to the public
3 saying it is an absolute lie by the officials
4 and no monies have been allocated, there was
5 some play on semantics going on there. The
6 fact of the matter is no, it is not on the
7 pipeline, but it is on the planning document
8 and, rather quickly, it can be placed into
9 that pipeline, because the only thing that
10 really needs to happen for this to move
11 forward would be updating of the Master Plan
12 and completion of the environmental assessment
13 process.
14 I don't have any faith in that process
15 whatsoever, and I don't think anyone else on
16 this Committee does.
17 We covered the State, and I think I
18 really already went over the slide about
19 municipal authority over airports, and we will
20 move on from there and just talk about a
21 couple of other issues of concern and raise a
22 few other points here.
23 We understand that there has been some
24 polling that has been taking place. We want
25 the residents to know that the Township has
43
1 absolutely nothing to do with the polling. We
2 haven't commissioned it, and I am in receipt
3 of a handout that was brought in tonight from
4 Mr. Solberg that indicates that apparently
5 this was his poll and some of you can believe
6 what you may, but obviously -- I will say
7 this, that Frank Gatti and I had an
8 opportunity to talk about polling with Mr.
9 Solberg once before, and that was in the
10 spring of last year when we met at the gazebo
11 at the park, and this is when the first poll
12 had come out, and we have had many residents
13 tell us the kind of questions being asked and
14 so forth. I asked Mr. Solberg, we had asked
15 him for a copy of the questions at that time,
16 can we see the questions being asked of
17 residents. "Well, you can see some of those
18 questions." "Well, why can't we see all of
19 the questions?" "Because some of those
20 questions are proprietary." "Well, does that
21 mean no answer?" I have, to date, not seen
22 one question that was asked of the residents
23 other than that which was reported to me or to
24 the rest of this Committee as to questions
25 being asked.
44
1 There has been a lot of information
2 out in the public. This Township Committee,
3 we have posted everything humanly possible on
4 our website. Again, I urge you to visit that
5 website. I will also say that we will make
6 this -- we will continue to make this process
7 as transparent as possible. The information
8 that we have laid out for the public is
9 information that is truthful and accurate and
10 reflects what has taken place over the last
11 many months. Our public positions and
12 pronouncements will now and will continue to
13 be consistent with the positions we take in
14 any private negotiations with Solberg
15 Aviation.
16 Now, a lot of questions have been
17 submitted. They can be answered either by way
18 of our consultants or one of us online. There
19 is the Mayor's e-mail, I am doing the best I
20 can in answering all of those. This folder
21 here is the ones that I haven't answered yet.
22 If anybody has e-mailed me or called me and
23 not gotten a response yet, I want you to know
24 you will get one, and I want you to know that
25 I don't know when you will get one, but you
45
1 will get one as soon as I can get one to you.
2 I promise you that. In the middle of this, I
3 am also trying to make a living, so I can only
4 spend so much time on that. But they will be
5 answered.
6 Technical questions, pass them along
7 and we will pass them along to the
8 consultants.
9 A couple of other things and then we
10 will wrap it up here. Okay. That is as much
11 information as we are able to present to the
12 public at this time. There is a lot to it, it
13 is complicated when you get involved with
14 various levels of authority, Federal, State,
15 local -- in any event, I just want to address
16 a few other things.
17 We can't stress enough how much this
18 township will change if the runway is allowed
19 to be lengthened and Federal funds are
20 accepted to do so, because in order to
21 implement the plan of Solberg Aviation, the
22 only way to do it is to accept Federal monies,
23 and when you accept Federal monies, you are
24 locked in in terms of restrictions on
25 operations, restrictions on noise and the
46
1 like. I can give you a good example of that,
2 if you bear with me, the City of Naples is an
3 example, they are in Florida. They own a
4 municipal airport and passed an ordinance
5 banning Stage 2 jets. That is somewhat older
6 and noisier jets. It is a 1961 study, a noise
7 study, and owners of those jets sued the City
8 stating it was a violation of the commerce
9 laws of the Constitution. It was upheld in
10 the Federal Court and in the State Court. The
11 FAA tried to say the noise study had defects,
12 and they tried to block the ban. The FAA
13 argued they weren't bound by the Federal Court
14 decision, and since they received Federal
15 grants, they could decide if the Naples ban
16 violated Federal law.
17 The FAA did just that, they determined
18 the noise ban violated the Federal law, the
19 Federal Grant Agreement, and was pre-empted by
20 Federal law.
21 So that is a classic example. A
22 recent example of how acceptance of Federal
23 money restricts you significantly in terms of
24 operations and in terms of noise.
25 So why are we here tonight? You are
47
1 about to begin the public comments on this
2 bond ordinance. One thing that hasn't been
3 addressed is the impact of the proposed
4 expansion on property values. We talked about
5 quality of life, but we should also remember
6 that property values are at stake. We have
7 questions about the cost of the acquisition,
8 and rightfully so. But we need to set those
9 questions against the cost of lower property
10 values for all of us, if the expansion goes
11 through.
12 A lot of people are asking why are you
13 doing this. Why are you pursuing these
14 options? And in my view, and that of this
15 Committee, I believe the cost of inaction is
16 too high. I would not be able to sleep at
17 night if I were to leave this Committee and
18 leave this to come what may in the future.
19 This has gone on for far too long, and it is
20 time for some closure.
21 I don't want to see through inaction
22 something happen that will change the
23 character of this town irrevocably. And I
24 particularly don't want to see it while I am
25 sitting up here and neither does the rest of
48
1 this Committee. We have a responsibility to
2 act in the best interests of the community.
3 I wanted to speak a little bit to the
4 issue of a mediator that was proposed. I am
5 100 percent opposed at this point to a
6 mediator, and I think it would be an
7 abrogation of my responsibilities and those of
8 this Committee to hand this issue over to a
9 mediator who, in all likelihood, will just
10 split the difference, because the mediator has
11 no stake in this. The mediators -- the
12 Township has goals, Solberg Aviation has
13 goals, the mediator's goal is resolution of a
14 dispute. So I don't want to hand that off to
15 somebody else, and I will also vote against
16 that, unless we are down to the -- we are on
17 the eve of a wonderful resolution of all of
18 our issues, and we have achieved all of our
19 goals and there are some things to iron out.
20 Maybe at that point it would be helpful, but
21 whether or not to accept business jets isn't
22 any kind of a numerical split the difference
23 question. You don't look to the middle
24 ground, and in the view of this Committee, any
25 expansion of this runway beyond the licensed
49
1 3,735 feet, will irrevocably, it will pave the
2 way for corporate jets and will forever change
3 the face of this township.
4 So we will not leave our natural
5 resources or open space policies and our
6 community character to the whim and chance of
7 a third party that we don't know, who comes
8 walking in here from out of town and says, "I
9 can help you guys work this out."
10 I am not interested in meeting that
11 person. Readington should plan Readington.
12 (Applause.)
13 MAYOR SHAMEY: Thank you. I think
14 I've talked enough. I am sure you all agree
15 with that.
16 Now, the public hearing, give me one
17 more minute here to find one piece of paper.
18 What we will do is lift the screen, turn on
19 some lights up here and shift back over here
20 and we will open. Before we open the meeting,
21 I will ask the Committee if they have anything
22 to say, if any Committee members have anything
23 further to add to what was presented.
24 We will open the microphone for public
25 comments and, in keeping with past procedure
50
1 with meetings of this size, we will limit each
2 speaker's time to two minutes. However, we
3 will, of course, be reasonable and we will be
4 flexible. We will make every reasonable
5 effort possible that everybody can be heard.
6 We ask that everybody extend the courtesies
7 they would expect from their neighbors when
8 they are speaking. Please don't interrupt
9 each other. Please listen to the comments of
10 the other speakers to save some time. If you
11 hear a comment which has been made before,
12 perhaps we can move on to the next speaker to
13 avoid repetition, and receive as much input as
14 possible from the public.
15 I ask when you come to the microphone
16 that you sign in and identify yourself by name
17 and residence address. Be sure to speak
18 clearly into the microphone so the
19 Stenographer can take down everything that you
20 have said.
21 Let us get resituated, and we will get
22 started.
23 One other thing, if you could spell
24 your name for the record as well. With regard
25 to questions, we can't entertain questions
51
1 from the podium because, based upon past
2 experience, although we may want to try to
3 answer a question quickly and get something
4 out of the way, and that is my tendency to try
5 to do that, but oftentimes it leads into a
6 question-and-answer session, and one speaker
7 takes up too much time and other people don't
8 get to speak. So if you do have a question,
9 you can go ahead and ask it, and we will be
10 taking down as many of your questions as we
11 can, and at the conclusion of the public
12 comments, the Committee will answer as many
13 questions as possible. If you feel yourself
14 that your question hasn't been answered, hand
15 it in in writing to me or to Vita and make
16 sure to give your name, address and phone
17 number and your e-mail address and we will get
18 you an answer as soon as possible.
19 Again, we are not going to be able to
20 engage in a debate. This is a public comment
21 on an ordinance. What we will try to do --
22 before we begin, does any member of the
23 Committee have anything they would like to add
24 to any of the information that has been
25 presented so far?
52
1 MR. AURIEMMA: I would like to speak
2 to one point that wasn't mentioned this
3 evening. I would like to speak to the letter
4 that Mr. Solberg sent to the members of our
5 Township last week in an effort to keep us all
6 informed. Unfortunately, I think there was
7 some misinformation in this letter, most of
8 which was corrected this evening. However,
9 there was one line that I would like to see
10 supported by the airport owners this evening,
11 and that line is "We are happy with the
12 airport the way it is."
13 With utmost respect to Mr. Solberg, I
14 think you need to reaffirm your intentions to
15 the residents this evening. If you are happy
16 with the airport as it exists, you need to
17 commit to this community that you will not
18 expand the runway beyond its current 3,735
19 feet in perpetuity.
20 (Applause.)
21 MR. AURIEMMA: And that you, your
22 sisters and business partners will put pen to
23 paper and make a commitment of no expansion to
24 the residents of Readington Township.
25 (Applause.)
53
1 MAYOR SHAMEY: Is there anything
2 further from the Committee? Okay. Following
3 our normal procedure, what we will do here is
4 start in the front row. We could start in the
5 back row, but -- no, we will start in the
6 front row. We will go across and do both
7 sides of the room. If you would like to
8 speak, you can start to queue up, if you will,
9 at the microphone to keep things moving.
10 MR. VERNON: My name is Ray Vernon,
11 and I live on Rockefeller Mills Road.
12 I say if this is supposed to be for
13 the township, let the people of the township
14 decide our fate, not you people up there who
15 are lying to us. You understand that the
16 changes and all the grants you have to meet,
17 it is not going to be a grant, it is going to
18 be a loan. You will not get the money from
19 the State, you are going to have to borrow the
20 money, which means it will come out of our
21 pockets, your pockets, your pockets, your
22 pockets and your pocket. It will come out of
23 everybody's pocket here.
24 They also put in here that if you give
25 farmland preservation, and if you also try to
54
1 go in for a tax deduction on farmland
2 assessment, apparently, that will no longer be
3 allowed. The State is in debt. This County
4 is in debt. They are going to start cutting
5 money someplace. They are going to start
6 holding back and making it harder for people
7 to get money, and they are doing it here. You
8 have to read the criteria of about 5,000
9 people per square mile. No Hunterdon
10 municipality comes close to that figure.
11 When this battle all started -- when
12 did it start? What year?
13 MAYOR SHAMEY: This is public comment.
14 MR. VERNON: I was just wondering,
15 because once again, if you push the runway in
16 and you put a field in, even if you go in your
17 safety map, it is out of the safety zone. I
18 don't want to see what happened up at
19 Teterboro happen here, nobody does. But let
20 the people decide their fate. Let them do it.
21 Even if you are against it, even if
22 you are against the airport, then let the
23 people vote on this. Don't let these people
24 tell you the way it is supposed to be, you
25 have to decide for yourself. You are supposed
55
1 to be a government for the people, not the
2 selective people up there on stage. Thank
3 you.
4 MAYOR SHAMEY: Thank you.
5 MS. MEKOVETZ: Will you sign your
6 name, sir, we're trying to keep a record of
7 who spoke.
8 MAYOR SHAMEY: Okay, next.
9 MS. KRUG: My name is Ingelore Krug at
10 20 Old Readington Road in Whitehouse Station.
11 MAYOR SHAMEY: You have to get in
12 closer to the microphone.
13 MS. KRUG: What can I tell you?
14 MAYOR SHAMEY: Just speak up a little,
15 if you would. The mike should pick it up.
16 MS. KRUG: I have been a resident of
17 Readington Township since 1962. At that time,
18 there was this thing about the jetport is
19 coming, the jetport is coming. I have lived
20 with the airport all these years that I have
21 been here. My son learned to fly at the
22 airport, he is a pilot, he flies for American
23 Airlines. He flies commuter planes. I asked
24 him about the length of the runway, could he
25 land the plane that he flies for American
56
1 Airlines on that runway, and he said oh, yes,
2 he could, but he would not be able to take
3 off, because that would not be long enough. I
4 can't tell you what he is flying, it is a
5 commuter and it is a jet.
6 I want to urge everybody to vote for
7 our freedom for the fact that we should be
8 able to live in peace and harmony and don't
9 give us any more taxes that we can't afford.
10 I am one of the oldest people here, and I am
11 being forced out. My son was forced out, he
12 couldn't afford to live here. Thank you.
13 MR. LISKOVEC: My name is Larry
14 Liskovec, Old Farm Road.
15 This is the first meeting I have
16 attended. I want to thank all of you for
17 having saved so much of the property that
18 there is around here for preservation.
19 (Applause.)
20 MR. LISKOVEC: I would also like to
21 make two statements: One is that I hope you
22 bring this to a conclusion, a final,
23 irrevocable conclusion, and I hope you do not
24 limit yourself in the means you have available
25 to yourself. The last statement I wish to
57
1 make is I am perfectly willing to pay
2 additional taxes, ten times anything you
3 project tonight so that this matter is
4 resolved.
5 With that, thank you.
6 (Applause.)
7 MR. RUDD: If I had known this type of
8 thing was taking place nine years ago when I
9 bought my house in Whitehouse, I probably
10 would have not purchased it. I would not have
11 purchased it or come into this area, I would
12 have gone elsewhere. That would have affected
13 property values, less than people purchasing
14 here.
15 MS. DRAGAN: You have to allow the
16 speakers to say their piece. We have a Court
17 Reporter here who is trying to take down an
18 accurate transcript of the hearing, and she
19 can't do it with people doing cat calls and
20 other things in the back. Please.
21 MR. MELLOS: My name is Joe Mellos,
22 and I have lived here for the past 33 or 34
23 years, whatever it is. All I could say is no
24 more taxes. I pay already $8,190 a year for
25 taxes that I pay, this is too much money. Who
58
1 is this committee there to protect the
2 taxpayers? Nobody, every year the taxes go up
3 and up and up, and no more taxes. I feel that
4 the airport there, there must be opportunities
5 for the insiders who will make this happen.
6 For instance, I have here a flyer about Ms.
7 Julia Allen saying we will get $44,000, that
8 is the taxpayers, that is the money. Now I
9 can't say, for the Committee, I don't know,
10 because that is what I see, and I don't know
11 what is going on. I hear Ms. Allen now make
12 it sound like this would not cost the
13 taxpayers anything. Why do we need the 22
14 million, then? Why can't we have Solberg
15 speak his mind here in front of everybody to
16 say what he has to say? We only hear one side
17 of the story every time. Why can't he say
18 something? The citizens don't want to pay
19 more taxes in this county. Thank you. No
20 more taxes, that is all I have to say.
21 MAYOR SHAMEY: Before we take any
22 further public comments, one thing I stated,
23 we would like to give the Solbergs the
24 opportunity to be heard or to present any
25 information. I saw Mr. Solberg in the
59
1 hallway. Is any member of the Solberg
2 Aviation in the audience that would like to be
3 heard? I guess he didn't want to come in the
4 room.
5 MR. JONES: My name is Michael Jones,
6 33 Oakland Drive West in Whitehouse Station.
7 I did not live here for as long as
8 many people in this audience and certainly not
9 as long as people who sit on the Municipal
10 Council, but it seems like we have had a
11 love/hate relationship with this facility for
12 quite some time. It is kind of ironic that
13 the use that predated the first zoning
14 ordinance in our community is now a pre-
15 existing non-conforming use. After all, the
16 airport was here before most of us that are
17 sitting in this room today. I think that is
18 something that we should think about.
19 We are here about a bond issue. I
20 have something to say on the bond itself, the
21 whole process. It was stated by Mr. Gatti
22 earlier this evening, that we have approxi-
23 mately $47 million in municipal debt and
24 approximately $17 million of that are due back
25 to our municipality from open space funds. I
60
1 hope that someone could address how long we
2 have been waiting for those funds; what the
3 likelihood of the success of the application
4 to secure those funds might be, and how the
5 bonds are structured to ensure that we don't
6 pay a penalty in an attempt to redeem or pay
7 off these debts prior to their full maturity.
8 The plan, I understand from the $22 million
9 that you wish to borrow, would permit us to
10 recuperate those dollars with the grant
11 programs, but no one really addressed how,
12 actually, we would pay the bonds, what impact
13 that has on the bond rate that we would
14 receive, one; and initially, we would obtain
15 the bonds. I saw a little difference between
16 three-year notes and a longer-term bond.
17 The financial impact of that has not
18 been made clear from some of the material that
19 I have read on the municipal website.
20 The second comment I wanted to make is
21 when you look at the tax revenue from the
22 airport, at present we presently receive about
23 $59,000 in taxes from the airport as a whole.
24 Of that, $56,000 comes from only 56 acres.
25 Yet when you look at the map that was provided
61
1 by the municipality in the recent mailing, it
2 showed what I would describe as a cross -- it
3 showed runways, the developed portion of the
4 property and all of the buffer zones that the
5 FAA requires around the runways, in order for
6 them to maintain and operate an airport up to
7 FAA standards. The sum of the area of the
8 land outlined on that map far exceeds 56
9 acres. Why have we not been taxing all of the
10 land used as principally commercial property
11 as such, simply because the Solbergs have
12 grown hay or corn on some of the property that
13 they have to have in order to operate the
14 airport. That tax is agricultural.
15 MR. AURIEMMA: I ask you to wrap it
16 up.
17 MR. JONES: Lastly, talking about
18 preservation of this property as open space, I
19 would hope that the water quality issues would
20 be addressed more broadly rather than simply
21 looking at the airport. Chambers Brook is not
22 one of the waterways in this community that is
23 monitored at all. It is not part of the South
24 Branch Watershed Association, nor the Rockaway
25 Creek Water Association. It is a natural
62
1 habitat at present. I hope that the water
2 quality on the airport will extend to water
3 quality concerns for the other contributories
4 in Chambers Brook. Thank you very much.
5 MRS. CROWTHER: Marlene Crowther, 155
6 Stanton Road.
7 I want to thank you all again for your
8 efforts, and please keep it up. I think the
9 township, the people, are definitely behind
10 you. That was shown at the last Township
11 election, so please keep it up. Thank you.
12 MR. MITCHELL: My name is James
13 Mitchell, and I live on Main Street in
14 Whitehouse.
15 As the gentleman over here stated, he
16 said just said if you are making the decisions
17 -- obviously, at the last election, you were
18 elected by the people. It is no secret, the
19 majority of the people don't want it expanded,
20 and I think, you know, everybody has the right
21 to a business, but when it bothers everybody
22 else's property, the thing that hasn't been
23 brought up here, your values will go down.
24 I looked at the traffic, the traffic
25 you have on Main Street now, and what do you
63
1 think it would be if they had more warehousing
2 and more of these things where these companies
3 will have their CEOs flying in here left and
4 right. Do you think you will have less
5 traffic? What do you think your taxes will go
6 up then to fix the roads and get more police
7 and retirement for the police. Nobody wants
8 to hear that.
9 Every action has a reaction.
10 Everybody forgets the reaction when that gets
11 expanded. What it does to the rest of us -- I
12 also state one thing, and I have been here
13 over and over and Mr. Solberg has been invited
14 to come up here, and he is out there now, but
15 he can't come in here. So that shows the
16 cowardice of the man when he can't come in and
17 face these people. Thank you.
18 MR. HANNIGAN: My name is Bob
19 Hannigan, and I live at 5 John Reading Road.
20 I don't want to begin this way, but I
21 would like to say that Mr. Solberg, I have
22 known Mr. Solberg, and he is no coward. He
23 has been at plenty of these meetings.
24 A VOICE: Then where is he?
25 MAYOR SHAMEY: Please don't call out.
64
1 MR. HANNIGAN: He has made many
2 proposals, and he has tried to negotiate in
3 good faith.
4 This is a meeting of a different
5 feather, it is our meeting, it is not his
6 meeting.
7 I moved to this township eight and a
8 half years ago, and I saw signs on the side of
9 the road "No airport expansion." I have
10 listened to all of the debates. I have gone
11 to many meetings. When two parties enter
12 into a negotiation, there is give and take on
13 both sides. I see give on the Solbergs side,
14 I see no give on this side.
15 There will never be a successful
16 negotiation until the two parties agree to
17 negotiate fairly. This issue has been used
18 over and over again for campaigning. I think
19 these folks have been on a committee, and they
20 passed the mayorship from one person to the
21 next person to the next person, and I don't
22 know who will have it next, but it is
23 completely political. This thing should have
24 been settled a long time ago. I don't know
25 how much in legal fees that they have spent
65
1 over the years now, but I think that in three
2 months that you folks should have this thing
3 negotiated fairly with the Solbergs with no
4 taxpayer money coming out of it. If you can't
5 get it down in three months, please resign.
6 MAYOR SHAMEY: If you can do that,
7 then we want you.
8 MR. STECKLOW: My name is James
9 Stecklow, 396 Ferncrest Court.
10 I would like to talk to Mr. Gatti
11 after the meeting, because I have a
12 hypothetical question to ask you. Rather than
13 try to discuss it here tonight, I would like
14 to ask it from both sides.
15 MR. GATTI: Okay.
16 MAYOR SHAMEY: We are going to go row
17 by row. Next. If you are in the front row,
18 then you should have been up.
19 Is there anybody else?
20 MR. PETERS: My name is Ted Peters,
21 and I want to thank you for the opportunity to
22 allow me to speak tonight.
23 I am a long-time resident of
24 Readington Township, and I am also a long-time
25 participant on the issue at hand tonight. I
66
1 was involved in these issues since 1983, with
2 the airport. As you probably know, that act
3 was the genesis of it. During the past two
4 decades since that time, Township monies have
5 been spent on the effort of keeping Readington
6 rural.
7 At the present juncture, the goals of
8 the Township and those of the airport are
9 contraindicated. This meant getting involved,
10 which I did, and eventually leading up to the
11 formation of BRAC, which involves Branchburg
12 and Readington Townships. It is an organiza-
13 tion of like-minded individuals. Over the
14 years, BRAC supported growth, in view of the
15 action being taken by the Township to maintain
16 the status of the Solberg Airport. This was a
17 common issue then and it still is now. Our
18 support is to at least offer 4,000 area
19 persons whose opinion was in concert with that
20 of the Township Committee to achieve that
21 result. Twice in the last few years, our
22 supporters were disappointed. There was a
23 decision by the Committee that all avenues had
24 to be covered to reach an amicable agreement
25 as to the status of our airport, which had not
67
1 been adequately addressed. As far as I am
2 able to ascertain, negotiations completed to
3 this point have outlined the Township's
4 position in detail. All of the "I"s have been
5 dotted and all of the "T"s have been crossed
6 to allow the Township to proceed seriously
7 with any further discussions.
8 MR. AURIEMMA: You are almost out of
9 time.
10 MR. PETERS: I have a couple more
11 issues. Barring a miraculous breakthrough in
12 the Township's decision, I agree with the
13 majority of the BRAC supporters that it is
14 time to take action and decide this
15 longstanding problem. I am sure it will be a
16 major step in the goal to keep Readington
17 rural and the status it maintains.
18 In addition, continuing on, further
19 success in preserving open space will be an
20 assurance that we will keep Readington rural,
21 and that this can be done.
22 MAYOR SHAMEY: We will go to the next
23 row. Please queue up if there is anybody in
24 this row. Anybody in the third row? Anybody
25 in the fourth row?
68
1 MR. NONNI: My name is Robert Nonni,
2 and I live at 3 Proprietary Lane in
3 Whitehouse.
4 I have been a resident of Readington
5 Township for 18 years. I am opposed to the
6 approval of a bond ordinance to fund the
7 purchase of Solberg Airport. I do not believe
8 the Township Committee is exercising the will
9 of the majority in improving the service. I
10 have contacted the office of Funding at the
11 FAA this week, and the Director of Aeronautics
12 of the Department of Transportation and
13 neither authority was able to report any
14 applications, either pending or approved, for
15 grants or funding by the owners of Solberg
16 Airport.
17 The New Jersey Department of
18 Transportation did report that a project of
19 the recoating of the runway was being cost
20 evaluated, but it has not been approved for
21 funding. Should funding for the airport
22 improvements be granted in the future,
23 Readington Township's zoning review and site
24 plan requirements would be required before
25 such work could commence. Our local
69
1 government will postpone and deny any such
2 transaction without the cost of appraisals,
3 legal fees and without committing the Township
4 to further debt. Readington Township is not,
5 in my view, in clear and present danger of
6 expansion being funded by the Federal
7 Government.
8 I am not in favor of this show of
9 force by our Township Committee. With regard
10 to Township negotiations for the airport, both
11 sides need to be convinced of the honesty.
12 The people no longer believe there is
13 unanimity in not wanting the expansion. Even
14 Solberg states, "We want to keep Solberg
15 Airport a small community airport, and we are
16 happy with the airport the way it is." Why
17 then has this issue not been resolved? Both
18 sides of these negotiations seem to be acting
19 out of pride and stubbornness.
20 I believe the parties need a mediator
21 so they can better hear each other and come to
22 an understanding and rather than a profes-
23 sional mediator who has loyalty to whoever
24 pays the bill, I am suggesting that a group of
25 residents serve as mediators in further
70
1 negotiations. These negotiations would be
2 reported back to the residents. This is our
3 town, and we now need to be more involved in
4 this process. A group that we can trust must
5 come down squarely in the middle of this issue
6 with one agenda, love of Readington Township.
7 Thank you very much.
8 MAYOR SHAMEY: Next row?
9 MR. KEEFE: Ladies and gentlemen, my
10 name is Bill Keefe, K-E-E-F-E, I live in
11 Readington Township.
12 By virtue of background, I have a 20-
13 year career in banking with extensive
14 experience in municipal finance. Just taking
15 the numbers that Mr. Gatti had spoken to
16 previously, I hardly think you people know how
17 to spend money, with a $22 million debt level.
18 I deal with municipalities around the State
19 and the debt level is hardly suffocating. In
20 fact, I wish my debt level on my house was
21 only four percent of its value, so
22 congratulations on that front.
23 As far as moving forward at this point
24 in time, I understand that the Township brings
25 in about $6 million in annual tax revenue. If
71
1 that does nothing but go with inflation, it
2 will serve as (inaudible) on debt if we ever
3 reach that, and I highly doubt that. So
4 congratulations.
5 My parting comments are that I hope
6 that the Township Committee can work
7 productively with the Solbergs to an ending
8 that serves Readington Township in the best
9 way possible. Thank you very much.
10 MR. FARSIOU: My name is Abraham
11 Farsiou, I live on Weavers Lane in Whitehouse
12 Station.
13 You have been elected and re-elected
14 by the people of Readington Township. I think
15 you are doing a fantastic job for our
16 township. We don't want this airport
17 expanding to a jetport. But according to the
18 pamphlet, I don't know why you are here
19 tonight, because Solberg says that Solberg is
20 not planning any changes. Thank you very
21 much.
22 MR. DUDZINSKI: Good evening, Ed
23 Dudzinski, 5 Brier Road, Whitehouse Station.
24 I will repeat what I suggested at the
25 last Township Committee meeting on the 17th.
72
1 I very much would like to hear what Thor
2 Solberg has to say. I think the public is
3 desperate to hear what he has to say.
4 MAYOR SHAMEY: So would we.
5 MR. DUDZINSKI: I know Suzie Nagle and
6 her husband Ed asked that this meeting be
7 postponed, because they had a vacation planned
8 that they are on. I would again like to
9 suggest that the Township Committee go the
10 extra mile and try to schedule another
11 meeting, not two weeks in advance notice, but
12 two months in advance notice to have the
13 Solbergs invited to come and present their
14 case directly to the people. The people are
15 desperate to hear what they have to say,
16 directly. They are very confused. We are at
17 the he said/she said point, and there are
18 letters in the paper that are not serving any
19 good. We need to hear directly from them so
20 we can understand both sides of the issue.
21 The other thing, I agree whole-
22 heartedly with what Mayor Shamey said, which
23 is Readington for Readington. I think when
24 any action is imposed, it should be put to a
25 vote of the people, so that the people can
73
1 decide. That is all I have to say.
2 MR. DOMCI: My name is John Domci,
3 D-O-M-C-I. I have been in this township for
4 25 years. I have been basically silent. I had
5 to work my butt off to support my family and
6 take care of the taxes that have gone up from
7 $1,800 to over 10,000. Our roads are a
8 shamble. There are no sewers, there is no
9 municipal help from our municipality. You
10 take the money and it goes directly into the
11 municipal coffers. None of it is coming back
12 to us in the signs of sewage, and if you had
13 been in this township 25 years and you have a
14 house for 25 years, be prepared. Your septic
15 is ready to go. You will be looking at
16 $45,000. If it takes you five years to make
17 that money, it is $9,000 on top of your taxes,
18 and you will be spending that for this bond
19 issue. This bond issue has got to be looked
20 at, and it has got to be controlled and we
21 need to take control of it.
22 They refer to the jetport and the
23 jets, but what I understood, my neighbor came
24 to me and said that there is going to be F47s
25 to be flying into this airport. I said there
74
1 are jets flying into this area now that are
2 commercial. When they put the school on this
3 property and on this runway, we were told --