READINGTON -- With property taxes, development and the future of Solberg-Hunterdon Airport driving their campaigns, two Township Committee incumbents bested a couple of challengers Tuesday in the Republican primary for a pair of spots on the November ballot.
Incumbents Beatrice Muir and Thomas Auriemma, who round out the all-Republican, five-member Township Committee, protected their chances for re-election from challengers Ed Dudzinski and James Hunter.
"All I have to say is it (Township Committee) is a very well-oiled machine," Hunter said of the primary results.
Hunter said he intends to run again next year for a Township Committee seat.
With the committee’s status quo at stake in Tuesday’s primary, this year’s election has seen heated personal attacks on the candidates and their positions on the fate of Solberg-Hunterdon Airport.
Auriemma and Muir strongly support using a voter-approved $22 million bond to buy the property’s development rights and open space surrounding the 70-year-old property on Thor Solberg Road.
Dudzinski and Hunter opposed the township’s use of the bond and assertions that an expansion of the airport is imminent. With the Solberg family stating publicly that the airport is not for sale, the challengers had said they believed the main purpose of the bond was to allow local officials to seize the airport through eminent domain, a result that could cost taxpayers upwards of $22 million.
In addition to the airport, township residents this year are again concerned about rising property taxes and the threat of development.
Auriemma said he would like to see preserved the township’s roughly 7,000 acres of remaining open space in order to limit any future development.
Auriemma also defended the township’s practice of aggressively buying open space -- money that accounts for roughly 70 percent of the township’s debt -- arguing that the township is periodically reimbursed for the purchases by the state, and that preservation caps infrastructure costs.
Concerned about the financial strain unbridled land preservation has on residents, both Dudzinski and Hunter said they believe taxes can be best curbed by preserving land only under threat of development.
Christa Segalini can be reached at (908) 782-2300 or csegalini@c-n.com.
from the Courier News website www.c-n.com
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Date: June 7, 2006 Source: C-N.com — Courier News Online
URL: http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060607/NEWS/606070342
