POLITICAL MAKEUP:<\/p>\n
MAYOR: Democrat<\/p>\n
COUNCIL: Six Republicans<\/p>\n
AT STAKE:<\/p>\n
Four-year mayoral term and two three-year council terms.<\/p>\n
THE CANDIDATES:<\/p>\n
MAYOR\/REPUBLICAN<\/p>\n
Kenneth Gabbert, of Parker Place, business administrator, councilman since 1995, chairman of the Upper Saddle River Centennial Committee, member of the Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Planning Board member, liaison to the Zoning Board of Adjustment, serves on the Police Negotiations Committee, Joint Insurance Fund commissioner, coach of basketball, soccer, baseball, and softball teams.<\/p>\n
MAYOR\/INDEPENDENTS<\/p>\n
Robert F. Proto, of Oratam Road, director of Institutional Equity Trading, New Jersey director for the National Stillbirth Society, coach of baseball, basketball, and soccer teams.<\/p>\n
Dennis C. Schubert, of Timberland Road, semiretired sales and marketing professional, New Jersey Institute of Technology guest lecturer, councilman since 2000, softball coach, Habitat for Humanity volunteer, Reynolds School volunteer, Special Olympics volunteer, Fresh Air Fund volunteer, Presentation Church volunteer, New Jersey Camp for the Blind volunteer, three-time president of the Saddle River Valley Lions Club, nine-time chairman of the Lions Carnival, council liaison to the Upper Saddle River Volunteer Ambulance Corps, council liaison to the Saddle River Valley Rescue Squad, borough fire commissioner, United Way Allocations Committee member.<\/p>\n
COUNCIL\/REPUBLICANS<\/p>\n
Barbara Ripston*, of Briarcliff Road, administrative assistant, former financial analyst, councilwoman since 1999, Youth Guidance Council member since 1995 and chairwoman since 1998, responsible for the production of The Game of Upper Saddle River, a board game released this year, former board of education member, Parent- Teacher Organization member, former PTO president and vice president.<\/p>\n
Scott MacDowell*, of Pembroke Trail, vice president and partner in a specialty construction company, councilman since 2000; baseball, softball, and soccer coach; served on the Upper Saddle River Building to Educate the Students of Tomorrow, an architectural task force formed in 1999 for the expansion and renovation of the elementary and middle school; project manager for the Hess Court playground renovation in 1998.<\/p>\n
COUNCIL\/INDEPENDENTS<\/p>\n
Jonathan Merritt, of Clover Lane, director of sales for New Concept Office Furniture; baseball, basketball, and soccer coach.<\/p>\n
Robert A. Miller, of Grist Mill Lane, partner in a hedge fund, steering committee member and fund-raiser for the past two years for the Bergen Bike Tour, board of trustees member for the Volunteer Center of Bergen County, board of trustees member for The Floating Hospital of New York, baseball and soccer coach.<\/p>\n
Danny M. Callahan, of Lilline Lane, vice president of a legal services firm in Hackensack, member of the Recreation Commission, member of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee, borough recreation baseball coach, recreation flag football coach, schools volunteer, Boy Scouts volunteer, Elks volunteer.<\/p>\n
Claudia Fuchs, of Sunrise Lane, math teacher, director of the borough’s Kindergarten Enrichment Program, treasurer of the Saddle River Valley Swim Club, religious education teacher, Boy Scout volunteer, Reynolds School volunteer.<\/p>\n
THE ISSUES:<\/p>\n
Overdevelopment: The slate of Proto, Miller, and Merritt says that developers for too long have been able to push through projects, regardless of the detrimental effects on borough resources. Proto, Miller, and Merritt say other mayoral candidates have sat on the council while this has occurred. Proto, Miller, and Merritt say they will work to find creative solutions to satisfy Mount Laurel obligations rather than be passive like the current administration. Gabbert, on a slate with Ripston and McDowell, said overdevelopment must be stopped and the borough should end the policies of Mayor Rotonda, who is not seeking reelection, and his handpicked pro-development majority on the Planning Board. Gabbert said questionable approvals must be stopped on the Planning Board. Gabbert said he opposed and voted against the Lancaster development of 35 town houses on four acres of land in the borough. He said the project will contain seven units of low-income housing but was originally planned as age-restricted housing. Gabbert said the developer is now asking that the units be available to low-income people of all ages, including those with school-age children. Gabbert said he also opposes development of the golf course. MacDowell said the mayorally appointed Planning Board must be in tune with the Borough Council to limit town homes and other high- density residential properties. The slate of Schubert, Callahan, and Fuchs said the multifamily housing developments that have been built recently have increased the enrollment in the schools and added to the borough’s tax burden. Schubert and Fuchs said the borough can meet its state-mandated fair-share housing by paying other towns to take the maximum number of units allowed under the law in a Regional Contribution Agreement. Schubert and Fuchs said the town may also sponsor units. Schubert said that when developers build, they can put up four market-value homes for every low-income housing unit and when the town sponsors the development, just the affordable housing units need to be built. Fuchs said one way to meet the fair share of housing units is to provide housing for senior citizens.<\/p>\n
Open space and traffic: MacDowell said that in 2001 an open space fund was initiated by the council and passed by the residents, and that the council bought property this year that could have been developed but is now set aside for passive recreation. Schubert said he would continue to have the borough buy parkland. Schubert said he recently put forward a plan in the council to purchase open space on Lake Street, adding to the borough’s recent acquisition of the tree farm. Fuchs said the borough must work with the schools to develop a traffic plan. Callahan said the solution could be as simple as an extended green light eastbound on Lake Street or as expensive as adding a lane for the overflow traffic on West Saddle River Road. Callahan said the school board and council must work together to find a solution.<\/p>\n
Route 17: Schubert, Callahan, and Fuchs said the Route 17 corridor is underutilized because there is no infrastructure to support development. Schubert, Callahan, and Fuchs said the borough needs to install infrastructure so developers can revitalize the area and offset the school tax burden. Ripston said the borough work must continue to redevelop the corridor but any infrastructure expenses, such as sewers and water, must be paid by the developers of the property and not the taxpayers.<\/p>\n
Municipal building: Ripston and MacDowell say Borough Hall, the ambulance corps building, and the rescue squad facilities are in need of general maintenance and updating. Ripston said it is important for the council to budget for the continual repairs to the buildings. MacDowell said money needs to be spent toward updating and maintenance.<\/p>\n
REGISTERED VOTERS:<\/p>\n
Undeclared: 2,860; Democrats: 557; Republicans 1,462; independents: 17. Total: 4,896<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POLITICAL MAKEUP: MAYOR: Democrat COUNCIL: Six Republicans AT STAKE: Four-year mayoral term and two three-year council terms. THE CANDIDATES: MAYOR\/REPUBLICAN Kenneth Gabbert, of Parker Place, business administrator, councilman since 1995, chairman of the Upper Saddle River Centennial Committee, member of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}