Editor's Note Added To Story 1/12/05: Superintendent Ritacco and Board Members Agreed To The Comprehensive Open Space Plan Until It Came Time To Move Ahead With The Property Acquisitions. Then They Reneged On Their Part Of The Program, A Decision That Will Result In Higher Taxes, More Overcrowding and Bigger Traffic Jams.

This article from 1/11/03:

Ritacco Is As Good As His Word: Keeps Faith With Voters Who Supported $40 Million Middle School Proposal By Moving Another Step Forward On Haelig Open Space Acquisition And Tax Relief Plan

In A Letter To Commissioner Haelig, Superintendent Says School Board “Voted Unanimously In Their Acceptance” Of Exploring Open Space Fund “To Help Alleviate The Growing Need For Additional Educational Services”

Cooperative Effort Features Annual Contributions From Township ($900,000), DMUA ($700,000) And School Board ($700,000) To Provide Future Tax Relief (As Much As $30 Million Annually) If Property Can Be Acquired Quickly At Current Prices

Same Plan Was Accepted, Then Rejected By GOP Leaders And School Board Member And Developers' Engineer Frank Sadeghi Who Reported Falsely Two Years Ago After Pressure From Developers That School Board Members Were “Opposed” To Helping With Open Space Acquisition

School Superintendent Michael Ritacco is as good as his word.

A month ago, Ritacco said he would push for a proposal to combine funds from the township, the municipal utilities authority and the school system to purchase enough open space “to stop excessive development by taking some of the developers’ raw materials off the table.”

The author of the proposal, former Assemblyman and long time Utilities Authority commissioner Robert K. Haelig Jr., says a “major segment of a projected $30 million overdevelopment tax increase can be averted” if the school establishment helps in fighting excessive development and affordable housing mandates that threaten to overwhelm the school system.

In a letter to Haelig, Ritacco says the School Board “voted unanimously” to explore the proposal to join the Dover Municipal Utilities Authority and the Township in quickly acquiring significant amounts of open space to stop further overdevelopment and traffic gridlock.

Ritacco invited Haelig to meet with school officials next week to exchange ideas regarding specific land acquisitions “that have not been completed” as well as proposals for additional open space.

Haelig Plan Was Approved, Then Ditched
Two Years Ago By GOP Bosses

The proposal, which could prevent part of a big tax increase that is sure to come if overdevelopment continues, has been pushed for the last two years by Haelig

Haelig’s plan was originally approved by every Republican “leader” in Dover Township including Boss R. C. Clement, former “Mayor” J. Mark Mutter, Assemblyman James Holzapfel and GOP County Committeeman Frank Sadeghi, but the GOP support was withdrawn after pressure from developers who noted the proposal could cut into their development profits.

Sadeghi’s Duplicity Set Expensive Acquisition Delays,
Tax Increases In Motion

Complicating the process was some expansive lying by Sadeghi, also a School Board member and GOP Posse leader, who approved the Haelig plan and said he would take it before the other school board members. Sadeghi then reported back that the “other school board members” were opposed to the proposal.

But now, nearly everyone but Sadeghi, whose firm does engineering work for developers, acknowledges that Sadeghi lied about the Haelig plan “rejection”, and set the community’s progress back by the two years it has taken the school administration to understand the consequences of Sadeghi’s self serving duplicity.

Sadeghi’s Lie Plus The Usual Treachery By
GOP Bosses May Cost Homeowners As Much As
$200 Million In Added Taxes Over Ten Years

The result, of course, will be higher school taxes, higher municipal government costs and higher real estate prices the community pays to acquire needed real estate two years after the fact. The two year delay in beginning serious open space acquisition may have set in stone as much as $100 million in additional taxation in ten years, because additional development during 2000, 2001 and 2002 has continued unabated, some of it by Sadeghi’s clients, and all of it approved by the Dover Township Planning Board.         (for 12/11/03)

Click Here For Previous OceanCountyPolitics•Com Article: “Two Toms River School Board Members Hid Their Complicity In Massive Overdevelopment And Gridlocked Traffic; And Now Sadeghi And Vasil Won’t Help Taxpayers Offset The Huge Overdevelopment Tax Increase They Helped Cause”

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