Ensure All Bedminster Residents are Represented
Currently, there are no residents of the Hills on the Bedminster Township Committee in spite of the fact that the majority of the population of Bedminster lives in the Hills.
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Hills residents are hardworking citizens who pay their taxes and contribute to their community and they deserve to be represented on the Committee. Taxation without representation is wrong and we want to correct this troubling imbalance.
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The lack of representation allows for township services to be directed to the non-Hills communities in Bedminster with little recourse for Hills residents. This puts the impetus for providing local services on the HOAs, increasing their costs which then get passed on to homeowners. The town should do more to balance how services are distributed so cost of living in Bedminster can be kept under control.
Control Cost of Living for Bedminster Residents
We are deeply concerned about the ever-increasing cost of living for residents of Bedminster. There are several things we would like to do to ensure that these costs are controlled and the money that residents spend on home owners association (HOA) fees and local taxes are used as efficiently as possible with the greatest degree of transparency possible.
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HOA fees have gone up year after year with little explanation or transparency. We will work with the Township Committee and the local HOAs to ensure that both serve the interest of the residents of Bedminster and do everything in their power to be cost transparent and keep costs under control.
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Other municipalities in Somerset County have realized millions of dollars in savings through partnerships with neighboring towns. We want Bedminster to both expand existing shared services agreements and enact new agreements that will allow our taxpayer dollars to be spent as wisely as possible. We will work within the Township Committee in order to spend taxpayer money as efficiently as possible.
Build A New Park for Bedminster
Bedminster is in desperate need of new park. The children living in the neighborhoods of the Hills currently have little to no open space in which to play outdoors. We propose righting this wrong by building them the park they deserve!
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The New Jersey Department of Transportation has expressed willingness to close its old storage facility at the intersection of Hills Drive and 202-206. This would be an ideal location for a park as it is walking distance. We would build another footbridge to allow for pedestrian access, but this is something we have done before with River Road Park.
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The funding for this new park already exists in the town Open Space Budget; this means it would not cost taxpayers anything. This park provide and safe and accessible place for the children of Bedminster to play outdoors, get exercise and spend time with their friends.
Improve Trash Collection Through Better Oversight
Trash collection in Bedminster is an area where the Township Committee can help residents save money. Currently, residents of Hills rely on their Home Owners Associations to negotiate contracts with trash collection companies and non-Hills residents are often on their own.
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Whether you live in the Hills or not, trash collection costs are growing at an unsustainable rate; the town needs to step in to ensure residents get a fair deal. By putting out one competitive bid or a collection of bids for large portions of the town, we will have more negotiating leverage with vendors and can get a good deal.
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The current system leaves the town divided and makes it easy for companies to charge whatever they like for trash collection. This results in higher HOA fees for Hills residents and ever growing bills for single family homes that have to find their own vendor. We believe that combining the town into larger negotiating blocks, we can demand fair prices for our residents. This will lower HOA fees, trash collection bills and keep the cost of living in Bedminster under control.
Protect our Students and Schools
We have watched with horror as schools across this country have been the target of horrific gun violence. We are committed to doing everything in the Committee's power to ensure our students are safe when they go to school.
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We will work with the Committee, the Board of Education, local administrators and teachers, and our police department to ensure that we have done everything that can be done to make Bedminster schools as safe as possible. We cannot turn our schools into fortresses, but we will seek to strike the correct balance between safety and allowing the smooth functioning of our schools and comfort of our students.
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As Bedminster has no high school, our students travel to other towns to continue their education. This puts Bedminster students in a situation where they are not under the direct supervision of the Bedminster public school system. We will seek to work with all schools where Bedminster students attend high school to make sure their security protocols are up to our standards and we can feel assured of their safety when they leave our town to attend class. This is of the utmost priority to our candidates.
Photo by cpualexd