Community Magazine November 2019

40 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE The mayor is proud of the fact that the township has “a record of having a stable tax base for the municipal portion of your tax bill.” He added, “What goes up are property values, of course, because the demand is so great. So, it’s hard to lower the rate to match the value going up.” Keeping Up with Needed Changes The town’s growth is a positive factor, though it also means that at 170 years old, the township has to keep up with modernity. And the boom of the 1960s and 1970s has meant that some of the old formulas for highways, business districts, and residences need to be re-evaluated and balanced accordingly. “We are going through what we call a ‘rehabilitation zone’ on all our commercial properties, the Highway, Norwood Avenue,” he said. The town is offering business owners a chance to improve their properties with a five-year pilot tax break on the improvements going forward, to incentivize it. The idea behind this, he said, is that by improving a property, a better tenant could come along, who is more stable, and has better revenue. “When you have a better business district, you get more rate-ables. The more rate-ables that we get, the more tax revenue from that we pass on to the homeowner.” (A property's “rateable” value represents the amount of rent the property could have been let for on a certain date.) Zoning and Construction On the topic of improvements, many residents have voiced their concerns about zoning and construction.Themayorunderstands his constituents’ frustration and he advised various ways to make life easier. Due diligence is key, he said. It’s important to know what the setbacks are in advance, and know that a variance can take time. “We did try to streamline a lot of the replacing of existing decks or fences. Whatever is in that existing footprint, we try to streamline that at the counter now,” the mayor explained. “Come in, bring your plans in, have the community developer look at it, and go from there. We can send it around to the engineers and to whoever has to look at it without going to the Zoning Board.” But take heed. Most additions will still need to go before the Zoning Board, and it’s imperative to have concise plans, a good engineer, a good architect, and a good lawyer “to get you through the process as quickly as possible, so you don’t have to come back three or four times,” the mayor noted. “We don’t want that either. It clogs up our agenda.” Keeping within the Budget Among the many accomplishments the mayor enjoys touting are projects that he says haven’t been properly addressed in twenty years, including keeping expenses within budget. “As a realtor by trade, I was able to find where pockets of money were coming in. I could get a developer to pay for our town improvements,” he noted. As one of his first orders of business, the mayor had a band shell installed, that replaced a “rickety old stage,” built with half a million dollars of developer impact fees that cost the town nothing. In addition, he spoke of the “beautiful indoor class A tennis center,” that is open to the community. The $4 million facility has a twenty-year land lease, where the monies go back to the town as a revenue stream. Last year’s activity pool also helped bring in more revenue at the pool club, the mayor said. “Our private little pool club here does better than Loch Arbour Beach. It makes more revenue. Partly because of that, but it’s also well run. It brought about 30% more families who joined our pool club because they saw it was so well run.” Serving the Residents Faithfully There’s a lot the mayor can help with, be it advising, or moving the levers of municipal government, as he strives to help residents and businesses with their needs. Still, he wants to advise people of the notion that there are simply times that he has his hands tied. Often, people think “the mayor has a magic hat, and a wand, and they can just pull a rabbit out whenever they need him to.” “We are going to accommodate everybody, but we have to do it reasonably, and we have to do it rationally. If you have an issue or think something can be changed, call me. We just want to welcome everybody,” the mayor said. “My job is to manage the town and make it the best experience for the folks living here without burdening them taxwise. That’s really how I look at it.” “WE ARE GOING TO ACCOMMODATE EVERYBODY, BUTWE HAVE TO DO IT REASONABLY, ANDWE HAVE TO DO IT RATIONALLY. IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE OR THING SOMETHING CAN BE CHANGED, CALL ME. WE JUSTWANT TOWELCOME EVERYBODY.” - MAYOR CHRISTOPHER P. SICILIANO Congregation Magen David of West Deal.