Holmdel Expects to Keep 2021 Municipal Taxes Flat

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The 2021 budget was previewed at last week’s Holmdel Township Committee meeting and is expected to remain flat despite revenue challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The presentation by Township Administrative Cherron Roundtree was widely commended as being informative and understandable.

On the expense side (aka appropriations), there are rising costs related to pension, health insurance, social security contributions, and debt servicing. On the revenue side, construction and permit fees, which helped past budgets, are expected to drop. In addition, PILOT payments, especially from the Bell Works building (as opposed to the Toll Brothers’ senior housing development) are expected to drop due to rent concession and lower occupancy rate. Because of the “lag” in billing and actual rental information, it’s even possible that the Township might have to refund part of PILOT payments already received once the figures are “trued up”. We should know more in a couple of weeks when audited statements from Bell Works are expected to be received by the Township.

Despite challenges on both revenue and expenses, the Township Administrator indicated that they made some minor cuts without affecting services and are able to recommend a flat tax rate. However, she cautioned that this does not mean our property taxes will be flat since the municipal taxes represents about 17% of the total property taxes that residents pay. About 68% is for Holmdel school districts and that budget is controlled by the BOE. The County accounts for 12% with remaining for other services.

On the capital improvement side, Administrator Roundtree indicated $300,000 requested by the First Aid Squad to renovate and upgrade their facility at Crawfords Corner Road will be on the recommended list. During the public comments portion, candidate Ron Emma running for Holmdel Township Committee indicated he disagreed with Committeeman DJ Luccarelli’s comment at the February budget workshop that the $300,000 capital improvement for First Aid could be deferred to next year or later years and that he and all residents should fully support the requested capital improvements for this year. Committeeman Luccarelli explained afterward that he thought the fire company would not be able to move out of their space located in the same building until next year and that was the basis of his comment to defer the improvements needed by First Aid.

The actual budget will be on the agenda in May. Residents will have the opportunity to ask questions and comment on it.

Open Space & Turf Field

There were many comments in support of the Township placing the 115-acre parcel land at Cross Farm Park and the parcels of land across from Bayonet Farm onto Holmdel’s Recreation and Open Space Inventory List (“ROSI”). This move is generally seen as beneficial since it would then limit future uses to recreation and would likely preclude the Township from selling the land in the future to developers, thereby preserving the bucolic characteristic of Holmdel. The only exception might be a 10 to 15 acres parcel at Cross Farm Park to be swapped with the County in exchange for the parcel form across Holmdel High School.

Not surprisingly, there were many comments regarding a turf field. One individual asked how Phillips Park got their turf fields and how they could go about getting a multi-sports artificial turf field for lacrosse, football, and now field hockey. Soccer has not been mentioned but, presumably, there will be markings for a soccer field as well. Related to this, another individual asked how much is left from the $2.5 million bond issued in 2019 for recreation improvements.

As part of the issuance of the bond, $500,000 was allocated as expenses for professional services including the legal expense for the issuance of the bond, engineering, and architect. That means only $2 million (out of the $2.5 million bond) would be for actual recreation improvements. Before the issuance of the 2019 bond, a detailed list of recreation improvements that were prioritized by the HYAA appeared on the Township Committee agenda for the December 2018 meeting. In addition, at least one member of the public asked whether that list could be included as part of the bond ordinance so that the public would get some comfort that the money will be spent only on those projects. That was not done.

On that December 2018 list was an artificial turf for the infield at Phillips Park and small improvements at an estimated cost of $270,000. However, despite the previously published list of projects, with Committeeman Tom Critelli as the recreation liaison, a decision was made to install artificial turf for both the infield and outfield at Phillips Park in July of 2019.

Based on documents obtained through an OPRA request, the turf field for both the infield and outfield came at a cost of almost $1 million, $700,000 more than what was previously indicated or an amount that could go a long way for a new multi-sports turf field for football, lacrosse, and field hockey. Primarily because of the $700,000 added costs, less than $500,000 is currently available for other recreation improvements, including a possible turf field.

Deputy Mayor Cathy Weber, as this year’s recreation committee liaison, has indicated that the Recreation Committee will need look at all recreational needs on a comprehensive basis across all sports and within the constraint of dollars available, not just the “squeaky wheel” approach. It’s not clear how the remaining recreation improvements will get prioritized or sorted out.

Phillips Park Scoreboard

The offer by Pat Impreveduto to make a $10,000 to install a scoreboard at Phillips Park? It has been previously reported that the Impreveduto offer was not from him personally but, rather, from his campaign funds. See “Coincidences?”

The Township was concerned whether this was a permissible use of campaign funds and stipulated that the donation would be accepted on the condition that Impreveduto would seek and provide an opinion from New Jersey’s Election Law Enforcement Commission (“ELEC) that this was a permissible use. The other condition was that Impreveduto’s name would be allowed on the scoreboard but no elected office would be listed to avoid the appearance of a “political sign” on Township property.

Before the Township Committee voted to approve the consent agenda items which includes the Phillips Park scoreboard donation, Committeeman Critelli read a statement from Impreveduto that he made his offer nine months ago and is rescinding his offer for the donation because the offer has been “politicalized”. In an email obtained through an OPRA request, it was only on October 22, 2020 that the secretary for Freeholder Impreveduto first reached out to Township Administrator Roundtree regarding the scoreboard. The email is less than nine months ago and it has been previously noted that the donation by Impreveduto shortly before his son’s announced bid for Township Committee is interesting, to say the least.