NJ News & Views

Less than one week before Election Day, November 3, members of the Lakewood Township Committee have literally run out of gas.

According to members of the Lakewood Transportation and Safety Board, which met on October 28, a proposed committee plan to purchase shuttle buses with state and Federal grants has hit a road block - lack of municipal budget funding for their operation.

At the Lakewood Township Committee meetings held on December 20, 2007 and January 17, 2008, John Jennings of T&M Associates presented a township plan to buy nine full-sized buses and a spare, similar to those used by the New York City Transit Authority. The shuttle bus service would be incorporated with the township's Job Link Bus service, making it eligible for reimbursement with Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) funding.

Instead of providing a plan for bus routes that would service all communities of Lakewood, Jennings presented a plan to service primarily Orthodox developments and Beth Medrash Govoha, described by many sources as the world's largest rabbinical college.

The only route the township planned to service other than Orthodox developments and Beth Medrash Govoha was its neighbor on 9th Street, Georgian Court University, which does not need it. According to a university spokeswoman, Georgian Court University provides its own shuttle van service for students and faculty, which Beth Medrash Govoha does not.

During the same meeting, committeemen also discussed a plan to transport Lakewood schoolchildren on the shuttle buses in order to reduce school taxes. According to state law, the township would be required to purchase a minimum of $1 million of insurance if it intended to use municipal buses for that purpose. All municipal buses would also be required to pass state inspection for use as school bus transportation.

Committeemen did not discuss an alternative plan to removing parking spaces in downtown Lakewood for installation of bus stops.

Although Russell Corby, then Executive Director of the Lakewood Development Corporation (LDC), which oversees the township UEZ, proposed to offset the cost of operation through advertising on buses and bus shelters, committeemen confirmed that taxpayers would still have to pay an estimated $1.2 million to operate the buses for a required 2-year period.

That was then.

Instead of cruising Lakewood roads to pick up passengers, the buses are gathering dust for lack of money to hire drivers and purchase gas for the 9-vehicle fleet, advertised extensively in print newsletters and on the Lakewood Township Web site for months.

"The Buses Are Coming!" a transportation survey announced in early 2009. "Lakewood Township is developing a local bus service system for residents, businesses, employees, students and visitors and is seeking your input. Your responses to the questions below will help ensure that the service meets the needs of the community. Please complete this survey and return to the Township by February 20, 2009. Please mark and write clearly to help us assemble the results."

According to the survey disclosure, the form was developed by the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association with Federal funding and support from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (DOT).

The first three survey questions asked the respondent if:

1.) that person believed the availability of additional transit options would be a benefit to the community;

2.) if bus service were provided to a home/apartment/dormitory, retail, shopping, work, childcare/nursery group, high school/Mesivta, elementary school, medical, 9th & Madison, yeshiva or college, or other, which ones would benefit the respondent and their household members;

3.) respondents were asked the most likely places they would get on or off the shuttle bus, if available. The questionnaire prompted respondents to state specific intersections or names of establishments as appropriate by providing the examples of 6th & Forest, Westgate, ShopRite and Kimball Medical Center.

The questionnaire did not list the John Patrick Athletic Fields at the southern end of town or any of the adult communities located nearby, whose residents have asked the township committee for shuttle bus service their developments can no longer afford to provide.

Lakewood residents that can no longer drive and live in adult communities not serviced by the shuttle buses may find it harder to hire safe alternative transportation around town.

Deputy Mayor Steven Langert, speaking at the Transportation Board meeting last night, proposed raising the rates township-regulated taxi services can charge, while legalizing the underground economy of illegal taxi services that compete against them, which Langert referred to as a "car service."

"Its a different class of service," he said. "Its in the township's best interests to have as many legal taxis as possible."

Langert did not provide a plan to regulate the proposed car service, which New York City has already adopted, or to ensure owners' compliance with township and state regulations taxi owners must meet.

He said that car service would only be available by service dispatch, while registered taxi cabs would be able to legally pick up fares that hailed them on the street and by service dispatch.

Langert did not discuss what fees, if any, owners and operators of the proposed car service would pay the township.

In July, the committee held first reading of an ordinance to increase taxi operators' fees.

There are only four taxi companies registered with the township. Each must purchase a mercantile license.

A reporter for NJ News & Views asked Langert how many companies in Lakewood currently have a mercantile license, which costs approximately $125 each.

Langert said he didn't know.

One block away from the Lakewood Municipal Building, where the Transportation Board meeting was held, a former residential building at 326 Third Street is now the location of an insurance agency office previously located in a commercial building on Route 9 north in Howell.

According to Lakewood Township Clerk Mary Ann Del Mastro, the insurance agency did not purchase a mercantile license after relocating to Lakewood.

All over Lakewood, unlicensed companies are open for business in residential homes that are not required to have a Commercial Certificate of Occupancy (CCO), which also brings in revenue to the township.

Each time a commercial building owner leases space to a commercial tenant, the township earns a fee to inspect the space. Each time a commercial tenant vacates the premises, the township earns a fee to re-inspect the space.

When residential properties are converted into commercial businesses and homeowners do not declare their rental earnings to local, state and Federal government, taxpayers must make up the lost revenue.

At 58 Seminole Drive, a businessman known as the Candy Man stored his wares in the rented garage of a residential home up until two weeks ago. The home itself is rented out to an Orthodox family that could not park on their rented home's driveway while the Candy Man rented its garage.

For the past three years, neighbors said a procession of three large trucks would arrive twice a week in the residential neighborhood to deliver palettes with large boxes that were warehoused in the rented garage.

During one delivery, neighbors said one of the boxes broke apart, enabling them to see its contents. The box contained imported Kosher food, cookies and candy sold at local supermarkets around town.

Neighbors also said that before the Candy Man began using his home on Genesee Place and the residential property he leased at 58 Seminole Drive to store his food products, the Seminole home garage was open for business as an automotive paint shop.

On October 28, the same day the Transportation Board met, members of the Lakewood Industrial Commission held their monthly meeting at the law office of Township Attorney Lawrence E. Bathgate II.

During the afternoon meeting, members viewed a clip from a 1947 film promoting Lakewood businesses that paid to be in it. The clip taken from the film promoted Lakewood Airport, which the township purchased from Bathgate and other investors in the mid-1990s for $10 million in state and Federal grants.

After the meeting adjourned, industrial commissioners and members of the LDC staff boarded a township bus to tour airport sites planned for mixed-use development. Many mixed-use developments include supermarkets that will likely retail food items sold to them by Lakewood's home-based businessman, the Candy Man.

Author Barbara Weltman discussed "5 Legal Steps to Take Before Starting a Home Business," posted on www.startupnation.com, a Web site describing its services "By Entrepreneurs, For Entrepreneurs."

"It may seem simple to start a business from home once you have a good idea about how to make money," Weltman said. "Startup costs can be modest because you don’t need to pay for office space; you already have a place in your home. But before you open for business, take the time to consider the following five legal matters so you start off on the right foot."

One of the five steps Weltman advised was to check local zoning laws.

"Just because you want to work from home doesn’t mean it’s legal to do so," Weltman cautioned her readers.

She also advised home-based business owners to obtain all required licenses and permits.

"Operating from home does not relieve you of any federal, state, or local licensing and permit requirements related to your business," Weltman said.

Weltman's closing advice was applicable to both home-based business owners and government officials.

"Take the time to do some important “prep work” that can save you money down the road," Weltman said.