Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Safety & Quality of Life isn't Lakewood's concern

MAYOR LICHTENSTEIN
AND TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Singer, Coles, Cunliffe & Miller
January 24, 2006

Dear Mayor & Township Committeemen;

I would like to bring to your attention a few items that I was going to address at the January 19th Township meeting, but I gave away my 4 minute slot for an issue that I felt should take precedence-Sorry that others didn’t sense the urgency.

At the County Building (& perhaps at other similar situations) the Handicap spots should be marked “Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM”. (during business hours)


1- Muster Zone- I think that the contractors who are looking for the “day-laborers” come from 5:30 AM to 9:00 AM. That time frame shouldn’t disturb the downtown businesses. Perhaps the parking lot on the south side of Main St between Clifton & Madison Ave can be utilized. I understand that the owner of that lot may agree for that limited use 5:30-9:00AM. I think that Mr. Golub’s points were as important as the individual from Freehold, NJ whom you did ask for his phone number in order to further discuss his ideas about a muster zone.


2- By making a “No Stopping” on Clifton Ave you are penalizing the Business owners and their patrons as well. If we have a problem with the Day-laborers don’t penalize everyone else instead.

3- We have a problem of immigrants in some parts of town, so we hire inspectors to go after “some” property owners who have broken twigs, etc., under the guise of “Quality of life”.

4- We have a big parking problem in many areas of town, so it was suggested (over a year ago) that for safety, quality of life & additional parking spaces we should have 5th Street through 9th Street, from Forest Avenue to Lakewood Avenue designated as 1 way streets, plus to widen 9th Street and make angle parking-So what did the Township fathers do? THEY BANNED ALL PARKING ON THE NORTH SIDE OF 9TH STREET AND DID NOT INSTITUTE THE 1 WAY STREETS!!!???????????

5- We have been requesting (for over a year) the Township to upgrade safety and quality of life issues and it is literally at a standstill. One item is the street lamps that are not working, YES THAT IS a SAFETY HAZARD AND a QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUE more important than many of the other “so-called” quality of life issues. Mind you these items are the obligation of your Municipal departments. The police Department is supposed to check on the outages and report them to JCP&L and to the Township Manager. The Township Manager should wait 30 days and deduct the cost of the outages till he is notified that the street lights are repaired.

6- The other Safety and quality of life issue is “the STOP / YIELD SIGNS” that aren’t in compliance with NJDOT (New Jersey Dept. of Transportation) nor with Federal MUTCD (Manual for uniform traffic control devices). The Township is aware of this for over a year that I have written to them & brought it up at public meetings to no avail. What justification is there to write on police reports or to issue summonses for violating a STOP-SIGN when legally there isn’t one in compliance. Can you justify taking, or rather, stealing money from those drivers and causing their insurance premiums to increase?

7- Another issue which is a safety and quality of life issue is the lack of the proper placement of the “NO TURN ON RED” which should be placed near the light itself. The signs must be of reflective material or illuminated.(PER NJDOT & MUTCD)

8- It is about time we have an independent Civilian Police review board. We have had too many issues over the years that the current ineffective Police internal affairs doesn’t handle properly. Besides the numerous cases where the witnesses weren’t even interviewed, police officers writing reports with facts that aren’t correct, issuing summonses based upon false information etc., and Police internal affairs doesn’t deal with the issues in an acceptable manner. A new computer system etc is not going to help the Internal Affairs unit in the slightest. We must look at setting up a civilian Police review board sooner rather than later.

9- I think that a number of traffic lights can be made to operate as a flashing light during the hours of 1:00AM to 5:30AM.

I don’t think we need these newly hired personnel for the “so-called” quality of life issues, and there is plenty of fat to be cut out of the budget to lower some of the tax burden.

The new revaluation should be put into effect for 2007 instead of 2006; it will alleviate many of the problems that we have to face otherwise.

I have doubts as to what are the real goals that the Town fathers are trying to institute. I don’t think they are consistent in quality of life issues, safety issues, parking problems & their solutions, immigrants, etc.

I have made a Web-site where I will post items of concern to Lakewood residents to keep abreast and to comment and you’ll be able to keep abreast also http://www.voiceoflakewood.blogspot.com/


Thank you,

Yehuda Shain

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of traffic lights - there is a very desperate situation at the intersection of County Line Rd. and Squankum. There is a desperate need for a left turn signal in specific going Southbound from Squankum towards Eastbound onto County Line. Many is the time that traffic is backed up considerably due to the relatively few cars, sometimes only 1 or 2, that can make it through the light before it turns red.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever tried to park in that lot on Main Street? It holds total about 20 spots, is a nightmare to enter and exit and is adjacent to Jewish businesses and a Jewish apartment building, none of whom, I'm certain, would be thrilled with the idea of making this an official muster zone.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the last thing that Main Street between Clifton & Madison needs is mmore traffic entering and exiting. It's amazing there aren't more accidents there as it is. How about using part of the Jamesway property? Of course this would require rekindling the official muster zone idea as no way is BMG going to support it without compensation, but it's perfectly located - on the edge of town away from homes and businesses with easy access for vehicles traveling on the 9.