JACKSON – To say this year’s local campaign season is out of the ordinary would be an understatement as two teams associated with the Republican Party are vying for four-year terms for mayor and two council seats.
Seeking re-election for what would be his 15th year as mayor in January is Michael Reina who is running with the slogan “Experienced Leadership, United Moving Jackson Forward.” He is running with Scott Sargent who is a member of the Jackson Board of Education and Jennifer L. Kuhn who works in real estate.
Running with the banner of “Homegrown Leadership Working for Jackson” is mayoral challenger Martin Flemming, III who is serving as council president this year. Seeking re-election for his second term on council is Andrew Kern. Samara P. O’Neill is running for her first full term on council following her appointment in September to fill the vacant council seat of Alex Sauickie.
Sauickie was originally set to run with Kern and Flemming but was appointed in August to fill the 12th District Assembly seat of Ron Dancer who died in July.
Flemming told The Jackson Times that he and his family have “run a Hardware / power equipment dealership in Jackson since 1964. I took over completely in 1978.
“I joined the fire service in 1976 and held the offices of Treasurer, President and Captain. The Fire Service brought me to my first elected position, for the Board of Fire Commissioner, the township taxing authority which oversees the fire departments,” he said.
Flemming said he was first elected in 1998 and held that position until joining the Jackson Township Council in 2019. “It was here that I cut my teeth on creating budgets, bonding, and dealing with and maintaining our career staff. I was then appointed to the Jackson Township Environmental Committee where I served until being appointed to the Jackson Township Planning Board where I have served for close to seven years.
“After my appointment to Council, I was elected in 2020 where I have served one year as Council Vice President and this year as Council President. I also served on the Board of Directors for Jackson Little League for 15 years with one year as President,” Flemming added.
He was asked what Jackson’s most pressing issue is. “Overbuilding, which leads to too much traffic and the loss of our rural feel, has to be balanced against an individual’s right to profit from his land. This is a delicate balancing act at best. The Township needs tax income to service its citizens, hence the need for commercial rateables.
“This is balanced against most people wanting to maintain Jackson’s rural personality. That means to me that although we can never stop our growth, I mean c’mon, Jackson is a great place to live, we do need to control and direct this growth. This is why our land use boards are so important,” Flemming said.
He noted that the township’s planning Board has oversight of the Township Master Plan and “while its revamp is overdue and expensive, it is an important expense.
“The township needs to update its master plan ASAP. If we are talking about community development, we have multiple growths occurring. Adventure Crossing will be the same boom to our town that Great Adventure was. Growth of this nature in that corridor was the pie in the sky forward looking thinking the town planners thought about in the early 1970s and it was universally seen as a great addition to our town,” he said.
“The new phenomenon of the warehousing growth seems to stem from the general decline of retail brick and mortar stores, stemming from the rise of internet sales. It is something we will need to embrace for the near future, or until the pendulum swings back to the older retail model,” Flemming said.
He noted the third aspect for growth should be offices in commercial zones. “This is a sector in which Jackson has not historically been strong, but it is a great addition to our commercial base. The final segment we welcome is additional age restricted housing groups. They are great asset to town.”
On the topic of traffic safety and traffic congestion, Flemming said, “everyone is in a hurry and driving too fast. Enforcement of varying levels is almost always warranted. Assigning the proper assets to the problem is not so clear. Everything our enforcement arms do is important, and prioritizing is an ever-changing task that on a daily basis is adjusted constantly.
“We need to give our police department and code enforcement officers the appropriate means to accomplish this task. It is hard to be everywhere at once. When problem areas show up, assets are assigned in the most productive way possible. Unfortunately, these problems will most likely continue,” the candidate added.
Regarding any other concerns Flemming noted that those brought up “center around quality-of-life issues, which is one of the main functions of a local government. Some of the expectations are unrealistic and need to be explained – such as the clearing of a newly purchased lot for imminent construction. Others however, need to be addressed and corrected at a township level and under my mayorship they will be.”
Mayor Reina said, “it has been my privilege to honorably serve the people of Jackson as mayor. I am running for re-election to build on the record of success we have accomplished together here in Jackson. Our slogan, “Experienced Leadership Moving Jackson Forward” means protecting our town from overdevelopment by maximizing open space funds, continuing to support and grow our police department to keep Jackson safe, keeping taxes low, enhancing services for our seniors, paving more roads, continue improving our sports fields for youth sports and families, and continuing to provide the best possible services for Jackson residents.”
Reina serves as Superintendent of Ocean County Bridges and has lived in Jackson for 35 years. “In my 14 years as mayor of Jackson I have had the great opportunity to work closely with so many of our residents and veterans.”
“Every day I get out and listen to residents whether it’s a Meet the Mayor evening or a Jackson Senior community clubhouse meeting night to hear what they’d like to see our town doing better or more of, and that really helps to drive our accomplishments – whether it’s working with our police department obtaining more officers, state of art equipment, new units and interdepartmental task force participation – I take great pride in knowing that Jackson is listed as one of the safest towns to live in,” he added.
“We regularly meet with our department heads to get up to date real time information that helps us solve the issues before they become problems. My promise is to continue to work with everyone in town to move Jackson forward.”
The mayor said, “when I talk to residents one issue I hear often is overdevelopment. That is why I believe it is critically important that we fix our approachto open space to maximize our existing funding and most quickly preserve as much land as possible. At the same time, we have to keep Jackson affordable against the outside cost drivers like inflation, the state’s school funding formula, and COAH requirement mandates.”
COAH is the Council On Affordable Housing which determines that every town has to allow builders to make homes for low income people.
“That is why I am proud to say we have started to reduce our municipal tax burden this year and will continue to fight to do more with less year after year. While Jackson is not the only town dealing with development, it is booming across New Jersey and our nation, there are important and aggressive steps we can take to preserve our open space and rural character,” he added.
The mayor said, “bonding to increase our purchasing power, for example, can quickly and efficiently preserve more land in town and help to alleviate some of the issues we are seeing today. Our soon to be Open Space Committee will help us get there sooner as we have our residents join us.”
Regarding traffic safety around the community the mayor said, “the unfortunate reality is that township planning from 30-40 years ago did not adequately take into account the realities of driving or living in Jackson today. This is why we have expanded our partnerships with the Township Planners and the County to continue to look for creative solutions to provide relief to our traffic concerns.”
“We also need to continue to provide our Police Department with the tools they need to enforce the laws and keep our residents safe, including again expanding our number of officers and increasing traffic calming devices where needed,” Mayor Reina added.
