Reader offers suggestions for cutting budgets

I'd like to thank J. Dibert for the letter about Art Sholty. Finally someone else has written in to express his or her disgust with this person. I cannot think why anyone out there cares what he thinks about Kathy Russell. But what do you expect from a benny?

He moved down here and now everyone has to care what he thinks. Well, I got news for you, Artie baby: We don't. Why don't you write letters about what the Township Council can do to make life better and save us some money instead of kissing up to the mayor?

Like removing a lot of these "no right turn" signs. There are way too many. With a lot of them, you can see 100 yards down the roadway and easily make a right turn safely. It's costs us gas and time. That law was put into effect to stop pollution and idling as well. I spoke to the mayor and he's done nothing.

How about all the traffic lights on Brick Boulevard? You have to stop at one and the next one is red when you get to it. It does not promote the flow of traffic. Stopping and standing uses a lot of gas. I see many people going through the "no right turn" signs. They are fed up with it all.

I read about the school board complaining about the garage where they fix the buses. This is where we could have saved a lot of money with the school budget and that mess.

First, take Brian DeLuca off the committee that decides how much is trimmed from the school budget. A past president is a conflict. The budget was voted down and only $100,000 was trimmed. What a joke.

We should get rid of all the buses and contract them out. A school district has to replace a bus every 10 years. That costs a lot of money. Get a company to do the busing, and that's all gone. The company will need additional drivers and they can pick up the ones from Brick or they can become custodians and grounds men. It would also eliminate the need for a newer and better garage. The mechanics can work on and repair the town vehicles.

Get rid of two of the four principals in each middle school. One principal for each grade plus a building principal is ridiculous. The third largest district in the state, which has more students in their middle schools, has only a principal and a vice principal. They also do not have assistant principals in their 12 or more grammar schools. All told, this adds up to a lot of money saved.

Then we come to the town budget. The mayor ragged on the former mayor about his 12-cent increase, and here he's got a 10-cent increase. What a joke.

We don't hear Art Sholty writing in and saying anything about that. Guess he's rich. Counted with all the increases, it adds up to around 22 cents (total tax rate) doesn't it? So much for your utopia, Artie.

Does anyone out there know if Stop OverSpending can get a referendum on the town budget? If it all passes, which I'm sure it will, we will then have to look forward to those revaluation totals as well. Oh, that's right, they won't hit us with that until the housing market goes way up and they can blast us with even more taxes.

There are over 3,000 homes for sale here in Brick. After that hit, I guess you can expect the 3,000 to double. Who would want to live here anyway? Guess we better all sell before that happens. Then Artie will be all alone in his utopia.
Michael G. Crelin Sr.
Brick
Editor's note: The proposed increase in the municipal purposes tax rate is 9.6 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation.