Mayors react to fort redevelopment bill

BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN - Mayor Gerald Tarantolo has invited the soon-to-be formed Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority to use this community's borough hall as its venue for forthcoming meetings.

At the same time, because the state-sanctioned panel will be debating how to breathe new life into the fort's facilities after it is shuttered by the Pentagon in 2011, Oceanport Mayor Lucille Chaump believes the authority should hold its meetings somewhere on the premises of the present-day U.S. Army base.

Meanwhile, Tinton Falls Mayor Peter Maclearie says that he hopes the new authority will also gather input not just from Tarantolo, Chaump and himself - who serve as the mayors of the fort's three host communities - but from the mayors of municipalities close to the installation as well.

All three mayors do admit that the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Act, as signed by Gov. Jon S. Corzine in a brief ceremony outside Gibbs Hall on Friday, is not everything they would have wanted it to be.

However, Tarantolo, Chaump and Maclearie all say they will live within the law's parameters and do the best to represent their constituents in the communities that stand to be most impacted by whatever replaces the 89-year-old base post-closure.

All three mayors will serve as voting members of the 10-member authority.

State Secretary of Commerce Virginia S. Bauer, who resides in Red Bank, and Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, of Colts Neck, will also serve as voting members.

The other four members, of which at least two are expected to also be Monmouth County residents, are to be named by Corzine soon, according to Assemblyman Michael Panter (D-12), one of the co-sponsors of an Assembly bill that laid out the guidelines for the authority.

The 10th, and sole non-voting member, is to be a representative of Fort Monmouth to be named by the U.S. Secretary of the Defense Department, a copy of the approved legislation states.

Tarantolo is eager to see who Corzine selects for the four posts on the authority and hopes the governor makes his picks carefully.

"It's now in the governor's lap. He has to be the initiator," Tarantolo said "His appointments will take some time [to make]."

The mayors, who had each unsuccessfully fought to have individual designees on the authority, will work with other personnel named to the panel, Tarantolo said.

"We're taking a positive attitude, and it's important to demonstrate that we're unified," he said.

The new authority will pick up where the eight-month-old Fort Monmouth Reuse Authority (FMRC), chaired by Tarantolo and Bauer, left off, the Eatontown mayor said.

That means that the new authority must apply to the Defense Department's Office of Economic Adjustment (OEA) for $315,000 in start-up funding for hiring of an executive director to lead the new entity, Tarantolo said.

Though the FMRC applied last fall for the OEA funding, their application was put on indefinite hold under an order by then-Attorney General Peter Harvey.

At that time, Harvey made an informal ruling that the OEA funding should not be released to the FMRC until the state of New Jersey had created an official redevelopment authority for the fort property via the legislation sponsored by Panter and other area lawmakers.

The FMRC, whose membership also includes Maclearie and Chaump, will hold its last meeting in Eatontown this coming Tuesday and "close out business," Tarantolo said.

To ensure that the authority meetings can be convenient to local residents interested in the fort's reuse, Tarantolo would like to see the new body meet in Eatontown, just as the FMRC has done since September.

"I invite [the authority] to use the facilities in Eatontown," Tarantolo said. "I think all of the meetings should be in this area so local residents will have access to what is going on. I'd like to try to influence that decision."

Chaump, one of several local mayors who extensively toured Fort Monmouth last month, sees the base as the best venue for authority meetings.

"Why not just meet at Fort Monmouth?" she asked.

As for the new panel itself, Chaump is hoping that the FMRC can make a smooth transition into what will essentially function as a local redevelopment authority for the fort property.

"I'm going to do whatever I can for the best interests of the residents of Oceanport," Chaump said. "I think we need to get started as soon as we can."

Drawing upon a theme expressed by Corzine and other elected officials during the signing ceremony, Maclearie noted that Fort Monmouth is much more than the sum of its 1,126 acres of land.

That means a focus on creating jobs for those civilian workers on post that do not move to the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground or other locations as mandated under the Pentagon's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

"Aside from the real estate, there's the people aspect," Maclearie said.

The mayors will work with the authority within the state law's parameters to deal with giving the fort a new purpose.

"It's a new beginning," Maclearie said. "It's in our best interests to work together."

To address local issues such as labor, the environment, and education, Maclearie hopes the authority will allow mayors in surrounding communities as well as council members to serve in an advisory capacity.

The new law creating the authority came after months of controversy and sometimes the clashing of local interests against the state government over who should lead the process of determining how the base property should be re-used after the Pentagon leaves the premises.

The authority is charged with finding new uses for the base including industrial, commercial, residential and open space, the legislation states.