One seat is up for grabs on the Hopewell Township Committee this year. The race has Democratic deputy mayor Julie Blake running for a second term against Republican challenger Ed “Jack” Jackowski. Blake is running for her second term, while Jackowski is a first-time candidate.
Julie Blake, 51, is a school counselor in a public high school in Flemington. In addition to her duties as deputy mayor, she also serves as public safety liaison, chair of the Board of Health, liaison to the Historic Preservation Commission, Lawrence Hopewell Trail Trustee and trail maintenance volunteer, and executive board member and past president of the Hunterdon County School Counselor Association.
Born in Santa Clara, California, Blake has lived in Brandon Farms since 1999. She has a bachelor’s degree in French and history and a master’s degree in teaching from Washington University in St. Louis, and a master’s degree in counseling from The College of New Jersey. She has been married for 26 years to David Blake, and they have two children: Eben, 23, and Eva, 20.
Edward Jackowski, 49, is the owner of Jack’s Greenhouse and Farm in Pennington. He is a member of the Marine Corps League, an officer of Trenton Cyrus No. 5 Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, a trustee of the Woosamonsa Schoolhouse Association, and sponsor of boys’ and girls’ divisions for the Hopewell Valley Soccer Association.
He has been a resident of Hopewell Township since 1995 and resides in the Sourland Mountain area of town. Born in Teaneck, he is a 1987 graduate of Notre Dame High School in Lawrence.
Jackowski served in the U.S. military as a Marine, and is a graduate of the USMC Motor Transport Mechanics School. He has been married to his wife, Anita, since 1996 and they have two children: Sarina, a freshman at Elon University, and Jaina, an 8th grader at Timberlane Middle School.
The Hopewell Express provided both candidates with a list of questions via email. Their answers are published below.
The township can expect to lose a significant source of tax revenue when Bristol-Myers Squibb shutters its Hopewell campus in the near future. How will you as a member of the committee ensure that residents do not lose access to services or see tax bills spike as a result?
Julie Blake: The most important work we can do to reduce the impact of Bristol-Myers Squibb is to ensure that we support them in finding the next tenant. BMS currently has a general development plan for one large biologic company. Ideally, a similar company will step in. Realistically, however, the new buyer may ask for flexibility to allow for a few different tenants and mixed use zoning.
The township committee must be careful to ensure that the area around BMS is preserved with farms and open space while still working with a potential buyer to make it usable. Their rateable income is a vital part of our tax base.
Edward Jackowski: We have to recruit and work very actively with current BMS staff on finding a new business occupant. I have already spoken to a contact at BMS in regard to this situation and he has assured me that they are eagerly looking for a suitable occupant.
Of course, property taxes are already high in Hopewell, as they are throughout the state. As a member of the committee in the next three years, what will you do to ease the burden on local taxpayers?
Edward Jackowski: The agreements with developers to build 2,881 market rate homes and 653 affordable housing homes will result in development nearly 3 ½ times the size of Brandon Farms, with consequent huge impacts on taxes, schools, traffic, and on the environment. We need to do all we can to slow down this process, to work intently with the legislature to alter affordable housing rules, and to explore all possible alternatives to the agreements that the township has already signed.
The township also signed agreements with developers of the Zaitz (behind ShopRite) and Enourado (Federal City Road) tracts, giving them each a massive, 30-year tax break through the PILOT program, or payment in lieu of taxes). No additional such agreements should be signed without comprehensive cost benefit analysis.
Julie Blake: I have a record of fiscal responsibility and, if elected, will continue to watch our finances carefully. Since 2015, we’ve reduced the township’s total operating expenses by 5.9 percent. Over the same period, our average budget increase has been less than 2 percent. Over the past two years, we have reduced the township’s overall debt by 12 percent. For three years in a row, Hopewell Township Committee has delivered the lowest equalized municipal tax rate in the entire county.
The sale and development of the Zaitz and Woodmont properties will bring over $110 million to the township over the next 30 years. In an official letter to the township committee, the school superintendent, Dr. Thomas Smith, described the financial benefits of this PILOT agreement as “The district assumes any (PILOT) monies will be used by the township to offset the overall tax burden on the residents of Hopewell Township.”
This will not take money from schools. Dr. Smith explained that under the agreement the schools will “receive the exact amount we requested.”
Residents served by the Trenton Water Works are rightly concerned at the regular reports of substandard water quality and mismanagement at the facility. What will you do as a member of the committee to ensure that township residents always have safe water to drink?
Julie Blake: After a series of water notifications were sent by Trenton Water Works to its customers, I met with both Trenton mayors Jackson and Gusciora about our water safety and spoke about my concerns at a public Trenton Council meeting. As a cautionary measure, I pushed to have the township’s water tested. When the new administration in Trenton announced public water meetings, I arranged for their professionals to come and speak at Stony Brook Elementary School. I will continue these efforts to ensure safe drinking water.
While I live in Brandon Farms and am a customer of TWW, it’s important to note that many residents in the township depend on well water and also have concerns about their water safety. The Environmental Commission and the township routinely monitor water levels throughout the Valley. In addition to fighting against the PennEast Pipeline which threatens our water source, I have secured a commitment from a nonprofit agency to provide free lead testing kits to residents who need help.
Edward Jackowski: I attended the information session run by Trenton Water. Their assurances are promising, but Hopewell Township must remain vigilant. Trenton Water does not want to create an advisory structure that involves Hopewell Township, and our local government is not pressing for its creation. Hopewell Township must seek a structure that permits our local officials and experts to watch Trenton Water decisions.
Water quality is an essential part of our quality of life. Our local government must have a seat at the table.
The township has agreed to zone for hundreds of affordable housing units to be built by 2025, as is true for many of the surrounding municipalities in the area. There are some people in town who believe that Hopewell’s unique character will be lost if these housing units are built. What can you as a member of the township committee do to satisfy the affordable housing requirement while safeguarding Hopewell’s qualities? Or is this simply not possible?
Edward Jackowski: Every alternative needed to be fully explored before the contracts with developers were signed. Some 100 percent affordable units should have been created to reduce the overall tax impact. Other alternatives include rehab units for which double credits are offered. There are currently more than 200 homes for sale in the township of which 18 of them (as of two months ago) are affordable housing.
We must also explore the idea of new legislation that might, for example, transfer some of our market rate units to Trenton, a solution that the present Mayor of Trenton strongly favors. Other new legislation will reduce the overall impact on Hopewell Township given its unique status as the supplier of groundwater to more than 1.5 million users. The township committee must work very hard to shape and encourage the passage of this legislation. To date, those contacts with the legislature by our current town leaders, have been minimal.
Julie Blake: This is not a challenge we asked for. The challenge was mandated from the state Supreme Court, and regardless of party, all elected officials have to enforce this decision. But we can meet the mandates and maintain our character by continually emphasizing the historic and environmentally fragile nature of our community and by creating parks and open spaces. The areas that are being developed have been zoned for development for over 15 years. These areas are near I-95 to reduce commuter traffic through town.
The planning board did a good job anticipating these needs, and as a committee we have followed their principles carefully. The creation of an environmentally sensitive master plan, the regular public hearings of the planning board, and the township committee’s review over the past 3 years have ensured that this is not a partisan process and that decisions have been made by multiple generations of Hopewell leaders.
Give the Hopewell Township Committee a grade on its overall performance over the past 5 years, and explain why you gave it that grade.
Julie Blake: B+. We’ve worked hard, we’ve accomplished a lot, we can always do better. Experience and knowledge count. This group has a lot of it, and if I return to the committee, we can accomplish even more.
Here’s my vision for Hopewell Township: it is essential to watch our spending, but we must also continue to create spaces where we meet and come together as a community. We all benefit from preserved farmland, open space, parks, trails, and sites for recreation including the proposed Community and Senior Center.
It is my hope that over the next three years, the committee can continue to build on what makes Hopewell Township such a special place.
Edward Jackowski: Overall, just a C-. Public participation is actively discouraged. Police have been called at committee meetings to discourage citizens from taking part and a clock prevents citizens from speaking for more than three minutes. Regular meetings are being routinely cancelled, including the last meeting before the election. Recently, a new newsletter provided political aid to the deputy mayor on the public’s dole.
Most importantly, the township signed all of the affordable housing settlements without a work session or any meaningful public involvement. As part of the settlement, the township sold a parcel behind ShopRite worth $5 million to developers for $10,000. The PILOT program robs our schools of $56 million over the next 30 years.
It wasn’t that long ago that towns touted their ability to foster residential and commercial growth. It was seen as a sign of desirability and economic health. Nowadays, and not just in Hopewell, growth tends to be treated with hesitancy, doubt or skepticism; even proponents of continued development are often wary of being seen as pro-growth. Why do you think we’ve seen this change over time, and what do you think it means for the future of a place like Hopewell Township?
Julie Blake: Growth for growth’s sake is not a plan. In 2002 the Planning Board created a master plan to safeguard our environmental resources and give a blueprint for future development. I am committed to its vision for protecting environmentally sensitive areas and maintaining our air and water.
Development needs to be sustainable and address our present needs without compromising the future. We need to preserve Hopewell’s history and rural character. Improving our social infrastructure (eg, trails, parks, greenways) is essential to promoting a healthy community.
Edward Jackowski: Growth was seen as a way to bring tax ratables into the coffers with limited impact on the spending side since the majority of our tax bill goes toward education. However, the infrastructure costs were ignored, and now you see the increased costs required for public works, police and safety, et cetera. Additionally, Hopewell Township’s existing roadways do not support increased traffic, as anyone trying to travel south on Route 31 in the morning can attest to.
I’m amazed that as a township, we still do not have an economic development plan, nor a manner to begin getting the conversation going on this topic. This has been requested at every meeting this year by John Hart and Mayor Kuchinski and Deputy Mayor Blake continue to stonewall having this conversation.
Residents are moving out of New Jersey in droves, seeking lower taxes in Pennsylvania or elsewhere. We can see this trend here in Hopewell, as there are currently over 200 homes on the market. It’s already a buyer’s market, with housing values starting to plummet. We also have commercial vacancies throughout the town.
Until we see that the demand for more growth is there, we should attempt to minimize development as much as we can within the COAH mandates.
Why are you the right person to help lead Hopewell Township and its committee forward for the next three years?
Edward Jackowski: I am the right person for the township because I will vote for topics and issues with a non-partisan mind set. I support stopping the overdevelopment of Hopewell Township from developers and protecting the land that was originally dedicated for open space. I will listen to my neighbors and community members, allowing them to fully voice their concerns and questions as opposed to just rubber stamping decisions and ordinances.
I have obtained the leadership skills necessary to assist this township in making financially sound decisions through my military experience as well as my experience as a local business owner.
My wife and I love raising our family in Hopewell Valley, and I feel it is time to give back to the community that has given us so much. Therefore, I am hoping to be elected and serve on the Hopewell Township Committee to restore good government, transparency, fiscal responsibility and public input.
Julie Blake: I have a proven track record of keeping spending down, reducing debt, and finding new revenue streams to ensure that everyone who wants to stay in Hopewell Township can afford to. I strongly believe that we have to meet and listen to all residents, new and old, to ensure that we all have a voice in how we keep our taxes in check and our environment safe.
My nature is to look for the good and to find ways to build on what is working. I don’t avoid problems because they are difficult — I work with others to find the best solutions. As a counselor, I have learned the value of listening to people and working for their goals. On the committee, I’ve used my training to work with people with different perspectives and helped them come to fair and reasonable solutions.
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