Newcomer Dan Schuberth is one of 3 candidates running unopposed for Robbinsville Town Council.
By Amy Macintyre
Since early July, Dan Schuberth has spent every evening walking from door to door all over Robbinsville trying to meet as many constituents as he can before the November election. Running unopposed, he’s the shoe-in for a council seat, but that doesn’t stop him from heading out after work, knocking on doors and meeting as many Robbinsville residents as possible.
“I don’t take this election for granted,” Schuberth said. “I don’t want to just walk into an office. I want to earn it. I want to earn people’s trust regardless of whether or not I have an opponent.”
At this point, he says he’s knocked on more than 1,000 doors, and he’s not just asking for votes. He says by visiting people at their homes, it’s really opened up a line of communication to the needs, concerns and issues of Robbinsville residents.
According to Schuberth, a common concern is the affordability of living in town. People are concerned about property tax increases and residents are worried they will be priced out of their homes.
Although he’s never held office as an elected official, Schuberth believes he has the background to help solve the property tax increases and other issues that the council will be facing in the next term.
Schuberth, 31, grew up in East Brunswick. After attending Bowdoin College in Maine where he earned his degree in political science, he returned to New Jersey and became a resident of Robbinsville after he accepted a position at McMaster-Carr, an industrial and commercial supplier in Robbinsville where he currently works as the regional operations manager.
He rented an apartment in Foxmoor, and after the Thriftway supermarket shuttered in 2011, he saw a decline in foot traffic to the Foxmoor Shopping Center leading to numerous vacated storefronts. He started thinking about ways in which he could help revitalize the shopping center.
In 2012, he applied for a position on Robbinsville’s Economic Development Committee and was appointed chairman. The committee advises council on development, hosts networking events for business owners and works to attract new businesses to the township.
“I really fell in love with the work there,” he said. “The people were great and I really felt like I was ale to make an impact.”
Since 2012, Schuberth has continued to be a member on the committee and hopes that as councilman, he can serve as council liaison, a position currently held by Councilman David Boyne, whose council seat Schuberth is running for. Boyne is not running for re-election.
For Schuberth, continuing the mission of Mayor Dave Fried, the current council and the economic development committee is key to keeping property taxes at an affordable rate. He explains that he wants to see more high-quality businesses make Robbinsville their home, and not just large companies like Amazon.com.
“When you continue to bring in ‘mom and pop’ shops, when you have restaurant row fill up and when you bring an anchor into Foxmoor, those ratables ultimately make it a heck of a lot easier for folks in municipal government to fund existing services without continuing to pass the cost on to the tax payers and raise the municipal tax bill,” he said.
Along with keeping tax rates low so that residents can continue to afford living in Robbinsville, he also wants to keep attracting a vibrant, new generation of residents to move in to town and to begin their careers and their families, just as Schuberth did himself.
After moving into his Foxmoor rental in 2010, Schuberth reconnected with his high school sweetheart Natalie, married her, and the couple now own a house in Town Center where they can walk to shops, restaurants and numerous green spaces.
“I want to attract new folks and younger folks to come to town and see this as an up and coming neighborhood,” he said. “I think we’ve been able to do that through Town Center in the last decade but at the same time I want every single person who’s grown up here and raised kids here to be able to afford to live and stay here even after they retire and their kids leave the school system, even after they loose one or two of their primary income sources. They need to be able to afford to pay their tax bill and retire here and relax here.”
In addition to his work on the Economic Development Committee, Schuberth also serves on the Planning Board and is a board member of the Mercer County Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
“This is a town that is unbelievably well-run and whose best days, believe it or not, are in the future,” he said.
Three of the five council members’ four-year terms expire at the end of the year. Christine Ciaccio and Ron Witt will be running for re-election, also unopposed.
Ciaccio was elected to serve on the council in 2007, and since has served as president of the council twice and as vice president twice. The 58-year-old has lived in Robbinsville for 35 years, and she and her husband Tony own Tony’s Farm and Garden Center on Route 130 in Windsor.
Ciaccio is also a member of the Redevelopment Committee, the Historic Preservation Advisory Board and the Municipal Alliance for the Prevention of Substance Abuse. Formerly, she served as a member of the Zoning Board for 15 years.
“In the past eight years that I’ve been on council, we have done a great job promoting businesses with our Keep It Local program while increasing commercial ratables,” she said. “I am proud that I am part of a team that has stabilized property taxes in Robbinsville.”
During her next term, Ciaccio says she will continue to work on developing Town Center on the south side of Route 33 and focus on promoting economic growth on Route 130.
Witt was elected to serve on the council in 2011. Additionally, he serves as a board member of the Robbinsville Education Foundation and a member of the Robbinsville Irish Heritage Association. Previously, Witt served on the Economic Development Committee, Planning Board and Zoning Board.
Witt, 48, has been a Robbinsville resident for 17 years. He is a principal of Sweetwater Construction Corporation in Cranbury and a father of three. He’s coached many youth sports in the township including softball, soccer, and basketball.
In his first term in council, Witt says he’s enjoyed working with Fried and the administration to stabilize property taxes and securing the Amazon.com fulfillment center.
In his next term, a major goal for Witt is to maintain tax stability by streamlining government services and attracting new businesses to Robbinsville. Additionally, like Schuberth, Witt is focused on the redevelopment of the Foxmoor Shopping Center.
“The businesses in this center have been languishing for too long without an anchor store,” Witt said. “I would like to see the landlord invest resources to help revitalize a property that is headed downhill.”
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