2013 Pohatcong Election Results > Updated

                                                     

 

 

 

                                                         It's Slack and Van Lieu !

                                  Winners:

                                  Dave Slack             489

                                  Mary Van Lieu       410

                                 

                                  Losers:

                                  Marc Metzger         393   

                                  Curt Weihz             299       

 

                                                

 

                                                      Pohatcong School Board Results:  

 

                                   Expired 3 Yr. Term:

        

                                             IN:

                                  

                                  Scott Weeks                     403

                                  Jamie Hudak                   371

                                  Cindy Semonche               350

                                  

                                          OUT:

 

                                  Beverly Weihz                 337                   

                                  Dean McBride                 304

                                  Regina Blair                    294

 

 

                                1 Year Expired Term:

 

 

                                Joseph Delesky                365        

                                Bill Oertel                         340

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







Pohatcong Elections 2013 : A Mixed Bag This Year

Will it be SHOW time this year?

 

With an expected blow-out win by the current Governor, it is expected that turn-out this year will be lighter than in past gubernatorial elections but there is nonetheless both some drama and boredom that has developed on the local political front.

This year's Council election has both incumbents, Mary Van Lieu and Dave Slack, seeking new terms against a couple of lackluster, ho-hum, challengers.  Both Slack and Van Lieu can share credit along with the Mayor and other Council members with doing the hard and seemingly, thankless, work of trimming the municipal budget and keeping taxes flat for the last two years - in spite of some black holes opening up on the revenue side. Having met this challenge, it is doubtful that voters will turn away and head towards uncharted waters-especially since even more challenging times lie ahead.  Their opponents, Curt Weihz and Marc Metzger, have thus far run uninspiring campaigns and each comes with their own particular set of well, lets say, personal issues and personality flaws. Meanwhile, it never hurts to have the endorsement of Pohatcong's popular young Mayor, Jim Kern, who has signed off on the Slack / Van Lieu tandem.  Come Election Day, voters are likely to concur.

Well if the Council race has seemed like a big yawn so far, then the same cannot be said for the Pohatcong School Board election which is being fully contested for the first time that anyone can remember.  Victimized by their own ineptness and increasingly out of touch with the tax-paying public, four of the current school board members will be hard pressed to hang onto their seats this year as they face a determined and well organized challenge from the SHOW coalition (Cindy Semonche, Jamie Hudak, Bill Oertel, and Scott Weeks).  Perhaps weighing most heavily on the minds of voters will be the inability of the current board to stop the never-ending budget increases along with the ongoing poor academic results.  Adding to the woes of the current board is the controversial solar panel field project which most of the town residents seem now to oppose. Having been targeted to be finished this past summer, yet new hurdles have cropped up delaying it's start.  An ominous sign perhaps for the current  incumbents and the word on the street says that some big time and overdue changes are a coming at the ballot box on November 5th. Sounds about right.

As in past years, Pohatcong Blog will be attempting to scoop, yet again, some of our local commercial media by posting Pohatcong election results as soon as we have them in hand (and beating those other guys to the punch).  Don't forget to check back here on election night for your local results.

 

Random Notes: 9-20-13

1. The all-new next generation Pohatcong Township Website will be making it's debut
    at the end of this month.  If all goes well with final testing and tweaking, launch day is
    scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 25th. 

2. With all the discontent generated by the current Pohatcong Township School Board,
    it comes as no surprise then that four new candidates will be seeking board seats in
    this fall's election.  Throwing their hats into the ring are Cindy Semonche, 
   Jamie Hudak, Bill Oertel, and Scott Weeks.  Election Day is Tuesday, Nov.5th.

3. Local java junkies are paying close attention to rumors swirling about town that
    Starbucks is scouting locations for a new franchise here in Pohatcong.  The 
    now-defunct Sonic site is being considered as one strong possibility. 

Meet The Neighbors

What You Might Be Seeing These Days If Your Peer Over Your Neighbors Fence...

Pohatcong Land Use Board meetings are usually fairly stolid affairs replete with discussion of all

sorts of dry technical and legal minutiae that only the hardiest of observers can withstand on any
regular basis. However, even this dullest of forums can suddenly erupt into a carnival of joyous, 

raucous levity if suddenly one were to introduce the topic of chickens into the evenings discussion. Yes, apparently  chickens just have that type of affect on people.

 

On this particular night, appearing before the Board, were two, chicken loving, township
residents who had run afoul of their neighbors over the boarding of several chickens
on their property in lower Pohatcong. While the outcome of this particular dispute
did not ultimately hinge on the right of these chicken custodians to house their flock in a
lawful manner it was clear that a couple of issues did present themselves.  Firstly,
our board members, though they did struggle mightily, could not resolve as to whether
or not the presence of chickens was permissible according to current municipal code. 
This after all, was not a farm property, but it did exist in a rural context so all seemed
to agree that I should be allowed, which was a good and sensible consensus opinion.

At discussions end, it was determined that an ordinance should be developed by Pohatcong
Town Council to address any current shortcomings that might exist in it's current code to
prevent future confusion - especially in light of the burgeoning movement on the part of
the general public for backyard chickens.  Will feathered residents one day outnumber the
two-legged variety in our town?  It seems things are certainly trending that way.

 

 

 



Never Say Die: Ravine Road : The Resurrection

Ravine Road : Before Makeover

Ravine Road: Newly Resurrected

The fate of one of our favorite but perhaps somewhat unbeloved, obscure township roadways seemed sealed less than a year ago when our elected officials decided to close it down and abandon it forever.  After all, there are no township residences along this road and the mighty sum of 450,000 greenbacks had been floated as a reasonable cost to fix it in the way it takes governments to fix things. RIP forever.  Well almost.

In perhaps what may be a harbinger of how things will get done in the (hard) future that lies ahead, there were some folks in town who decided that what was needed here was a bypass operation spearheaded by a healthy injection of volunteerism.   Leaping into gear with his mighty earth moving/shaping equipment, resident Walter Van Lieu set about to set things right and after labouring at the task  for several days, mirabile visu, our plucky little road lives on!