By Joseph Sapia
Middletown – The issue came up in different ways: speeding, how traffic lights operate, motor vehicles not stopping for school buses, motorists ignoring traffic-control signs.
It can all be boiled down to one issue, the concern over traffic.
“Welcome to Lincroft,” said Deputy Police Chief Robert W. Stefanski, recognizing a familiar issue in that part of town.
Traffic was a common theme residents brought up to township officials at the “Spotlight on Lincroft” session, held Thursday, April 28, at the First Aid and Rescue Squad building, Hurleys Lane. At Neighborhood Spotlights, which the township began last year, officials visit a section of town and listen to what that area’s residents have to say.
“Traffic, it’s a concern for everyone,” said Steven Ficsor.
Ficsor raised a point about the traffic light at the intersection of Route 520/Newman Springs Road and Middletown-Lincroft/Swimming River Roads.
“It doesn’t give an opportunity when all traffic is stopped,” said Ficsor, 55.
So, there is never a point when traffic completely stops, allowing for a pedestrian to freely cross the intersection. He said he was concerned about his daughter, 14, traveling through the intersection when she is bicycling.
“It’s a concern,” Ficsor said. “And I don’t want to tell her not to ride her bike. Hey, I lived on my bike (as a youth).”
“We were concerned about people not obeying the speed limit on 520,” said Walter Brzyski, 49. “It’s 40 miles per hour. But it’s more like 60, easily.
“We joke and call it the Lincroft Raceway,” said Brzyski, who has lived in the area since 1998.
Brzyski said he would like to see more of a police presence.
“I would love it,” Brzyski said. “People just know, you don’t speed (when police are around), do the speed limit.”
Police “could be there all day long,” writing tickets, Brzyski said.
“Cha-ching, cha-ching,” added Brzyski, imitating a cash register, alluding to money that could be made off of police writing tickets.
Nancey Jensen and Nicky Raviele live in the Phalanx Road area, near Brookdale Community College.
“There’s a lot of speeding,” said Raviele, 37.
Also, according to Jensen, 51, drivers are supposed to obey signs banning turns at certain times of day, to disallow through-traffic from using the neighborhood.
MaryEllen Feltz, 66, who lives in the Phalanx Road area, also brought up speeding and traffic-control in the area.
“When they’re flying and they come to the stop, (you) hear the brakes,” said Feltz, who has lived in the neighborhood with her husband, Joe, 72, since 1977.
Traffic, “the perennial problem,” said Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger. “Pretty much everywhere. There are (traffic) trouble spots in town.”
Scharfenberger said he would talk to Police Chief Craig Weber about solutions.
“My personal opinion, the only thing that works is tickets,” Scharfenberger said. “I think writing tickets is really the only way to get the message across.”
As for solutions to concerns he heard, Weber said, “Probably more education, enforcement, signage.”
Weber said a possibility is educating the public on concerns through social media, along with publicizing concerns to Brookdale for its motorists.
Raymond Sawchak, 69, had a roadway concern, but it was not about traffic. His concern was the lack of paving of his street, Willow Grove Drive. He said the street has not been paved in at least an estimated 25 to 30 years.
“It’s to the point it’s a problem,” said Sawchak, 69.
“The pavement in front of my house, down two or three levels,” Sawchak said. “The first level is worn away, the second level is worn away.”
Another non-traffic issue was raised by the Feltzes. They said vegetative debris from nearby athletic fields are dumped in the woods.
“There’s more ticks in grass than in the woods,” MaryEllen Feltz said. “The woods were always pleasant. Now, you’re stepping over logs. It’s used as a dumping ground.”
