By Allison Perrine
MONMOUTH BEACH – A municipal election to determine which three borough residents will sit on the Monmouth Beach Board of Commissioners will be held Tuesday, May 11.
Four candidates are vying for full-term, four-year positions on the three-member board. Three of the candidates include incumbents: Mayor David F. Stickle and commissioners Lawrence M. Bolsch and Timothy Somers; they are being challenged by resident Kristina Schmelz.
All candidates were given a chance to answer a series of questions and explain their views during an April 28 virtual candidate forum organized by the League of Women Voters of the Greater Red Bank Area, a nonpartisan organization.
The event kicked off with opening statements from each candidate, starting with Schmelz, a current member of the planning and zoning board. She said she is running for commissioner because she loves Monmouth Beach and wants to ensure that the town is well-run. A mother of three and current Monmouth Beach School PTO member, she hopes to bring a balanced and “fresh perspective” to the borough’s government and to keep property taxes affordable, constantly evaluate flood remediation measures and more.
Schmelz has been an attorney for 14 years and worked as a public defender for the first eight years of her legal career. Since then, she has worked for her family auto dealership business. She says those experiences give her “a solid foundation for approaching and solving the issues our town will face over the next four years.”
Stickle was the next to speak and began by highlighting the borough’s accomplishments over the last four years while he has been on the board. That includes a new road plan, “strict” road opening and plastics ban ordinances, bulkhead and sidewalk replacements, new garbage trucks and more. He said this experience has given him “an excellent understanding of how the town operates and functions.”
Stickle has been a resident of Monmouth Beach since 1990 and has been a small business owner since 1997. Before becoming mayor, he served as the former fire chief in town and public works commissioner. A father of three, Stickle said he is “fully qualified to lead the town” and guide the community to make the right choices, “no matter what the issue or what the next emergency might be.”
Somers, the newest member of the commission, spoke next. Since joining the board five months ago, Somers said the borough established a beach advisory committee made up of local residents. It has met several times to discuss the town’s beach-related issues such as parking issues and beach fees.
A lifelong borough resident, Somers is a 40-year member of the Monmouth Beach Fire Company where he served as chief in 1988 and again in 2018-19. He is also a life member of the borough’s EMS team and has served as PTO president for Monmouth Beach School. He has run several businesses over the years including one that became “the largest provider of fire department-based safety testing in the nation.” After sell
ing that company in 2007, he opened Dune Donuts and Bagels in Spring Lake. Somers said his experience serving the town qualifies him “more than any candidate for the position” of borough commissioner.
Bolsch, a 25-year resident of Monmouth Beach who has raised his children in town, spoke last. He has participated in the recreation committee, education foundation and planning and zoning board. He has 36 years of professional experience in accounting, finance, banking and budgeting, he said, which has enabled him to “move easily into the role of commissioner” and to “understand process improvement, capital planning and taxes as well.”
A CPA, Bolsch currently sits as the commissioner of revenue and finance for the borough. He hopes to continue in that role and to ensure the borough’s financial situation remains “sound, strong and stable” as it moves forward with all of the projects it wants to do.
After the introductions, the forum transitioned to the question-and-answer period with topics ranging from how to keep property taxes affordable to stances on climate change and senior citizen needs. One particularly hot topic in town surrounds parking, especially during the busy summer months.
It was a concern last year among community members as a surge of visitors emerged amid the COVID-19 pandemic. During the forum, one question focused on how parking could be managed this summer, specifically in the cultural center parking lot on Ocean Avenue.
Somers was the first to respond and said the borough plans to have paid parking at the cultural center lot with a kiosk for visitors to use – $20 for the day. It will help offset costs incurred with the beach, and the borough is working with the police department to find streets where the town can make safety-minded changes to ease parking concerns.
Stickle echoed similar sentiments and discussed the plan for daily paid parking in the cultural center parking lot. Emergency parking regulations may be made on select streets in town if needed, as was done last year, he said.
Bolsch said the paid parking in the cultural lot is just one result from the overcrowding last summer. This year, he wants the borough to be “proactive” and “reactive” in managing the crowds, community safety and budget. He added that the borough is also looking at alternate side of the street parking.
Schmelz said it’s a “no brainer” that the borough should charge parking fees in the cultural center parking lot because it will bring in revenue. She did suggest that a police officer be stationed at the nearby crosswalk at all times to help people safely walk back and forth and to assist tow trucks should they need to get into the parking lot to handle parking violations.
More information about the candidates and the May 11 municipal election is available at vote411.org, courtesy of the League of Women Voters Education Fund. Elections will be held from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The polling location for both Districts 1 and 2 is at the Church of the Precious Blood Parish Center, 72 Riverdale Ave.
This article originally appeared in the May 6-12, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
