Recently, it was reported in the news, that Ray Jacek, NJ State DOT project engineer, told Dover Township Officials that the proposed widening of Route 9 through Dover Township is dead in the water. I find this announcement to be totally unacceptable. In fact, I would classify this comedy of errors by state and local governments to be an example of how decrepit government can be. In the late 1990’s, when I was the chairman of the Dover Twp. Business Advisory Council, the Council, with leadership by former Dover Twp. Mayor “Bud” Aldrich, Freeholder Joe Vicari and Lakewood officials, were able to get a “Fast Track” commitment from the State DOT to widen Rt. 9. At the time, the improvements made to the highway near Lake Carasaljo, were an initial step towards the widening. If it were not for political fortunes of the state, we might have been looking at a ground breaking by this time.
   The story really starts back in the 1960’s and 70’s when the state initially wanted to dialyze the highway in the same manner which strangely stops at border of Ocean and Monmouth Counties. The state purchased the lands and was prepared to begin until local backwoods geniuses became afraid that too many “city slickers” might move to the area, so the state was forced to sell the land back ten cents on a Dollar. Today, Jacek along with Brian McMahon, Associate vice president of the Democrat “Pay to play” engineering firm, attempt to sell the public the same hogwash, that dualyzing a highway is going to create more congestion. That is the same logic that was used 35 years ago, and it is obvious that it did not work. All that consultants do is mimic the wishes of their political masters that had hired them.
   What I find even more sickening is, that we can afford to spend 350 billion Dollars in Iraq, build new roads and projects in other lands, but widening a local road or building a new bridge at home is an impossibility. The monkey wrench which halted the project was the election of Jim McGreevey and subsequent Democrat governors. Their excuse is that the state is broke, even though they still always find they money to hire more cronies. We have a ticking time bomb in Ocean County because the widening of Route 9 is a problem that should also be addressed in all of Ocean County besides Dover Twp..