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FAIR HAVEN: A LESSON IN GOVERNMENT

The borough council held its bimonthly meeting at the Knollwood School, where student Peter Maris, below, was a particularly engaged citizen. (Photo by Wil Fulton. Click to enlarge)

By WIL FULTON

Students from Knollwood School in Fair Haven got a glimpse of how their local government operates Monday, when Mayor Ben Lucarelli and the borough council held their bi-monthly meeting in the school’s gymnasium, continuing a tradition that started four years ago.

Students in sixth, seventh and eighth grade attended, with the council members introducing themselves and giving a step-by-step analysis and demonstration of each part of the council meeting, as well as the specific duties and powers of the council itself.

Many students readily participated in the “good of the borough” portion of the session, designed to let attendees speak directly with council members.

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FAIR HAVEN GOES FOR INCUMBENTS

Poll workers at Fair Haven’s Youth Center on election day 2012. (Photo by Rebecca Desfosse. Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Voters in storm-darkened Fair Haven returned two incumbents to the borough council for new terms Tuesday.

Republicans Bob Marchese and Eric Jaeger outpolled a pair of Democratic challengers, Dorothy Neceda and Susan O’Brien.

Mayor Ben Lucarelli was uncontested in his race to serve out the remaining two years of his predecessor, Mike Halfacre.

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FAIR HAVEN TREE LAW MAY BE TRANSPLANTED

After months of arguing that Fair Haven’s tree ordinance is unconstitutional and needs to be put through a chipper, borough Councilman Bob Marchese is now proposing that it be dug up, balled and relocated.

That, he said, would at least begin to address the law’s most problematic elements, as demonstrated by a recent brouhaha over a 100-foot tulip poplar.

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MAYOR’S VOTE HALTS TREE-LAW SAW

hot-topic rightAfter almost a year and a half of on-and-off debate, an effort to trim Fair Haven’s tree-protection ordinance failed Monday night, the Asbury Park Press reports.

Mayor Mike Halfacre, who votes only in the event of a council tie, cast the decisive vote, halting  amendments pushed by Councilman Bob Marchese that would have made it easier for property owners to remove trees.

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FAIR HAVEN GOP: FOCUSED ON FINANCE

marchese-lucarelliBob Marchese and Ben Lucarelli in Lucarelli’s Red Bank office. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)

By DUSTIN RACIOPPI

This year’s Republican candidates for Fair Haven borough council haven’t gotten caught up in the latest political buzzword “change.” For Ben Lucarelli and Bob Marchese, it’s more of an “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality.

But that doesn’t mean the GOP running mates will be able to sit pat if elected to the council. As Lucarelli sees it, change is coming whether anybody likes it or not.  The state’s fiscal problems, he said, will have an effect on small towns like Fair Haven because they’ll lose a big percentage of state aid. He and Marchese are more concerned about managing that change rather than creating it.

“Fair Haven is not broke. The state of New Jersey is broke and shattered,” Lucarelli, owner of Lucarelli Construction Company in Red Bank, said.

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