Frantantoni: Vote for Reform Belleville

 

To the Editor,

On May 10, 2016, Belleville voters will have an opportunity to change the destructive course our present Councilmembers are pursuing.

Three of the Ward Councilmembers have been serving for twelve years. In this period they have increased Municipal taxes over 100%. They misled our Senior citizens by telling them they were building “Senior Housing” on Mill Street, when in reality it is age 55 market rate housing. They failed to address our aging water and sewer lines, resulting in frequent water and sewer line breaks. The Friendly House in Silver Lake was demolished, and for over a decade Belleville’s children have been denied the use of this recreation facility. The Silver Lake firehouse has been shuttered for three years, posing a danger to residents of that area. A renovation to our Washington Ave. library has been ongoing for four years with no end in sight. Our Municipal debt has increased dramatically and lawsuits seem to pop up on a monthly basis. A dramatic change is needed.

There are two candidates seeking ward Council seats that I finally can truly support and endorse. They are Mary Higgins, First Ward Council candidate, and Jeff Mattingly, the Second Ward candidate.

Mary Higgins is a lifelong Belleville resident and is an activist at Township meetings. Mary led the successful battle to stop the overdevelopment of a Brighton Ave. apartment building. Her dedicated commitment and tireless research efforts saved her neighbors from an ill-conceived project that would have severely impacted their quality of life.

Jeff Mattingly was a major leader in uncovering the deficit spending, patronage hiring, and poor and incompetent management of our local Board of Education. The problems Mattingly uncovered were so severe, the State assigned a fiscal monitor to oversee our finances. Belleville taxpayers are now paying off a $4 million loan from the state to pay off the improper and possibly criminal spending of our tax dollars. An investigation is ongoing. Jeff is now concentrating his efforts on the Township Council, as some of their actions are impacting our community as badly as some of the BOE revelations.

As an activist for 48 years, this is the first time I can truly endorse two candidates that have convinced me that they ONLY have the best interests of Belleville as their agenda. Mary Higgins is an educator with an impressive resume, and Jeff Mattingly is a self-employed local businessman. Together, I believe they can put Belleville back on track. They will need your support on election day.

Vote Higgins in the First Ward and Mattingly in the Second Ward, both on the “Reform Belleville” ticket.

 

Vincent J. Frantantoni
129 Mt. Prospect Ave.
Belleville, NJ 07109
973-964-7105

 

Update (5/4/16) – Reform Belleville’s new website is now live. For those of you who live in the 3rd or 4th Wards, recommendations for the best candidates for your vote are available on the Candidates page.

Visit to get up-to-date information on the upcoming May 10th municipal election.

ReformBelleville.com

 

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Lee "Griff" Dorry - Founder, watchdog, and public advocate. ♫ They've got strings, but you can see, there are no strings on me. ♫

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