Election 2023: Berkeley Township Mayor Candidate John Bacchione

BERKELEY, NJ — Election Day is nearing, and Berkeley voters will head to the polls to cast their votes for a new mayor and three council seats.

Patch sent questionnaires to all candidates seeking their responses. Here is the response from mayoral candidate John Bacchione.

Editor's Note: Patch sent out emails to all candidates to the email addresses listed for their campaign provided to the office of the clerk. The responses received will be published between now and the Nov. 7 general election. These responses will be published edited only for style. Candidates who would like to participate but did not receive one (for whatever reason) can contact veronica.flesher@patch.com.

1. I have been employed in the residential mortgage industry for the past 27 years. I currently work for Loan Depot. I'm married with 3 children, 2 are graduates of the Central Regional School District and both are Stockton College graduates as well. My son is currently enlisted in the United States Navy. My youngest daughter is currently a senior at Central Regional. My family, beginning with my aunt and uncle have resided in Berkeley Township since 1962. My parents We moved to Berkeley full time in

1. I was a Berkeley School Board member 2009 to 2011. I ran for the Berkeley Township Council in November of 2011 and was elected. I started as an elected official on the Berkeley Township Council January 2012. I was elected 2 more terms to the Berkeley Township Council and I have served for the last 12 years. As part of my council duties, I have been serving as the Berkeley Township Finance Committee Chairman for the last 12 years. I serve as a member of the Berkeley Township Environmental Commission and Berkeley Township Planning Board for the last 9 years.

I have served on the Ocean county Land trust Committee for the last 9 years.

1. I am a 14 year member of the St. Barnabas Knights of Columbus., former Coach Berkeley Little League and Berkeley Soccer.

1. The biggest issue the town is facing is the De-Annexation of South Seaside Park. SSP is a big percentage of our property tax base and we can’t afford to lose it. We listened to the petitioner’s argument as to why they feel SSP should de-annex from Berkeley for over 5 years and I augured every step of the way to keep SSP in Berkeley. Unfortunately, the judge who heard the case did not agree with Berkeley’s argument to keep SSP. The case is now in the Court of Appeals awaiting a court date. Berkeley’s legal team feels strongly that the Court of appeals will overturn the lower court’s decision and not allow SSP to De-Annex.
   1. Continue the preservation of open space. Working with State and County partners the last 12 years, we have preserved over 1,000 acres of open space from development. This is a significant accomplishment in our efforts to slow growth. The largest purchase was the NJ Pulverizing plant, where just a decade ago, a major developer wanted to build 1,200-1,800 homes. WOBM Pit and surrounding property was another big purchase stopping 180 apartment\town homes or 80-120 homes. Recently, the purchase of the Cedar Creek Campground for open space preservation is another victory. We are currently discussing with the County to carve out the Olympic size pool and clubhouse at the campground to add to our township recreation.
   2. Lastly, was the recent purchase of the Blackbeard’s Cave parcel. This was a land lease, owned by the Johnson family. Sadly, at the end of the land lease the new owner of Blackbeard’s was forced to shut down due to the pandemic and were unable to extend the lease or purchase the property. By purchasing and cleaning up this property will enable to stop additional multi-family housing from being built.

The re-development of the Town Center is an issue to rid Berkeley of the eye sore on Rt 9 and bring tax revenue back to Berkeley. With hard work from the Mayor’s administration, town council and Berkeley’s professionals the re-developer purchase the front 40 acres of the 140 acres ear-marked for re-development. This was a Huge achievement since this town center property laid vacant for over 30 years. I intend to continue moving this project forward at a quick pace. I also intend, to keep our professionals and administration in constant contact with the re-developer to keep them moving.

1. I intend to keep improving the infrastructure of our community, roads for example and parks. Recreation is a big part of our community and I intend on making sure our parks and park facilities are kept up to date and recreation booming. We build a state of the art turf football and soccer field using green acres funding. We worked with NY Met Hall of Famer' and local legend Al Leiter in a public\private partnership to improve our little league complex. We installed new playgrounds at: Butler Beach, Mastapeter Park, Dudley Park and Veterans Park. Made our playgrounds more inclusive with handicapped accessible equipment such as the "WE GO ROUND". WE installed 2 new dog parks in down and 6 pickle ball courts. We installed a new skate-park and pump track at Veterans Park. Of course, our summer recreation programs such as summer camp had the best year yet along with our sounds of summer concert series. We are proud to have the 2nd lowest overall taxes in Ocean County and one of the lowest in New Jersey. Keeping our community affordable is a top priority. I vision is for more commercial development on our Rt 9 corridor but not too much to have an adverse traffic impact on Route 9. We are working with the Ocean County Board of Commissioners on the Western Blvd extension which will provide an alternate to Route 9. I will be sure our town stays safe by making sure we have an adequate number of police officers to protect all parts of our community and make sure that our police officers have the latest equipment to be safe while keeping us and our community safe. I will make sure our volunteer fire members are sufficiently equipped to be safe and efficient when saving lives and property. I will be sure our EMS teams are equipped to do their job safely and effectively.