Toms River Council Election 2023: Dana Tormollan

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Election Day 2023 is near, and Toms River voters will be going to the polls to cast their ballots for candidates at the local, county and state levels.

In Toms River, there are eight candidates for the three available four-year terms on the Township Council.

Patch sent a questionnaire to all eight candidates seeking their responses. Here are the replies from Dana Tormollan.

Your Name: Dana Tormollan

Age (as of Election Day): 50

Campaign Website: Dana4tr.com

Party Affiliation: Republican

Family: I have two sons. Colin is 26 years old, and currently living in North Carolina while serving in the Army. Brady is 17 years old and a senior at Toms River HS South.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you're running for. I have no family working in politics or the government I am looking to serve in.

Education: I am a graduate of Toms River HS South, and I have approximately one and a half years of college.

Occupation: I am a full-time caregiver, and I have been doing this for about 7 years, as well as being a server during the summer for more than 20 years.

Previous or current elected or appointed office: I currently serve on the Toms River Zoning Board of Adjustment. I have been there for almost two years.

Why are you seeking elective office? I am seeking an elective office to help protect the Town I grew up in and the place I have called home for almost 50 years.

Drawing more activity to the downtown area has been a topic for years. The proposed downtown development on the former Red Carpet Inn property was unpopular. What would you propose to bring more activity to the downtown area?

I have been a part of every meeting regarding the Development of Downtown for the past two ears. While I do believe that there needs to be improvement Downtown, I, along with many of my neighbors, have made it clear that we do not want the landscape of Downtown Toms River to resemble a modern-day city. We worked very hard with the current administration and the developers to redesign the project and make it a more logical design. I do believe that bringing business to downtown would be beneficial, but we also need to work with what we already have by filling empty storefronts, and add to the community of smaller businesses that have helped revitalize the downtown neighborhood.

Downtown traffic has been a source of complaints for years. There was a proposal for a downtown loop and Toms River was awarded a $5.6 million grant for the project, which the New Jersey Highway Authority has proposed tying into for a Garden State Parkway project. What would you propose to address downtown traffic issues?

Downtown traffic has been a large issue for so many years. Although the changes made down
on Water Street have been … rearranged, the thought of a traffic circle being added near the
Parkway is extremely upsetting. Growing up downtown, and still residing here, I see absolutely
NO benefit from a traffic circle where Lakehurst Road and Water Street meet at the Parkway.
The thought of cars exiting the Parkway onto a circle at high speeds, as well as local traffic
merging and foot traffic seems extremely dangerous and unnecessary.

The state Department of Education has contended that Toms River is not paying its fair share of property taxes to support its schools and that has been a critical piece of the school funding cuts the Toms River Regional School District has faced. How would you address this issue?

Since the S2 state cuts are not the decisions of the town, I am happy to hear that the township and schools participate in shared services. As a parent and resident in the district I am well aware that other than an impossible tax increase we could never make up the difference of what the state has taken away. The State has failed our kids, Not the Town. Luckily our residents were generous enough to vote for the referendum for the building repairs.