FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES (North Jersey Media Group)
April 23, 2007
BY LYNN OLANOFF
The Express-Times
HACKETTSTOWN | Lewis and Ruth Ann Miller want to know how almost $2,500 of their money has been spent.
The owners of Frame Corner on Main Street have paid that much toward the Hackettstown Business Improvement District in the past two and half years. The town-created business improvement group was started in 2005 and is supported by an extra tax on commercial property.
The Millers say they have yet to see any improvement.
"BID can't claim anything," Lewis Miller said. "If you can't quantify to me what this program is doing, all you're doing is stealing money from me."
The Millers are not the only business property owners who say they feel this way. They have gotten 60 of the town's approximate 240 commercial property owners to sign a petition to abolish the BID.
They plan to present it to town council today.
"You will not rejuvenate a town by buying silly little flags and putting them on Main Street," property owner Doris Lemasters said, referring to light post banners bearing the town's name. "It's an absolute waste of money."
More time needed
Mayor Michael Lavery met with the disgruntled property owners two weeks ago and said he sympathizes with some of their concerns. He was a chief critic of former BID Executive Director Grant Morgan but said David Rucki, the new director, should be given at least a year to prove himself.
Morgan was forced to resign in September after 14 months with little progress. Rucki, a former district director for state Assemblyman Michael Doherty, started Dec. 18. He's being paid $60,000 a year.
"I've seen more progress in the last couple months than I've seen in year and a half," Lavery said. "The business district needs help, there's no question about that. I haven't heard any alternative to (the BID) that's workable."
The town has had at least two volunteer business improvement programs in the last decade. The Hackettstown Trade Association is funded by voluntary annual dues from local businesses and the former All Aboard Hackettstown was also supported by voluntary contributions and a town contribution.
BID success touted
BID officials and the group's detractors differ on the success of those groups.
Lemasters said the trade association ran all the holiday events in town prior to the BID and "worked just as effectively."
BID President Bill Harper, who owns a Main Street bakery, said the volunteer programs never had enough involvement. All Aboard Hackettstown had to cease operations about 10 years ago because of a lack of sufficient donations, he said.
BID events such as last fall's Pirates of Hackettstown and February's Mardi Gras celebration brought people into town and into stores, Harper said. The group just launched a $110,000 study on recruiting and retaining businesses that will allow BID to qualify for more grants.
Grants will allow for more tangible results such as a new streetscape, Harper said.
Criticism tough to take
"That's going to take years and people don't want to hear that," he said. "It probably took 20 years (for downtown to go downhill) -- you're not going to fix it in a year or two."
Ruth Ann Miller said current and not just future commercial property owners deserve results.
In "10, 20, 25 years, we may not be here," she said.
The criticism is tough to take, Harper said. His store is right next door to the Millers, so he runs into them frequently.
"I say, 'When are you going to help us instead of criticize us? '" Harper said. "We're trying. We're all volunteers here except the executive director."