A tale of two towns
Officials cool to proposal to merge Rumson & Sea Bright
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

SEA BRIGHT - Though he is not Charles Dickens, borough resident Andrew Mencinsky has authored a proposal to merge his hometown and its neighbor across the river.

To Mencinsky, the result could bring the best of times to both towns and help alleviate taxing conditions that have created the worst of times in New Jersey.

In Sea Bright, Mencinsky pitched his idea to officials, including Mayor Jo-Ann Kalaka-Adams, during the Borough Council's Oct. 17 meeting.

The leaders of both municipalities need to "put ego, [and] party politics aside and examine what could be a model for the rest of the state to follow," Mencinsky read from his letter.

Kalaka-Adams, however, gave the former independent councilman's idea a cool reception.

"This is not a new idea," Kalaka-Adams said after Mencinsky finished outlining his proposal.

Nonetheless, Mencinsky went across the Shrewsbury River last Thursday night where he again read his letter to Rumson Mayor John E. Ekdahl and the Borough Council there.

Ekdahl said later that the first time the council had even heard of such a proposal was at that night's meeting.

"Rumson has never considered merging with another town," Ekdahl said. "At this point, this is probably not something we would consider."

Citing suggestions from Gov. Jon S. Corzine that municipalities share services or merge their boundaries, Mencinsky stated his case before officials in the two towns.

"New Jersey has over 500 municipalities which are taxing its residents out of the state," Mencinsky wrote in his letter, which he has copied to Corzine.

"Let Rumson absorb Sea Bright and let the savings begin," he wrote.

The relationship between the two municipalities, which share a ZIP code, would be similar to that of Middletown Township, which oversees the resources of its individual sections such as Leonardo, Locust and Navesink, Mencinsky explained.

For Sea Bright, the most lucrative benefit would be the prospect of withdrawing from the Shore Regional High School District in West Long Branch in order to send its few public school students to the Rumson district instead, Mencinsky said.

In recent years, Sea Bright voters have overwhelmingly rejected Shore Regional's annual budgets due to a perceived inequity in how much borough residents must pay to send about 20 students to the school.

Sea Bright, along with Shore Regional's other four sending towns, also participated in defeating the district's proposed $49.8 million bond construction referendum last month.

Combining the two boroughs' police forces could produce a second area of cost savings to both towns, Mencinsky said.

A merger with Rumson could also render Sea Bright's plans to upgrade and replace its main municipal building and its police station, both located near the oceanfront, unnecessary and head off increased property taxes that would come with the new construction, the former councilman went on.

Because Sea Bright has been named as one of several defendants in a civil complaint over public access to beaches, filed by the state Attorney General's Office last month in the Chancery Division of state Superior Court, Freehold, the idea of merging its governmental operations with Rumson might be worth considering, Mencinsky said.

"Our police, municipal building and recycling center are situated on prime oceanfront property which most would agree is not in the best interest of the public," he wrote.

Instead of constructing any new municipal buildings, Sea Bright should transfer its entire tax base to Rumson to create "a windfall that would recalculate into a lower tax rate for the combined Rumson/Sea Bright municipality," he said.

For Rumson, a marriage with Sea Bright would result in an extra $500 million per year in tax ratables without a large impact on its public school system, Mencinsky pointed out.

"Rumson is probably the most likely candidate to absorb Sea Bright," he said. "Many Rumson residents have property in Sea Bright, second homes on the beach."

Rumson could also possibly prevent future builder's remedy lawsuits, courtesy of the many rental units situated in Sea Bright.

An affluent community, Rumson has struggled with providing the level of affordable housing required by the state's Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), Mencinsky noted.

However, the rentals might help the borough meet its COAH requirements, he stressed.

After the Rumson meeting, Mencinsky acknowledged that the merger of the two boroughs will only happen if there is support from residents to take that step.

Mencinsky believes the two towns are compatible in their demographics.

"I think the real estate values in Sea Bright are comparable to what's in Rumson," he said. "People are paying $1 million to $1.5 million for homes in Sea Bright that are on much smaller lots than $1 million homes in Rumson."

For now, Kalaka-Adams says she is looking into participating in a regional study that would look at the cost benefits of combining the municipal police departments in Rumson, Fair Haven, Little Silver and Shrewsbury.

Getting Sea Bright's police department into that mix could be practical, but she questions whether or not merging with Rumson could actually be carried out.

"In no way, shape or form does ego enter into the equation," Kalaka-Adams said. "It's all a matter of feasibility."

Any opportunity to share services with another community is definitely worth pursuing, she noted.

"We're interested in looking at what the savings would be for shared services, just as every other mayor and council is doing at this point," said Kalaka-Adams who, with Ekdahl, belongs to the Two River Council of Mayors.

With about 7,400 residents, the Borough of Rumson is 5.2 square-miles with a tax rate of $1.358 per $100 of assessed property value, with the average home assessed at $1.2 million.

At less than one square mile, Sea Bright has 1,800 residents year round. Its 2005 tax rate was $1.315 per $100 of assessed valuation.

The idea of merging the communities was last raised in December 2003 by then-Mayor Gregory W. Harquail, Kalaka-Adams' immediate predecessor.

Preparing to leave office at that time, Harquail, also an independent, touted the idea to the council which then included fellow party member Mencinsky.

At that point, Ekdahl then Rumson's mayor-elect, said he did not foresee such a merger.

Greater Media staff writer Layli Whyte contributed to this article.