NOPE continues opposition to Navy housing

NOPE continues opposition to Navy housing
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — A Monmouth County group is keeping up the pressure on the U.S. Navy to come to an agreement with a developer and avert the privatization of housing units on Naval Weapons Station Earle.

The group NOPE, Neighbors Opposed to Privatization at Earle, held two open house meetings recently, in Colts Neck on July 20 and in Tinton Falls on Aug. 3.

The meeting at Tinton Falls was attended by members of NOPE as well as local politicians.

Tinton Falls Mayor Michael Skudera and council members Andy Mayer, Gary Baldwin and NancyAnne Fama were in the crowd, along with Congressman Rush Holt (D-12th District) and Sen. Jennifer Beck (R- 12th District).

"The point of the meeting tonight is to basically update the community on what NOPE is doing," NOPE Chairman Bill Holobowski said. "The overriding thesis here is, putting civilians on an active munitions base flies in the face of reason."

NOPE is campaigning to have the Navy stop planning to privatize the Laurelwood housing units at Earle. The housing consists of 300 units, each featuring from one to four bedrooms.

One of NOPE's main issues is that privatizing the housing units would burden the schools in both Colts Neck and Tinton Falls, which are involved in a legal tussle aimed at keeping the additional students who would live in the privatized housing from attending their schools.

The housing units are currently designated for Navy personnel, and a handful of students who live in the housing attend Tinton Falls schools under an agreement between the borough and the Navy.

Tinton Falls officials have repeatedly stated that the school district will not accept the additional students when the housing becomes privatized in 2010.

NOPE has taken the position that neither school district should have to be burdened with the influx of additional students.

"There is obviously a school issue that is dividing the two towns," Holobowski said. "The formation of NOPE is instrumental in that we've taken the side that we're not going to take a side on the school issue.

"We are going to take the side that regardless of who takes these kids, we are talking about 300 families that you're introducing into Monmouth County," he added.

Holobowski went on to say that neither town is well equipped to take on the additional students.

"Districts at or above capacity are going to have to build schools to educate these additional kids without any offsetting tax revenue," he said.

NOPE plans to take a wait-and-see approach to the school issue while the group campaigns against the privatization plan.

"So while the legal issue plays out in the courts, we are going to continue to argue that this whole plan stinks," Holobowski said. "No one should live there and no one should have to be saddled with the cost to educate these additional tenants."

The contract Tinton Falls signed with the Navy dates back to the late 1980s, and in it the borough agreed to educate the Navy dependents living at Earle. The Tinton Falls School District is claiming that the agreement was only for Navy children and that the children of private citizens who would live at the privatized housing will have to go to Colts Neck schools.

NOPE representatives said at the meeting that if the Navy does not comply with the April 30, 2010, date to privatize the housing units, then the Navy's contract with the developer states that the developer would receive a buyout and the Navy would retain rights to the housing units.

NOPE is arguing that the Navy should present a buyout agreement to the developer, Seattle-based Teri Fischer, and retain control of the units or decide to do something else with the land.

"We argued that this financial burden is going to burden us. We put the educational cost alone at over $300 million," Holobowski said. "We've argued for a year and a half now that the Navy should exercise [its] right and just void the contract.

"Do the right thing for the surrounding communities, do the right thing with the mission, and just sit down and reach an amicable agreement with the developer," he added.

The politicians also weighed in on the efforts of NOPE and the situation with the Navy.

"I appreciate the efforts that this group has made," Holt said. "I must applaud you for being able to maintain this effort."

Holt went on to say that the matter has been complicated by the lawsuits filed and that he doesn't expect a resolution anytime soon.

Holt said that state and county officials, who are also named in the lawsuits, couldn't say or do much.

"The county superintendent and the state superintendent feel that their hands are tied because of the pending lawsuit," he said. "They feel constrained on what they say or do.

"That means we need to continue to push the Navy before they act," he added.

Beck also weighed in on the issues, citing security as a big concern.

"This is an issue that involves the security of Monmouth County," she said. "This is not a political issue."

While she praised the work that NOPE is doing, she also said that state politicians are also working with the Navy to find some sort of resolution.

"We have been working shoulder to shoulder to make the Navy know we get it," she said. "It's constant vigilance on the part of all of us."

NOPE has planned a rally and demonstration for the fall, and the group is working on obtaining a location for both events.

NOPE can be reached online at


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