We know they HEAR what we say, they simply don't respond. For instance, we're sorry they didn't participate in our online candidate forum, where 10 specific quality-of-life issues were discussed, after they mislead the press into reporting that they would. Unfortunately there was no follow-up by the press as to why Mayor Cirulli, Deputy Mayor Melchiondo, & Committeeman Novak didn't want to address these basic issues. Hopefully they are finally ready to engage the public (including us here at DowntownBarnegat.com) when we reach out to them.

We believe the copying of our poll of the people is transparent. But, we welcome ANY opportunity for peoples' voices to be heard. Online polls are very common for websites, and we certainly didn't invent them...we just instituted the first and only one we know about serving the people of Barnegat.

Committeeman Hartman was quoted as saying in the Times-Beacon, "It would give people a chance to let us know what they think about an issue. These are things that we are going to look at." Let it be known that for the past year, we at DowntownBarnegat.com have made numerous attempts to let Mr. Hartman and the Twp. Committee know what we and our readers think about issues. To this date, no one on the Committee -- including Twp. Administrator Breeden -- have ever given us the common courtesy of a written response on any of the several issues we've contacted them about or that have appeared on this website. These are some of the issues that our Township apparently does NOT want to hear about:

• The removal of the only playground available within walking distance to downtown kids & their families. Click here to read story.
• The closing of our children's youth center leaving NO CONVENIENT OPTIONS FOR DOWNTOWN CHILDREN. Click here to read story.
• The streets that were left unpaved after reported money was set aside for them to be paved. Where did that money go? Click here to read story.
• The dangerous situation regarding the lack of sidewalks, and un-repaired sidewalks. Why are children and people in wheelchairs forced into the street? Click here to read story.
• The potentially devastating loss of our downtown post office which its future now rests solely on the shoulders of the Mayor. Click here to read story.
• The reversal of the Township's voted-on decision to support Heritage Day, in favor of a Chamber of Commerce/Twp. event. Followed by 4 of the 5 Twp. Committee members' silence as then Mayor Hartman distorted the facts and misrepresented the truth about this to local newspapers (with no follow-up by the newspapers to correct his mis-statements). Click here
• Removal of Twp. banners from Town Hall that feature the logo of this website, and Heritage Day. Click here
• The Twp. Committee's total silence and in-action when they learned that the base of the township clock was vandalized in what one Committeeman thought might be an attempt to silence the point of views expressed on this website. Click here

Barnegat Township may now say that they want to know how we feel about issues, and that is a move in the right direction, and we fully support that. But will they ever DO something about adressing these issues. We hope so.