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New Leadership Chosen For County Planning Board
Manchester Resident Named Chairman
By Bill McLaughlin
Manchester resident Richard Work has been unanimously named chairman of the Ocean County Planning Board, effective January 16.
Work, a four-year board member, served as vice chairman under Chairman Donald P. Bertrand of Brick, who stepped down but remains on the board. Donald Reed, of Plumsted, was selected vice chairman.
Bertrand was praised by the freeholder board for providing solid leadership to a team dedicated to improving the quality of life in Ocean County.
"I'd like to thank Don Bertrand for his dedicated service as chairman, and I'm very pleased he's decided to remain a board member," said Freeholder Gerry Little. "Don picked up right where his father left off."
The elder Bertrand, Phillip, was an original member of the county planning board.
Work is a former mayor of Lakewood, and said he knows all too well about the problems facing a growing county.
Little, who served as board chairman before his selection as freeholder four years ago, commended planning board members for selecting Work.
"I know Dick will do a fine job as head of the county planning board," Little said. "I applaud the board's choice. Richard Work has been an outstanding public servant who has always placed the needs of the residents of Ocean County first."
Work told the planning board he would focus his attention on the Route 9 corridor and seek ways to keep it a functioning vital artery.
"When the state finally comes in and widens the highway, we want to make sure they have the available rights-of-way, and that any new commercial construction isn't done too close to the highway," he said.
Any work done by the New Jersey Department of Transportation to improve Route 9 would be appreciated, said Work, but DOT engineers told Manchester, Brick and Toms River elected officials three years ago that widening Route 9 or Route 70 is not feasible. The costs to buy rights-of-way alone would be prohibitive.
Although the DOT has been working on improving traffic flow at current bottlenecks along Route 70 and other key roadways in Ocean County, no major undertaking is on the table. The DOT, in fact, said no major project is on the books for the next decade.
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