Commissioner Sadeghi Finds Role for County in Solving Route 9 Congestion

Lakewood News Network

By Yeshaya Roth

At the Ocean County Board of Commissioners’ reorganization meeting, the board’s newest member, Frank Sadeghi, said the county was being too passive in the face of inadequate action by the state to address Route 9 congestion in Lakewood and Toms River. The county did not need to rest on its laurels while it waited for bureaucrats in Trenton to tackle the issue – in fact, may other counties quite effectively facilitate the efforts of their municipalities to achieve funding for such projects.

What Ocean County needs, according to Sadeghi, is an Improvement Authority. “Imagine if there was an Ocean County Improvement Authority where smaller townships, boards of education and fire districts could partner with, for their bonding needs,” Sadeghi argued. “In other counties, improvement authorities secure borrowing rates that smaller governing bodies could never dream of, allowing for capital improvements at lower cost to property taxpayers.”

A civil engineer by profession, Sadeghi believes the only solution for Route 9 is to transform the intolerably congested stretch of road from Lakewood to Berkeley into a four-lane highway. A 10-mile drive between Toms River and Lakewood should not take 45 minutes, he says, and that will be your experience “if you are lucky.”