FREEHOLD – Voting will continue through Dec. 2 on projects Freehold Borough residents and stakeholders have proposed to be funded in the municipal budget.
Freehold Borough’s participatory budgeting program allows residents and other community stakeholders to decide how $200,000 from the municipal budget will be spent. Officials said the program does not raise the budget or increase taxes.
Any resident age 14 and over is eligible to vote on projects that have been submitted by themselves, their neighbors and friends. Freehold Borough’s municipal website has an interactive ballot that may be completed and submitted online. Online voting will end at midnight Dec. 2, according to municipal officials.
This year’s proposals include lights at a Little League baseball field; lighting for the new bandshell at Lake Topanemus; and a machine the Freehold Fire Department would use to “fit test” self-contained breathing apparatus.
Officials said Freehold Borough was the first community in New Jersey to start a participatory budgeting program. They said this experiment in civics allows community members to make decisions normally reserved for elected officials. Residents and other stakeholders propose projects and vote on which ones should be funded.
Paper ballots will be available at Borough Hall until the close of business on Nov. 30.
When the program debuted in 2017, voters selected three projects to be funded:
• A sidewalk repair program, proposed by Lynn Reich and Christine Gregory. The estimated cost was $100,000;
• A project to add street lighting, proposed by Downtown Freehold Business Advocate Jeffrey Friedman on behalf of the organization. The estimated cost was $38,700;
• A pedestrian bridge at Lake Topanemus, proposed by the Lake Topanemus Commission. The estimated cost was $44,000.
