LOWER TOWNSHIP – Erik Simonsen, 56, was born and raised in Cape May and now lives in Lower Township with his wife, Anna, two daughters and mother-in-law.
I just retired from 32 years in education. I was teaching, I was vice principal, an athletic director and a supervisor back in the day, but for 18 years, I was at Cape May County Special Services School, working with special needs. I coached wrestling for a very long time and I am an ordained deacon at Macedonia Baptist Church in Cape May. I’m also a professional musician.
What are your priorities if elected?: With 32 years in education, it’s always education. With the funding issue, I’m hoping the speaker puts me on the task force to work on that. Obviously tourism, that’s what makes things run around here. Our fisheries, both our fishing industry and trying to help the oyster industry. Of course, veterans. I’m very proud of the bills that I’ve sponsored. And of course, helping our families and small businesses, because down here in our district, the majority of the businesses are the small businesses.
What are the biggest issues affecting southern New Jersey?: The cost of living is ridiculous. There aren’t as many families as there used to be in Cape May, because it’s just too expensive to live there; same with Lower Township. Places that were once affordable are now tough to buy a home there, and we see there’s been a decline in enrollment in the schools. It’s tough for young families to afford to live here and raise kids.
What can be done to address the high cost of living?: Let’s face it, taxes are ridiculous. If you look at the budget this year with some of the ridiculous things that the governor, and all the people involved in the process are doing … they’re taxing everything now, anything they can squeeze, from bowling to gas tax. It’s gotten out of hand.
I think that’s one of the main issues, and I think we need to generate more money. By trying to give more opportunities to generate revenue and increase, especially, like I said, hospitality, whether it’s hotels, restaurants, small businesses.
Regarding education, the state should spend more to cover the cost of special education, for example. And we should establish a state tax credit to support families who use high-impact tutoring, as well as supporting veterans and businesses as tenants.
Cape May County suffers from seasonal unemployment, poor transportation infrastructure and a lack of industry. What can be done to improve the economic situation, which depends solely on tourism?: The people in Cumberland County, they’ve been able to do more of a year-round market, more of a year-round business for visitors, and that’s been great for the economy, but there’s so much more we can do.
The rail system, people don’t understand that’s privately owned down our way. So I’d love to do something with that. But unfortunately, it’s privately owned. There’s been talk about starting it up farther north, at least running like from Middle Township on up, so that’s a possibility.
That brings job opportunities. It gets people that might not drive or own a vehicle, especially younger people. I think it helps a lot. When you create more jobs, and you create more revenue, you’re going to take in more money for the local municipalities, which obviously helps with the local budgets.
How else can transit improve the local economy?: We need South Jersey Transit and forget New Jersey Transit, because we don’t get enough services down here. When you get into Cumberland County, it’s even worse because it’s so rural there in a lot of areas that it’s difficult for a lot of those people to get back and forth from work. There are more people coming here, and there’s more people living here now than back in the old days. So we really need to up that game, and that’s what we’re working on with New Jersey Transit.
Atlantic City Electric has implemented several rate hikes this year. What plans do you have to assist the consumers? Is the answer more power plants? If not wind, what type of new energy-generating plant do you propose?: We need more forms of energy. I was mayor of Lower Township when we fought those windmills; I did a lot of research for that.
The bottom line is, wind energy is a minimal amount of energy. I am about green energy, and that’s not green when you’re crapping up our ocean with tons of cement and steel. And the turbines themselves aren’t really recyclable. I mean, you can break them down if you have the means to do it, which is impossible, so they end up in landfills.
People don’t realize the impact it has on our environment, our fishing industry, our sea life. You have to use these cement carpets that hold the cables down. It’s not like someone’s going to go out and take them down once they’re useless.
We need the nuclear generators. They have the smaller nuclear generators now that are very safe. It’s not the 1970s anymore. We really need to invest in hydrogen power, water-powered vehicles. But I think we really need to invest in other forms of energy that are more productive, such as natural gas power plants and nuclear.
What do you think of the NJ REAL regulations?: I know recently they did back off a lot of it. It’s too much too soon. Rome wasn’t built in a day. They wanted to do all this in one fell swoop, and I think anything’s impossible to do like that.
When you start looking into all the finer details, like when new construction and elevators and houses that are below sea level. There’s so much in there that is financially impossible to do for people. It’s literally to drive up the cost of building, whether it’s houses or businesses, buildings, whatever, for both those constructing it and then those buying it.
Do the changes recently proposed by the DEP change that opinion at all?: I’m not against it 100 percent. I always say don’t be reactionary, and I think that’s what happened here. Our district would be hit harder than all the other ones, just because we have more mileage on the coastline.
This plan is for the 75-year or 100-year storm. We need to plan for the 25-year storm. We need to do it in smaller increments, instead of these big jumps. I wouldn’t throw NJ REAL out, but I think there could have been more discussion or conversation about it. We’re never going to agree on everything in politics, but I think we could have a more realistic approach.
They threw something out there that looks good on paper, but in the real world it would be impossible to do on the timeline they put forward.
Homelessness, drug abuse and mental health problems are prevalent in your district. What initiatives do you plan to address those issues?: We can’t just rely on ourselves; we need to reach out and see what other models are working in other counties, municipalities and districts, so that’s what we’re doing.
The Cumberland County homeless shelter, they do a great job over there. And right across the street is the food distribution center, where they organize the food to go out to all the shelters.
We’re trying new programs all the time. I don’t think people realize, they go down to the Cape May Mall, or the Wildwood Boardwalk, and they don’t see the people behind the Walmart, or over in the pits behind Erma or Rio Grande. It’s an eye-opening experience. We are working with Cumberland County to try to get those models here.
There needs to be a means beyond just having the Branches. We need to open these programs up to the schools; that’s a good way to get help to the families that need it. One advantage the schools have is that they know who the families that need help are. Not just at Thanksgiving or Christmas, it needs to be a regular occurrence.
Building a structure for that is difficult, but it needs to be done. With the help of Cumberland County, we’re going to get that done. It’s always been an issue that people want more shelters but don’t want them in their towns. These problems get dumped on the same lower-income areas, and there needs to be a paradigm shift to end that.
– By J. CAV SCOTT/For the Sentinel