Who’s on first, anyway?

The events of the last week clearly demonstrated how fractured the all-GOP Holmdel Township Committee is.

On the one hand, Committeeman Terence Wall was apparently enlisting the help of Sen. Majority Leader John O. Bennett (R-12) to stop the New Jersey Highway Authority from deciding on a proposal from the private operator of the PNCBank Arts Center to set up an outdoor market on Saturdays in the south overflow parking lot by Crawfords Corner Road.

On the other hand, Mayor Gary Aumiller and Deputy Mayor Art Davey had already discussed the proposal with GSACPartners Regional Vice President Dominic Roncace and did not see any major problems.

It turns out that the deputy mayor met recently with Roncace to work out an arrangement whereby the township high school and middle school graduations could be held at the center free of charge. Roncace saw this as step toward improving relationships between the township and the arts center.

Apparently Wall knew nothing about this meeting, nor the discussions about the open air market, and, as the mayor put it, "jumped the gun."

One can’t help wondering why Bennett did not bother to clarify the issue with the township’s key officials before "joining with local Holmdel leaders" to urge the highway authority to act.

Given the recent history between the township and the Arts Center, and given the fact that the highway authority planned to meet Thursday to discuss and possibly approve the open air market proposal, Bennett no doubt felt time was of the essence.

As for lessons learned, some residents are probably scratching their heads, wondering what’s going on.

To clear the air, it would probably behoove the Township Committee, even though it appears the majority support the open air market, to hold — at the very least — an information meeting to inform residents about GSAC’s plan and how they believe it will benefit the township.

And for the benefit of residents, committee members might want to work on their lines of communications so that one hand knows what the other is doing.