CONSTRUCTION ESTIMATING NEWS (update by every month)

Digital billboard construction blocked in Franklin; litigation expected

FRANKLIN (SOMERSET) — Residents have expressed to authorities that they fear a proposed digital billboard negatively will impact their lives and nearby traffic. Echoing those fears, Township Council members voted on March 27 to rescind an ordinance that would have allowed construction of the billboard.

As a result, Mayor Brian Levine said, he fears that the township appears business unfriendly and has alienated a longtime family owned local manufacturing firm whose four lawsuits could cost taxpayers about $1 million, plus $250,000 in departed business taxes and 300 jobs.

But the biggest fear is that it’s all for naught, because win or lose, Craig and Jonathan Slass are state-approved to build two billboards on their 70-acre empire along Interstate 287, where 40 years ago, their father founded Rotor Clip, the country’s largest manufacturer of ring fasteners for ball bearings.

Those conventional billboards would use outdated floodlights that will be even brighter and more bothersome to nearby residents than the digital type’s dimmable LED halogen lights, Craig Slass said.

“We didn’t get to be the world’s largest retaining ring company by an inefficient way of producing,” said Slass, whose billboard subsidiary is called E&J Equities. “It’s green technology because you’re not throwing out canvasses every month. Why do they want the impact of the old technology? Why force somebody into the old technology? That’s how we lost 90 percent of the car industry. Why wake up late? Why not keep Rotor Clip strong in this town?

“Digital billboards are sitting on the highway three miles away in Piscataway and South Plainfield,” he continued. “None of the people who put those billboards up have paid taxes to those towns like I’ve paid in Franklin Township. So why are those billboards up? Because those towns are business friendly. That’s why in those other towns the billboards are up with no lawsuit.”

Concerned about traffic safety and quality of life for her ward, Councilwoman Roz Sherman rallied residents who live on the other side of Interstate 287 to voice opposition to what they deem would be a glaring distraction.

Source : http://www.mycentraljersey.com