Pat Noble for Monmouth County Freeholder

July 15th, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Pat Noble for Freeholder Campaign Committee
www.VoteNoble.com
www.votepatnoble@yahoo.com

Pat Noble, the Socialist Party USA candidate for the Board of Chosen Freeholders in Monmouth County, has officially endorsed a proposal to create a community garden on a vacant lot at 94 West Front Street in Red Bank, New Jersey. The Red Bank Community Garden Proposal calls for the garden to be created next to Red Bank Public Library, though both the borough council and library are in strong opposition to the proposal and have given “numerous, but all unjustifiable reasons” why the garden should not be at 90 West Front Street, in Noble’s own words.

The community garden debate has become more and more notorious in the past several months to Red Bank area residents, including Noble, who has lived in Red Bank his entire life.

In early June, Noble invited local activist and community garden supporter Cindy Burnham to attend the June 25th general meeting of the Socialist Party of Monmouth and Ocean Counties (SPMOC) to talk about the community garden proposal to the SPMOC members present. Burnham distributed copies of the Red Bank Community Garden Proposal to individuals present at the meeting and spoke for several minutes about the proposal’s history and the resistance that it has faced from the borough council. Noble is one of the co-founders of the SPMOC, as well as its incumbent Chairperson.

The 17-page community garden proposal, which among other things analyzes 21 possible locations in Red Bank using 9 criteria points such as having a viable water source and being in a central location, “proves beyond a reasonable doubt that 94 West Front Street is the spot where this garden should be.”

Due to the unrelenting opposition to the proposal by the borough council, support has risen for the garden to be located on the property of the Red Bank Middle School. Garden supporters and school representatives recently met to discuss such an option, which ironically was suggested by the borough council. Despite this option, Noble has continued to be in support of the garden being located at 94 West Front Street, saying that “having the community garden located at the Middle School is nothing but a consolation prize, and a poor one at that. Settling for less here is not only a disservice to the community garden, but also to the people of Red Bank for not holding the borough government to a higher standard of transparency and accountability.”

Talking about the community garden proposal, Noble said,

“This proposal is not only a great idea for the town, but is also well researched and thought out in my opinion. Even if the garden was a bad idea, the borough council has to be held responsible to the people of Red Bank for both its actions and inaction. That holds true from local and county government to state and federal government. Even though I’m running for office for all of Monmouth County, not just Red Bank, I feel it necessary and important to give attention to individual issues, as well as county-wide issues. The borough council has not been truly forthcoming about why they are opposed to this proposal, instead giving a plethora of reasons that don’t hold up to logic or reason. They have failed to live up to the mandate of a democratically-elected government on this matter, and they must be held accountable for it. Not only as a candidate for Freeholder, but also as a Red Bank resident and a strong supporter of community building, I support this proposal to create a community garden at 94 West Front Street in Red Bank.”

For more info on Pat Noble’s campaign for Freeholder in Monmouth County, please visit www.VoteNoble.com.