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The Allenhurst Board of Commissioners Tuesday night reversed a decision they made earlier this month to move forward with the process to consolidate with the Village of Loch Arbour.

The board [above] voted 2-1 not to pursue the Loch Arbour merger. Commissioner Christopher McLoughlin, who had originally voted to move forward on Jan. 14, this time voted to rescind the authorization to begin the consolidation process. Mayor David McLaughlin, who opposed the first vote to move forward, also voted to rescind.

Commissioner Terrence Bolan opposed changing course, and voted no. He had voted to start the consolidation process on Jan. 14.

McLoughlin said he changed his mind after calling state officials directly and discovering information that contradicted his earlier assumptions about the process of consolidation, as well as various financial considerations. He apologized for relying on others, rather than calling state officials earlier.

As part of the consolidation, Loch Arbour — which objects to the school tax it pays to Ocean Township as excessively onerous — had offered to pay off Allenhurst’s $5 million debt. If Loch Arbour merged into Allenhurst, Loch Arbour residents would no longer be part of the Ocean Township school district as Allenhurst is a sending district to Asbury Park. Allenhurst pays much less school tax because it sends so few children to Asbury Park.

But McLoughlin said state officials told him that there is no mechanism that exists for a town to pay off another town’s debt before a consolidation.

“The state has never executed a consolidation plan like this,” McLoughlin said.

McLoughlin also was under the impression that the borough could vote again on whether to go forward after submitting the consolidation plan to the state and getting their response, he said. However, McLoughlin said state officials told him that if the consolidation plan is accepted by the state, the consolidation issue must be put to a referendum in both municipalities after public hearings are held.

But Bolan said that it was almost certain that the state would amend the consolidation plan submitted, and that would require another vote by both town’s governing bodies to accept the amended plan. After that, three public hearings would be held before a consolidation referendum, which the voters of both municipalities would have to approve.

“We are so far away from a final consolidation plan with Loch Arbour, it’s not funny,” said Bolan. If the state was “to change one sentence” in the consolidation plan submitted, it would require another vote by both governing bodies, he said.

The point of submitting the plan, Bolan said, was to begin the process of getting specific and binding answers from the state on how the consolidation would work.

But McLoughlin said that the state’s response would only approve the legalities of the merger, not address the benefits and risks to Allenhurst.

The Allenhurst meeting room was almost at full capacity, with the borough residents who spoke tending to oppose pursuing the consolidation process, given what most considered a lack of information.

Opponents also expressed concern that they would be saddled with liabilities for flooding problems that impact Loch Arbour, as well as the possibility that Allenhurst could somehow be forced to consolidate with the Ocean Township school district with a merger.

Others opposed said that while they sympathized with Loch Arbour’s tax problems, they felt rushed into the consolidation process. And with a lack of a legal mechanism to pay off Allenhurst’s debt pre-consolidation as Loch Arbour had offered, opponents said there was no point in moving forward.

But some Allenhurst residents said the borough should move the process forward to see if answers from the state to the concerns could be found. Supporters said that in the future the state may force Allenhurst to consolidate with another town, and not on the borough’s own terms. Others said that the borough had a fiduciary obligation to at least explore the fiscal benefits of a merger, and suggested that the borough hire their own professionals to vigorously vet the consolidation proposal.

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