Freeholder
John C. Bartlett, Jr. |
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| Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. will serve as Deputy Director of the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 2008. |
| Freeholder Bartlett is the senior member of the Board, having first been elected Freeholder in 1979. He is also Chairman of the county's Department of Finance, and Department of Parks and Recreation. |
| Freeholder Bartlett most recently served as the Board's Deputy Director in 2006. |
| A longtime resident of Pine Beach, Freeholder Bartlett is known for his staunch fiscal policies and his continuing work to maintain and provide open space for county residents. |
| During his tenure, he has closely worked with department heads and the administration to produce county budgets that provide the funding for essential services to residents that also are affordable. He established an aggressive debt reduction program while still providing money for new capital projects and a stable county tax rate. Under his leadership, the county tax rate has repeatedly decreased in recent years. |
| Also, during his time on the board, the county parks department has grown to include 22 different park sites including two golf courses. Some of the newest completed projects in the parks department include a sports field complex in Little Egg Harbor Township and a second off-leash dog park located in Ocean County Park, Lakewood. In 2008, Jake's Branch, a new county park in Beachwood will open. In addition, improvements will be made to Tip Seaman County Park in Tuckerton. |
| The Ocean County Natural Lands Trust Fund, approved by voters in 1997, has resulted in more than 9,400 acres of environmentally sensitive lands and farmlands being preserved in the county with many more applications under review. |
| Freeholder Bartlett was honored with the 2006 Governor's Environmental Excellence Award for his efforts in protecting and preserving Ocean County's treasured open space. |
| Freeholder Bartlett was born in Lakewood and has been a resident of the riverfront community of Pine Beach since 1947. He became a member of the Pine Beach Council in 1974 and was elected Mayor there in 1978. Freeholder Bartlett served as vice president of the Southern New Jersey Freeholders Association for the year 2003. |
| Freeholder Bartlett served as Director of the Board of Freeholders in 1982, 1988, 1992 and 1997. He served as Deputy Director in 2002. |
| Freeholder Bartlett had worked as a teacher at Toms River High School North. He is a graduate of the inaugural class of Ocean County College, Toms River Township, where he received his Associate Degree. He received his Bachelors Degree from Western Maryland College, where he earned departmental honors in political science. He received his Masters Degree in Political Science from the Graduate School of Public Affairs, State University of New York at Albany in 1970. He is a former assistant professor of Political Science at Ocean County College. |