Incumbents face challenges

BYRAM TOWNSHIP — Councilman Carlos Luaces is challenging incumbent Mayor James Oscovitch in the 2013 election. He has joined forces with Giovanni Di Meo, who is running for the council seat currently held by Marie Raffay, who is running for re-election.

They cite as their reason for running that they are “fed up with their taxes being raised. As residents, they, too, feel the sting of the current council’s disregard for the people.”

Additionally Luaces says, “I do not like the direction the township is heading or where it has been. I don’t like how taxes are going up and services are being taken away.” According to the Township’s records, average property taxes in Byram have increased between two and three percent in each of the past four years.

The 37-year-old Councilman is originally from the Ironbound section of Newark, a destination for many years for immigrant families from Spain and Portugal.

His family came to this country from Spain. He has lived in Byram Township since 2007 and works as a sales representative for Tilcon, a company which produces paving materials.

Giovanni Di Meo, 36, is a newcomer to Byram politics. He has lived in Cranberry Lake since 2009 and has done volunteer work for the community’s Water Association. He grew up in nearby Roxbury Township in Morris County and now works as a mortgage compliance officer for Weichert Financial Services.

He is running for the Township Council because his concerns “about higher taxes, less services, job loss, and welcoming in the tax raising, job crushing Highlands Council have not been answered by the current council. For the past 15 years, the current Byram council has raised the taxes in town with no more benefits to the people.”

The Highlands Council to which he refers is the 15-member appointed body tasked with implementation of the New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act of 2004. It is part of state government. Byram Township is required under the law to conform to the Highlands Council’s Regional Master Plan in those parts of Byram included in the Preservation Area, as the law defines it.

Jack Gallagher of Richmond Road in Byram is also running for the Township Council against Di Meo and Raffay.