Has anyone been there yet? I've never been to one before but I guess I will wait for the hype to wear down. When I went past around 6 they were lining up car after car behind the shopping plaza in a "staging area". I wonder how long the wait is for a fast food drive in.
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I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said "Sit down" I stood up.
Bruce

John,

Took the family there tonight and was pleasantly surprise. Was crowded but only had to wait around 15 minutes for a parking slip. Food was decent for fast food, shakes are really good and service was pretty quick. I had the opportunity to talk with the owner, he told me he hired 160 employees and is now down to 130 probably until September when things slow down, but what a great boost of employment for a good majority of our local kids.

The site is nicely laid out the building and landscaping look great in my opinion. My kids had fun sitting in the minivan, eating and enjoying some music, actually we opened the hatch back and kinda of tail gated watching the servers skating to the cars bringing the food.

Kudos to my fellow Planning Board members who approved such a nice business and this owner seems to care about this community from our talking. Maybe I'll catch up with you there sometime.

P.S I also saw some where someone ask who was paying for the Police present at the site, Sonic is picking up the tab not taxpayers.

Have a good weekend!

Oh no not another business that wants to make money in Howell. All they do is fleece the poor and use us for our money, yada, yada, yada. Oop's made mistake, thought I was on that "other" board for some reason. Nevermind, you can go back to your reguarly scheduled programming.
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walk on the bright side of the road!

All I know is this - I was in Manasquan, Belmar and Point Pleasant over the weekend and they have lots of similar places. And every time I go, I want to come home and erect the for sale sign.

These entire towns are as happy as that Sonic Parking lot on a sunny, Saturday afternoon.

I also rode my bike to the Manasquan reservoir (1 mile from my home) and was nearly killed 3 times by speeding cars and lack of shoulders or bike lanes inside the most "pedestrian unfriendly" town in Monmouth county.

The other towns may be a bit more congested. But - they are filled with lots of happy people who are biking, walking and jogging around a nice, friendly town. They offer sidewalks, clean streets and plenty of activities for kids and adults of all ages. Lots of gathering places for friends and families and accessible parks and recreation for everyone. A real family friendly place where the kids can get on their bikes, ride to a nearby Dairy Queen, the beach, the park or a fishing hole and spend the day without getting plowed over by a speeding car on a street without sidewalks.

I also looked at the list of towns that offered fireworks. The list of towns that didn't offer fireworks was pretty small. Basically - it was just Howell. I also look at the surrounding communities and see the same level of offerings for it's residents - even though those towns are closer cousins and are much more rural.

Freehold, Manalapan, Jackson and Colts Neck all offer great parks and rec for their kids. Why don't they have a bunch of sports and rec “hate mongers” running around crying foul every time someone wants to expand a park or put in some recreation? Ever been to Liberty Oak Park? Or the fields in Jackson or Manalapan? Now come here and there isn't even a decent parking lot to accommodate the few people who show up! Try to get it fixed up and all hell breaks loose.

Then I come back here to Howell and I drive down our barren roads void of any pedestrians sans the suicide bikers. Our main street is route 9 and the least pedestrian friendly place on earth. Even our shopping centers don't have sidewalks to connect the outer stores!

I rode to the reservoir on Sunday but I aged 3 years in the process. I figure I could do that ride about 5 more times and then I could start collecting social security!

I live within 1 - 1.5 miles of the Reservoir, Oak Glen Park, Echo Lake Park, the little league fields, the Pop Warner fields, Southard Pond and the library. All great places for kids. But I can't get there without taking my life in my hands because the town is too #$@%!cheap or stupid to put in a small biking lane or a sidewalk to accommodate it's own residents. Or worse, they continue to listen to the whiners and complainers who don't want to pay for safe pedestrian routes all because their own kids, or themselves, refuse to use it.

The worst part is nearly 15% of Howell lives within these 7 or 8 adjoining communities (Oak Glen, Woodstone, Candlewood, Monmouth Ridings, etc) and we all suffer the same problem. All the kids are trapped into these boring, barren neighborhoods without any safe outside access to all of what Howell has to offer.

And the real worst part is the difference in property values in all of these towns. The per capita cost of these investments is tiny compared to our tax base. Small investments in these things don’t create much of a tax burden but increase property values substantially more. People want to live in pedestrian friendly towns and they are willing to pay for it.

Pat Garaffa for Councilman!
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walk on the bright side of the road!