BADER TO BRIDGE COMMISSION: THIS IS THE COST OF CORRUPTION Says Public Safety First Victim of GOP Waste

(MT. HOLLY, NJ) - Democratic Freeholder Candidate Tom Bader today called out the Burlington County Bridge Commission ("the Bridge Commission") for putting taxpayers and toll payers at risk by not maintaining their toll bridges, labeling the public safety threat as "the cost of corruption."

"The Bridge Commission's failure to maintain these bridges is the cost of corruption," said Bader, a Democrat from Moorestown. "This threat to the public's safety is the result of two plus decades of GOP waste."

The Burlington County Times ("the BCT") reported today that the Bridge Commission hired engineers from Drexel University for an emergency evaluation of the Burlington-Bristol and Tacony-Palmayra toll bridges, a response to the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota. The inspection comes on the heels of the BCT disclosing that the Tacony-Palmayra and Burlington Bristol Bridge received a structurally deficient rating by the Federal Highway Administration.

"The taxpayers and toll payers should be furious about the fact that our bridges are deficient," said Bader. "This is alarming. The public should be outraged."

The Courier-Post reported today that, according to the New Jersey Association of Counties, Burlington County needs an estimated $105.4 million to repair all of its bridges to meet federal standards.

"Instead of wasting our money on no-show jobs for Martha Bark and inflated contracts for Bob Stears, the Bridge Commission should have been investing it in infrastructure," said Bader. "It is the Bridge Commission after all."

Tom Bader, 43, a Moorestown resident and physician, is a Division Director for the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is also an Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania.