When pressed, neither candidate is ready to say the rural, Pinelands-covered township is overly troubled, but each says they deserve the chance to make their community better.

“I guess I’m not a very good politician, because I don’t think we have major problems in Buena Vista,” said Renart, 63, a retired truck driver and former public works employee in the township.

“I’d just like to keep Buena Vista the nice, rural, affordable economic environment that it is,” said Barber, 54, who formerly worked at ShopRite and served as vice president for United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 152.

Democrats have long maintained a stronghold on local government in Buena Vista, even though ideological differences between the parties are difficult for members to describe, if they even exist.

In last year’s four-way race for two seats on committee, Democrats narrowly won both.

With nearly 4,500 votes cast, Democrat Richard Harlan won by only six votes over Republican Mary Ann Micheletti-Levari. Top vote-getter Peter Bylone Sr. earned 1,207 votes. Henry Coia Jr. received the least with 1,058.

Without this year’s candidates strongly opposing each other on any issue, and even stressing that they are not running against each other as much as for the open seat, voters are left to consider their backgrounds, personalities and abilities.

Barber moved to Buena Vista Township more than 25 years ago, and won her first election in 1999. She says she pursued public office to give residents the resources they need to get help from government, health care and other agencies.

To do that, she helped start an annual health fair during the spring where representatives from groups and companies from South Jersey Healthcare to Atlantic County’s Consumer Affairs Department help answer questions from residents.

“Just to make people aware,” she said, “is why I originally got involved in politics.”

Renart moved to the township nearly 20 years ago. He said he has always been interested in politics and now has time to do so, following his retirement.

Renart worked for years for a local trucking company, and was a public works employee in the township for three years. An avid fisherman, he is also second vice president of the New Jersey Beach Buggy Association.

He said he feels he could help bring a fresh perspective to the governing body as a political newcomer.

As an outsider, he said he feels the township could do even more to be open with its residents by proactively spreading information to a busy, distracted public.

“It doesn’t hurt to have another voice,” he said. “When somebody asks me a question, I just give them an answer. I don’t think about how I should couch that answer.”

The municipal election is Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Click here to see a photo gallery of the A.C. event

“Occasionally, a local person would stop before the memorial was built,” Ventnor resident Bob Pantalena said of the tribute to O’Neill and Saracini. “Now, every single time I look there’s someone there. People are constantly stopping and reading. It gets a lot of activity.”

American flags flew at half-staff in front of most homes and businesses in South Jersey and nationwide to mark the decade anniversary of the tragedy Sunday. Memorial ceremonies were hosted throughout the day in Margate, Longport, Millville, Vineland, Wildwood, Cape May, Avalon, Wildwood Crest, Atlantic City, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, and Buena Vista, Lower, Galloway, and Egg Harbor townships.

Click here to see a photo gallery of ceremonies in Atlantic County

Pantalena, 69, lives in an apartment building adjacent to the memorial site in Atlantic City. The retired parole officer tended to the flowers and benches engraved with O’Neill and Saracini’s names long before the recent project by the city and Casino Reinvestment Development Authority’s Special Improvement Division.

“They were both from Atlantic City, both the same age, or within a couple years, and died together,” Pantalena said. “And they did have central roles here.”

He did not know O’Neill, a 49-year-old who started working as World Trade Center security chief two days before the attacks and whose work heading the FBI Counterterrorism Division has since been the focus of a book, legislative hearings and the documentary “The Man Who Knew.”

Saracini, 51, was captaining United Airlines Flight 175, the second of two planes forced by hijackers into the World Trade Center. Pantalena said he met Saracini two weeks before the attacks and was a childhood friend of Paula Alameno, a Ventnor Heights resident whose nephew Andrew, a Wildwood Crest native, also was killed.

Click here to see a photo gallery of the Wildwood Crest ceremony

People gathered near the shoreline in Wildwood Crest to remember Andrew Alameno, who was 37 and working on the 105th floor of the north tower that day as a trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.

About 1,000 people joined hands for a moment of silence Sunday on the Rambler Road beach near the headquarters for the local Beach Patrol, for which Alameno had worked as a lifeguard, said organizer Lisa Fitzpatrick, who went to high school with Alameno and remains close with his sister Susan Haury, of Cape May Court House.

Fitzpatrick, manager of Fitzpatrick’s Crest Tavern in Lower Township, previously started a polar plunge and scholarship foundation in honor of Alameno. The community supported those events, but the high turnout Sunday surprised her.

“We didn’t really know what to expect,” she said.

Fitzpatrick said she last saw Alameno during a summer trip shortly before his death.

Although Alameno, O’Neill, and Saracini no longer lived in the area, local ties brought them back regularly.

O’Neill’s parents, wife, and children lived in Atlantic County at the time. And Saracini spent summers in Ventnor, even though his family moved away before he’d started high school.

“They walked on these boards and played on these beaches,” said SID director Don Guardian. “They’re us. They are South Jersey.”

David Jones, FEMA community relations manager, said the workers are focusing in the northwest part of county where the most damage occurred — mainly from flooding from the Great Egg Harbor and Mullica rivers.

“Our job is to get in and let people know FEMA is here and give information on how FEMA gives assistance,” he said.

Jones and community relations specialists Thomas Sciascia and Angel Dela Rosa arrived Sept. 1 and have visited Buena Vista, Hamilton, Mullica and Weymouth townships, Buena Borough and Hammonton multiple times to speak to residents. There are four teams in the county and more are on their way, Jones said.

The Zachary, La., resident said he encounters a variety of reactions from the people he meets.

“Some want to talk or get things off their chest. We listen to their story. Sometimes it makes them cry. They’ll say, ‘I’m so glad to have FEMA here,,” he said. “People will give you compliments and thank you for helping. They say, ‘Thank God someone is here.’ Or they’ll say, ‘I’m not affected but I’ll be happy to show you someone who is.’ They’ll get in their car and drive you two blocks. People want to help each other.”

The team made multiple visits to Bill Mong’s Iron Forge Road home. The house is adjacent to the Great Egg Harbor River. Mong said he applied for FEMA assistance after the staff visited him, and the process took 10 minutes.

“They have come out last Friday, yesterday and today,” Mong said. “These people have helped a lot. We need some help.”

Mong said the water was 8 inches high in parts of his home. The water destroyed carpeting and several of his appliances and furniture, he said. The water also destroyed parts of his deck and landscaping — as much as $25,000 in damage, he said.

FEMA spokesman Brad Craine said grants are available to owners and tenants of homes damaged by the hurricane. There also are low-interest loans available from the U.S. Small Business Administration for business owners.

People can contact FEMA and schedule an appointment within days for an inspector to visit their home, he said.

Craine advised residents to take pictures of any damage and keep receipts of any work done to repair their homes. The agency will pay money for damage to a primary residence, he said.

Through Wednesday, FEMA had received 22,023 applications throughout the state — including 3,767 on Wednesday alone. The agency also has dispersed about $15 million in housing assistance and has 723 inspectors in the state. Statistics for each county were not yet available.

Sciascia, a resident of Easton, Pa., said his division of the agency is often referred to as the “eyes and ears.” The team works with local emergency management offices to find affected homes, he said. They also tour neighborhoods and look for signs of damage, such as furniture lying outside, damage to the exterior of homes or downed trees, he said.

The team made a stop Thursday morning on 1st Road in Hammonton when they saw a trash bin in a side yard.

They waited to speak with owner Ken Scaffidi — who told them he had more than 5 feet of water in his basement. An assortment of furniture, household items and the remains of a Dallas Cowboys pool table were positioned in his backyard waiting to be thrown out.

The water also damaged the home’s heater and water-treatment system, Scaffidi said, adding that the family is staying with relatives until the air conditioner is fixed.

Scaffidi said he applied to FEMA and that there is anxiousness among owners as they deal with all the damage.

“If I don’t get the insurance money, I don’t know. I hope I get money back,” he said. “I’m glad they are here to help us out.”

"This is similar to golfing in the Carolinas," says Jeff Pellegrini, the head professional at Buena Vista. "We have the doglegs, smaller greens than you would normally see in this area and plenty of character. You will use every club in your bag here. This is also a good risk-reward course. You can try to place a drive over the corner on a dogleg but if you miss, a potential birdie can become a double bogey.

"You can play this course a million different ways."

Buena's signature hole is the 10th, which is both aesthetically pleasing and visually intimidating.

The 506-yard par 5 has enough sand to require a beach badge if it were at the shore. Bunkers dominate the landscape, starting with a long trap running along the left side of the hole. This creates havoc for any hook hit during the first 200 yards off the tee. Numerous sand traps border the right-side fairways, and a small elevated green sits behind four more bunkers. Many players land in the trap for every shot on this hole.

One common mistake here is hitting the approach shot too close to the green. It leaves players with an "in-between" club selection for a shot of about 50 yards to a sand-trap marked, Fort Knox-guarded green, rather than with a more comfortable 100-yard pitching wedge.

Although prevailing wisdom says to hit the ball down fairway as far as possible, placement is more important than distance on this hole.

"You are better off hitting your second shot to about 100 yards of the green rather than 50," Pellegrini says. "Give yourself a full pitching wedge to the green."

Bogey is an excellent score on the 10th.

Pellegrini also enjoys the second hole, a tight and tough dogleg right at about 411 yards. A straight drive of about 250 yards is required to gain a good look at the green. If the ball strays right, thick woods eat it up.

The fourth hole is a slight dogleg left playing 420 yards from the back tees. It sports a large bunker on the left and two bunkers in front of the green. As with many other holes, players often hit a mid- to long-iron into the green. Those clubs, designed for distance rather than height, make it hard for players to keep their shot on the smallish green.

Tap-ins

Overall, this is a strong test of golf. Buena is fair, but relatively short on forgiveness. The woods often are deep, rarely affording the option to punch out of difficulty back onto the fairway. There are more penalty strokes here than on many other courses.

His home is one of 11 completed in the development. Four lots remain unfinished, so developer Foxmoor Homes has yet to complete the roads or storm basins. When it rains, the basins overflow and front yards fill with water.

“When you buy a place, you expect it to be nice,” he said. “You don’t think there will be these problems.”

But unfinished developments such as Hauta’s are a problem across the region and country, with residents often stuck in limbo waiting for developers to sell the remaining homes and complete the final infrastructure. Before the slowdown in the real estate market, the process normally took far less time. But with the market at a standstill, many developers are in a difficult financial situation and cannot sell houses as quickly as they expected.

Buena Vista Township Mayor Chuck Chiarello, president of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, said the issue affects nearly every town.

“When you get an approval to build a project, there’s not necessarily a deadline to complete said project,” he said. “Everything would probably be moving along like wildfire if the economy hadn’t basically crashed.”

Billy Galletta, one of Hauta’s neighbors, understands the situation. Galletta moved into the Estates at Hamilton development in May 2008 and routinely has a small pond in front of his property because of flooding issues.

“You can’t put all the blame on the builder. They have economic issues, and the housing market fell to nothing,” he said. “The only thing I have a problem with is they have 11 houses filled. You have 11 families in a cul-de-sac all suffering together. The builder should have enough money to finish this project. You have to have enough capability and finish what you bit off.”

The homeowners are talking about forming a board to jointly handle issues such as snow removal. The township cannot adopt roads and maintain the streets until they are completed by the developer.

“We’re in it together, but we’re all handcuffed,” Galletta said.

The best protection for residents is taking a performance bond the developer posts when starting the project, but that can be a costly, lengthy process for municipalities to recoup the money — and sometimes it ends up not covering all the work.

Michael Cerra, senior legislative analyst for the league, said there are no specific laws to address the situation for residents. There has been legislation to allow developers to change the scope or design of previously approved projects because of the economic situation to help them sell more units.

Chiarello said many of these residential complexes have major problems due to heavy storms. Atlantic County is working with the municipalities to apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency money to fix some of the problems, he said.

Frustrated by the lack of progress at the Foxmoor site, the Hamilton Township Committee directed its attorney, Bob Sandman, to begin the process to recoup the bond for Foxmoor. Sandman said the developer has been informed and has 30 days to respond.

Foxmoor did not respond to requests for comment.

The township had a similar issue with developer Enclave at Glen Eyre LLC over a complex on Cates Road that had a faulty basin. Sandman said he began the proceedings to recoup the bond but after nearly a year the developer has made substantial progress on the basin.

“That’s expensive,” he said of getting the bond money. “We allowed them to do it at their expense.”

The township is strengthening its bond regulations to ensure the developer is held responsible for the term of the complex.

The Hamilton Commons shopping center on the Black Horse Pike did not have a performance bond, Sandman said. The complex has severe problems with its basins, which flood the pike and surrounding area.

“We learned through that experience what we need to do,” he said.

Following a 2006 law established by the township’s Planning Board, developers are now liable for repairs to basins on new developments for as long as the complex stands.

The bonds are sometimes for a set period of time, such as 10 years. Sandman is investigating ways to make the developers who put up the bonds for developments built before 2006 — but whose bonds have not run out — responsible for their basins longer.

Other municipalities have found success, albeit gradually, by working with developers.

Manor Estates on East Broad Street in Millville had incomplete roads for more than a year that caused severe flooding around the homes, many of which cost more than $400,000.

The developer, Signature Homes, declared bankruptcy, but the city worked with one of the partners to get all of the roads and storm basins fixed, Engineer John Knoop said. The work is nearly complete and the flooding problems have diminished, he said.

“Despite the setbacks and time delays, you could call it a success story. The developer went bankrupt, but we reached an agreement without going to court or contacting the bonding company,” he said. “Whenever lawyers or bankruptcies are involved, it can get messy. It’s never an easy feat to get involved in all of that.”