Mr. Watts had an incredible collection of Barnegat historical artifacts, and hopefully if our School Board makes the right decision in naming the new school after him, some of our town's history he collected could be on display there. This would benefit everyone in town as we could all view and learn about our town's history & pride. And of course, our children would be the main benefactors of this decision.

Over the last few days of the poll, hundreds of votes came pouring in...thank you Barnegat for such great participation!! Your voice has been heard! A small percentange of people wanted to name the school in honor of President Ronald Reagan. DowntownBarnegat.com offers the opportunity to any one of these voters to express their reason(s) for voting for Mr. Reagan as opposed to our late town historian, Fred Watts. It would be interesting to know why someone would NOT want to honor Mr. Watts, and this is a view that has not been articulated in any media outlet to this date. So we would like to offer anyone with this minority viewpoint space right here on this website to express their views. Of course, their name would have to accompany their comment (this is DowntownBarnegat.com policy). So if you can, please email us your reason(s) for choosing Mr. Reagan over Mr. Watts. We would be happy to post your comments.

There has never been any official reasoning behind the School Board's impending decision to name this new elementary school after President Reagan. We have a lot of terrific people on our School Board, and involved in our school system. We hope they will do the right thing and honor one of our very own...someone who volunteered and educated many many children. He made a tangible, positive difference in the town of Barnegat. What better way to encourage and inspire our children to civic responsibility and town pride, than to name a school after such a volunteer in Barnegat.