All of a sudden, it hit the fans here — and I’m talking about hitting the fans of the once-good New Jersey living. Senior citizens have been hit in their meager wallets and pocketbooks with rising costs.
There are HMOs under Medicare that no longer want to service the retirees and, like Aetna US Healthcare, have raised their premiums $240 a year and dropped all prescription drugs, forcing seniors to choose between food or needed medications.
Inflated prices are being forced down our throats by Verizon and the Gordon’s Corner Water Co., as well as all the gas and electric companies.
Hovnanian Enterprises’ 99-year lease with Covered Bridge I is a shameful and unfair contract that wouldn’t stand the light of day in a court of justice.
Please allow me to delve a little more into the statements made above.
Other states give retirees more and better Medicare HMOs to choose from than New Jersey offers. Unlike the Medicare HMOs here, they are fair and offer prescription plans.
Gordon’s Corner Water Co.’s bills are already inflated and their "facility" charge is three times more than other utilities charge for service. Then there is WMUA’s sewer charges. When you really stop to think about their charges, you realize there are eight apartments in my condo using one sewer.
Instead of legally charging one fee to be divided by eight apartments for the use of the same sewer, we are forced to pay separately for it. Now, you tell me honestly if you don’t feel we’re being ripped off here. Further, in New York the water and sewer charges appear on one bill and the sewer charges are one-half that of the water rates.
In what I call a long-awaited form of justice and retribution is my reading in your paper that Hovnanian Enterprises’ contracts are being revised and in some cases they have been made to pay a large fine. Now it’s our turn.
We have been patiently waiting for years to meet with them to revise their shameful and unjust 99-year contract with Covered Bridge I. We call on our political leaders and law enforcement agencies to help us bring this matter to an amicable conclusion. There are 3,000 voters living here.
And finally, I want to end this letter with a big thanks for the many hundreds of Covered Bridgers who appeared at the Gordon’s Corner Water Co. and Verizon hearings in a show of solidarity to oppose their unfair and outrageous price increases.
Speaking of Verizon, when did they secede from the United States? They can’t still be from this country, where the Constitution and the Supreme Court guarantee us freedom of choice. Otherwise, how in heaven’s name can they force us to pay for a phone package we don’t want or need?
Henry Botwinick
Manalapan

