On Dec. 21 the Monmouth County Freeholders will conduct a public hearing on a plan to relocate an existing concrete recycling plant from Amboy Road in Marlboro to a site closer to the Route 520-Tennent Road end of Amboy Road.
The applicant wants to relocate to avoid "potential nuisance impacts" to the new Bellemont housing development. The "nuisance impacts" are the noise and dust caused by concrete-block crushing machinery, and the heavy truck traffic.
All well and good, except that in sparing Bellemont these conditions, the applicant seeks to instead impose them on the older residential neighborhood along Tennent Road and on the nearby Triangle Estates and Alexander Woods neighborhoods, as well as on people who work in the area — in the water plant, and the light industrial and office parks along Route 520, Campus Drive and Ginesi Drive.
Perhaps most critically, the site is just behind the new Kiddie Academy day-care center, putting hundreds of children at risk from air pollution and other dangers.
Yes, move this plant. But move it far, far from where it can harm our health, quality of life and property values.
The public is welcome at this hearing. It’s on Dec. 21 at 4 p.m. in the Monmouth County Hall of Records, 1 E. Main St., Freehold.
Since many of us will be working or preoccupied by the holidays, the county is accepting written comments on the proposal, addressed to: The Solid Waste Coordinator, 1 E. Main St., Freehold 07728, or faxed to him at (732) 431-7795.
Alexander Ingham
Marlboro