How sad it was to see the recent letter to the editor by William Hartko, a former member of the Open Space Committee, attacking Council President Mack Womack regarding the Otken farm. While Hartko has been an advocate for open space in North Brunswick for a number of years, he should realize as should everyone else on that committee that pushed the condemnation of this property, the people spoke and the people said loud and clear last November "Don’t condemn the farm."
Unfortunately, the information Hartko neglected to mention was that the outgoing Republican council majority took legal action in December to proceed with the condemnation anyway. From its perspective, it didn’t matter what the people wanted, it didn’t matter this condemnation was not only wrong but also cost the taxpayers of North Brunswick millions of dollars; what mattered was that that is what they wanted to do, so they just did it.
While Hartko certainly seems to be committed to the preservation of open space as are most people, I would hope he would realize there are other ways to obtain open space as well. Hartko, your position on condemnation was rejected, so instead why don’t you help the new council obtain open space in a manner which is acceptable to the people of North Brunswick since we after all, do still pay the bills?
Frank Carlino
North Brunswick