Explanation didn’t add up

To the editor

   We were most amused after reading last week’s (May 8) guest column by BillGold attempting to defend his and his fellow Democrats record on road maintenance.
   Mr. Gold began by stating the Mayor Gwiazdowski and Public Works SupervisorBuck Sixt were incorrect for stating that few roads were resurfaced over thepast three years.
   Mr. Gold’s evidence to the contrary was that from 1999 -2001, the Democratic-controlled Township Committee resurfaced, on average,approx. 5 miles of roads per year. Or to put in other terms, approx. 55miles (78 percent) of township roads were never resurfaced! Mr. Gold, where didyou learn math?
   Mr. Gold later stated that Mayor Gwiazdowski’s comment about last year’sDemocratic-controlled Township Committee deciding not to resurface any roadswas also incorrect. Mr. Gold’s explanation why no roads were resurfaced,even though money was allocated, was "due to weather delays."
   Mr. Gold, didn’t Somerset County find appropriate weather to resurface county-ownedroads last year? Also, didn’t we have a drought last year? Perhaps you were suggesting that it was too hot and too sunny for Public Works to resurface roads?
   Mr. Gold, we have a question for you regarding last year’s allocated moneyfor road resurfaces. Since no roads were resurfaced last year, where is it?
   Is it the $65,000 left in the surplus fund at the end of last year? If so, based on your figures that it costs $900,000 to resurface 15 miles of roads, or $60,000 per mile. The Democratic-controlled Township Committee planned on resurfacing just over a mile of roads last year?
   Next, Mr. Gold proudly boasted how last year’s Democratic-controlled Township Committee hired a certified engineer to determine which roads were in most need of repair and that this allegedly saved the township $195,000.
   Two questions came to our minds:
   1) How much did it cost township taxpayers to hire the certified engineer to perform the task that we feel Mr. Buck Sixt and the rest of his Public Works crew were capable of performing?
   2) Where’s the $195,000 that was allegedly saved? It certainly didn’t end up in the surplus account. We already determined that was the money allocated for the one-mile of road resurfacing not performed last year.
   Mr. Gold, your side of the story on how you and the other Democrats ran thebusiness of Hillsborough spoke volumes.

Carl Suraci


Bob Wagner

The writers are candidates for the Republican nomination for Township Committee.