Letters-May 29

Golf outing raised

money for center
To the editor:
   On behalf of the committee, I would like to sincerely thank all those who participated in the recent New Hope Golf Classic at Glen Heron Golf Club: the golfers, who had a great day even though the weather was not kind; the contributors and hole sponsors, whose gifts and sponsorships were greatly appreciated; and my committee.
   Special thanks to Gordon Nieburg for the photography; Jim McGinnis for the sculptures; the Wittes for the sign-making; Fred Beans for the 2003 Ford Escape and other generous gifts; Comcast for the four tickets to the Spectrum; and Chuck Tarr and Roy Zeigler who stood at hole 15 and raised $150 for PIP.
   The event benefited the renovation of the New Hope Visitors Center. Many improvements have already been made, and the proceeds from the gold outing will carry out the finishing touches.
   Thank you all.
   Please visit your new Visitors Center on Main Street in New Hope.

Earl Bierman
chairman
Golf Committee
New Hope

Hirschfield

thanks supporters
To the editor:
   Thanks to all the New Hope Democrats and Republicans who voted for me on May 20.
   I also want to congratulate my Democratic teammates Geri Delevich and Rey Velasco who won council positions on the November ballot.
   However, I must also apologize to my supporters for not working hard enough in this primary. I was overconfident, expecting the excellent record of this Borough Council to carry the day. My inattention to the race allowed a small group of hard-working people, dedicated to defeating me and willing to spend whatever was necessary, to tie me for the last position on the Democratic council line.
   Fortunately, I was able to draw on a broad cross-section of bi-partisan community support that made me the leading vote-getter in the primary and should ensure me a spot on the Republican line and perhaps also the Democratic one.
   I assure that the mistakes of the primary will not be repeated in the fall, and, with your help, good government in New Hope will continue in 2004 and beyond.

Richard Hirschfield
New Hope

Chorus presents

season finale
To the editor:
   The Hopewell Valley Chorus recently presented its 43rd spring concert, "With a Psalm in Your Heart."
   It was a glorious finale to the season. We were honored to dedicate this concert to the memory of Walter Anderson, who lent us his strong bass voice for over 40 years.
   The concert was also the occasion for presenting our 29th scholarship to a Hopewell Valley High School senior. This year’s winner, Joseph Stellino, of Hopewell Township, is an exceptional, multi-talented musician who served as our piano accompanist that evening in "Bless the Lord."
   In 2003, as always, we found much to be grateful for, including help from The Beacon in announcing our news. We appreciated the hospitality of the Hopewell Valley Regional School District, the Pennington Presbyterian Church and the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Washington’s Crossing.
   Moreover, we were blessed with an indispensable auxiliary of volunteer photographers, greeters, ticket takers, and ushers — just a few of the many non-singing performers who contribute to the success of a community chorus.
   Under Director Marjorie K. Herman, our musicianship grew along with our numbers, including members from Hunterdon County. Thanks to the generosity of people and businesses throughout our region, we continued to top instrumental accompanists. In addition, we enjoyed maestro-level support from the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission through a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
   Our Web site, www.princetonol/.groups.hvchorus, continues to grow and inform.
   While choral singing is a weekly pleasure for our members, singing for and with the community is our greatest joy. We thank all who lent their voices, hands and spirit to help create the two other landmark events this past season: our holiday concert and, in March, "Spring into Song," a collaboration of eight groups with and for the Trenton Children’s Chorus.
   The Hopewell Valley Chorus is this area’s only non-auditioned community chorus. Sept. 8, we will begin preparing for our 2003 holiday concert.
   For information on joining us, please call our membership director at (609) 538-0777 or e-mail [email protected].

Maureen S. Bentley
president
Lambertville

Regionalization

good, but costly
To the editor:
   In his letter last week, Mr. Karma brings up a number of good issues regarding our school systems.
   Unfortunately, his reaction of voting down our school budgets does little or nothing toward a long-term solution to these problems. If anything, it probably makes the problems worse.
   Many people who voted in favor of the school budgets are very interested in regionalization of our schools. It could not only save money on administration and staff, but also give our students a better education.
   Regionalization in the sense of South joining with Central would be very difficult since Central is a 9-12 district, and South is a 7-12 district. We would have to reorganize our elementary schools from K-6 to K-8, which would require adding facilities for middle school curriculum, such as science rooms, to each of the elementary schools.
   A single K-12 district of Lambertville, West Amwell, Stockton and South has fewer complications. I imagine the Lambertville and Stockton schools housing grades K-4, South with 9-12, and a new middle school for 5-8 where the West Amwell school is located now. Each school would still need a principal, but one superintendent (with one staff and school board) could run the whole operation.
   But in any case, regionalization is a difficult thing to accomplish. The voters of all the sending districts have to approve it, and it fails if even one district votes it down. We would have to combine the debits of all three districts, the unionized staff, the curriculum, the school boards and the classes.
   Another huge barrier to regionalization is the inertia of the past and fear of the unknown future. Think about trying to regionalize our fire companies, our police departments, our local governments or even our PTAs. A whole host of complications and reservations come to the fore.
   We may or may not agree that it would be better in the long run, but there are a hundred problems that make it a difficult task.
   And who is going to step forward and put in the hundreds of volunteer hours to make this happen for our communities?
   Of course, Mr. Kraemer is correct that schools don’t fall apart overnight. They fall apart in 50 or 60 years. And when the budget is defeated and must be cut, a responsible school board keeps up the critical programs and lets the infrastructure wait. When the choice is between paving the parking lot and the basketball team or library books, generally the paving gets the ax.
   Do this for a decade or two, and problems can really mount up. But even with the best maintenance a lot of things are worn out after half a century. I don’t think it is fair to characterize that as "bad management." Those people did the best they could in a difficult situation and deserve our thanks, not our criticism.
   Mr. Kraemer brings up a number of other problems that all nip at the heels of our educational system — from unfunded state mandates to the rising costs of health care. Most of these issues are troubling, but in my opinion are not good reasons to vote against our local school budgets. They are way beyond the control of local forces — kind of like pushing out our town police chief because of something done by the FBI. I think this is throwing out the baby with the bath water and does not really help improve the situation for anyone.
   Letters of complaint to our state legislators would be more appropriate than voting against the budget.
   Rereading his letter, it seems that Mr. Kraemer sees the system as hopelessly broken and full of self-serving people who are just looking out for number one or cannot manage themselves out of a paper bag. I see it more as well-meaning and dedicated people doing the very best they can in a system that no one thinks is great, but which no one wants to change for fear it will just get worse.
   I think that if we came together as three communities that need to fix a system that is more costly and less effective than we would like, we could come out of this with a much more efficient education system for all our students and one which all three communities could be very proud to call their own.

Bob Dahl
Lambertville