Stolen Christmas tree
To the editor:
Subsequent to last weekend, a resolute tempest passed over our little farm in Hopewell. Being a child of 13, I was overjoyed to see white lace falling from a somber sky of gray and blue. A snow day for me is a release from the pressures of school, to which I am condemned for the eternity of my lively youth.
After the sudden cessation of the storm, I decided to take my siblings, Zeeza (8) and George (5), along with me to frolic in the snow and perhaps take a walk around the farm. We began our journey, up a hill now shining, covered by a proud white. We passed our row of Norway Spruce trees lining Hopewell-Amwell Road. My younger two siblings were getting tired, so I decided to stop and breathe the winter air. After taking a short respite, our eyes began to wander, revealing an incredible view green spruce covered with crystal, but wait, there was a tree missing. My sister tugged at my gray parka, "Look James! Look!" she screamed. My eyes followed her small gloved finger to a sorry spruce cut down in its youth, its top severed ruthlessly from its base. Suddenly my mind filled with anguish! Christmas is a time of year when we should be caring and thoughtful, is it not? "Who sawed down our tree?" asked little George. "It was pretty, what terrible person would do such a thing?" cried Zeeza. I didn’t know what to tell them.
I remember long before Zeeza and George were born, planting those trees with my mother and father. I remember when they were merely 5 feet tall and how happy we were to plant them, a few every weekend until we had put in almost 50. 1 watched them grow, passing them every day going to school or a sporting event. Although the tree is gone the question still remains, Who stole our tree, and why? We just don’t understand it.
James G. Cole, Hopewell
Just send me the check
To the editor:
First of all, I would like to congratulate the people at HIKE for being allowed to keep the football team. Surely it was money well spent. Even better, the taxpayers have to start picking up the bill from now on! It was beautifully executed, and I commend you all on your ruthless dedication to a cause so critical as football.
Unfortunately, though, I do have a minor complaint. HIKE, as I understand it, stands for Hopewell Involved in Kids Enrichment. Well, you’re Hopewell, I’m a kid (senior at CHS), but I really don’t feel like I’ve gained one iota of enrichment through the football team. I’m graduating this year, so this raises the problem of how you can enrich me before then. Luckily, I have the solution. Just send me a check for $434 (the cost of the supplies that would be provided to me if I played football; I’m willing to let the cost of insurance and transportation go.). Once I have received it, I can enrich myself at my own discretion, thus releasing you from the burdening question of how to enrich the students with no interest in football. You can contact me through the school, and I’ll give you the address where you can send my check. In the end, I think it works out well for all of us. You get to enrich the children you aim to, and I get to be enriched by people who are so genuinely dedicated to improving our school conditions. It is truly an honor to be able to be involved in a communitywide enrichment program such as this.
Thank you for your interest and generosity.
Peter Ashton, HVCHS student, Hopewell Township
TND dilemma
To the editor:
The Hopewell Township Master Plan Advisory Committee (MPAC) would like to state several facts regarding the potential zoning in the area of the southern tier of Hopewell Township, between Reed Road and Route 31, south of Route 546. This has been termed the Traditional Neighborhood Development area, or TND.
Fact One. This section of the township is currently zoned R-100: either one-half acre if sewers are installed or one-acre if future homes will utilize septic systems. In parts of this area the zoning is Special Industrial.
Fact Two. Very few of the current residents of this section of the township, as well as very few of the residents of the entire Valley, would like to see conventional half-acre zoning evolve into a reality. Just about everyone agrees that the presently permitted form of development would represent unplanned "sprawl" in an area which already has fairly dense development.
Fact Three. The State under the previous administration designated this section of the township to be a planned growth center as the area is near transportation and the possible connections to sewers and water supply. Yet the state also discourages new development into open space, of which there is a considerable amount in this area. (It is not yet evident whether the current State administration will continue to view this area as a place for growth.)
Fact Four. Based on a report of an analysis of the geology and soil characteristics of the township, most of the township was downzoned to 6- and 13-acre zoning to conform to the carrying capacity of the land, particularly limited water supply. The proposed TND area was the only area with open space remaining that has similar soil and water characteristics to the Valley Resource Conservation (VRC) districts (6 acre zoning) that was left unchanged: half-acre zoning with sewers, one-acre without sewers, as noted.
Fact Five. This evening, the Planning Board has on its agenda a work session item to consider changing the zoning in R-100 zones to two acres without sewers (keeping the half-acre zoning with sewers). This change would leave the TND area zoning inconsistent with other areas without sewers. Such an inconsistency not only would be treating the TND area differently than the rest of the township (with no scientific justification) but would also undermine our planning and zoning for all other township areas which have been downzoned based on soil and water constraints. It would seem arbitrary in either case.
Fact Six. The Hopewell Township Planning Board is reaching out to those residents in this section of the township in an effort to gain a consensus on how this area should be developed. It is quite likely that it will take some time to reach a consensus on this controversial topic, perhaps a few years. While these discussions are taking place, one-half acre to 1- or 2-acre zoning will still be in place. If the fast pace of the current housing market continues, we all run the risk of seeing dense builder-driven development become a reality. With sewer extensions into this area, the half-acre zoning could yield hundreds of new tract homes with little if any concern for what the neighbors want or good design elements. Even some limited new development that would meet the proposed 2-acre zoning (without sewers) could preempt the possibility for either a well planned, community-designed development or the purchase of open space in that area.
Thus the MPAC concludes that it is imperative for the Planning Board to change the zoning in this area from R-100 to VRC as is the case in the other parts of the township with similar physical characteristics. That is, eliminate the half-acre/1-acre zoning provisions and adopt the VRC standards. This area should have the same protections as the other areas which have been downzoned. In January 2003 the MPAC wrote a memo to the Planning Board and Township Committee asking for the zoning in this area to be changed to 6-acre, VRC zoning for these reasons. This zoning change is even more necessary now because of the time needed to allow the Planning Board and the neighbors to jointly agree on what is best for that area, whether it is a village, hamlet, TND, the purchase of open space or some combination of these concepts.
Bob Kecskes, Billie Moore, Bill James, Len Ramist for Master Plan Advisory Committee
Valley on track to being first-class football town
To the editor:
No one should be surprised by Mary Ellen Curtin’s letter last week but it just validates that when it comes to football, whether it’s Pop Warner, high school football or college ball, she just doesn’t get it.
First she asks what do we cut to fit in next year’s $25,000 for football in the $57 million school budget? First of all, that amount will add approximately $1.04 per household, per year to your tax burden which benefits over 50 percent of the student population.
A better question for Ms. Curtin is how much did we needlessly spend for the district to defend itself against a complaint filed by herself and HOV? Where is this money coming from? The only crisis is the amount of money the district spends on needless and petty lawsuits. If we could slow this spending down, there would be no budget crisis every year!
Ms. Curtin’s second point about our children "overdoing sports" and that we should cut back on practice time just proves she hasn’t a clue about children involved in athletics. Hopewell Valley is far behind in time spent practicing sports and we have the distinct disadvantage here compared to surrounding towns because there are not enough playing fields, lighted fields and indoor facilities to satisfy the number of children involved in sports. Just in the spring, baseball and softball alone will have over 1,000 children participating, (that’s approximately 96 teams), but they’ll have only nine fields to practice and play on. Five of these fields are lighted which means the others are only good until 7 p.m. in the spring. This also doesn’t consider travel teams and all-star teams. The problems are just not limited to baseball but to soccer, football, lacrosse and others. Surrounding towns supply the facilities their youth need and even have the advantage of training in the off-season. Typically, these teams are top in their sport and the last I checked, all of their children were having fun! More so since they don’t play until 10:30 p.m. on a school night because there are simply not enough fields on which to play games.
Aside from a select few of the "football challenged" in the area, Hopewell Valley is on track to be a first-class, top-rated football town. As you may know by now, the Junior Pee Wee Pop Warner team won the NJ Championship title, but fell short in winning the Eastern Regional Semi-Final Playoffs. The team that beat us, the Lansdale, Pa., Cannoneers, went on to win the Eastern Regional Championship and are on now in Florida, at the Pop Warner Super Bowl. The week after we played, I received some e-mails from the Cannoneers that I want to share with you that say it all about our children and us as a community:
Subject: You’re a classy organization Just wanted to drop you all a note and compliment your players, coaches and fans. I’ve coached Pop Warner ball for a number of years and it’s all too often we see the ugly side of things. It’s worth noting then, when you see the good things.
I happened to be on the chain gang for your game yesterday, putting me on your sideline for the game. Your coaches were always positive, never yelling or screaming, and keeping the children fired up until the last. They also did a very good coaching job, sniffing out many plays before the Cannoneers could run them. They made great adjustments and set up several great plays on the offense. Similarly, your fans were enthusiastic, and never derogatory to the Cannoneers. Lots of yelling and cheering (and the gosh darn air horns!) for your team, and little or no riding of the refs. It’s the kind of backing every coach wishes for.
I read on your Web site how young your organization is, and with what I saw Saturday, only great things await. I hope our clubs meet again in the playoffs. It will be a good football game for sure, and one everyone would enjoy playing, coaching and watching.
John Dzurko, assistant coach, Lansdale Cannoneers
Dear coach I’m the offensive coordinator for the Cannoneers. I found your name on the Hopewell Web site and wanted to commend you on an outstanding effort Sunday. You have an outstanding team and great bunch of children. Your children played hard, played to the whistle and were good sports at the end of the game. That is all too often not the case, so I wanted to commend you on setting good examples as coaches and demonstrating good values to the children.
I’ll also say three more things: (1) that pitch, reverse, flea flicker was a thing of beauty and (2) Amir is by far the best running back I’ve seen at this level. We’ve scrimmaged Division I teams all year with "stud" runners and never saw the explosiveness, moves, or top end speed this kid has. He is really, really special. (3) Great job stopping our power running game. I still don’t know what you did to make that happen, but you shut us down up the middle better than any team this season.
Kevin J. Mauger, offensive coordinator
Coaches My hats off to you and your team! You prepared your NJ Championship team well as they stuffed our bread and butter middle consistently all night. Your players performed at a high level for the entire game all while fighting for a score. You know this already, but that young man #23 (Amir Carlisle) is the best running back I’ve ever seen in my years of coaching Pop Warner. He is the complete package of speed, strength and vision. He is a patient runner who knows how to staircase his way across a field waiting for that one block so he can crank up the speed to propel him toward the goal line. Wow! Also your QB #44 (Ben Konrad) did a fabulous job on his boot-leg play fake passes. He hides that ball so well and tough defender, too. As for #58 (Taylor Neveling) what can you say about him other than a strong spectacular effort and solid technique on his part. He is a powerful defensive player in the middle. Obviously there are many more players on your team that deserve credit and recognition, but from our sidelines those that I mentioned are in a class by themselves.
The double reverse pitch pass was the play that in the time out I told our players you would have to do to score and you did! That play was executed to perfection! As our guys were sucked in like dirt to a vacuum cleaner. Terrific call!
Your players were a classy bunch after the game as well as they held their heads high and shook hands with a positive word of good luck. I admire them for that and told our children that they played a group of boys who know how to carry themselves in a difficult situation. You and your staff should be commended for developing a team that not only plays at a championship level, but are true gentleman off the field.
Kevin Donovan,
defensive coordinator,
Lansdale Cannoneers
All of us in Hopewell Valley wish the Cannoneers the best of luck in Florida and we hope to meet them again soon!
George Helmstetter, Hopewell Township
TASK Thanksgiving thanks
To the editor:
Toll Gate Grammar School would like to thank the following people for making the 17th Annual Thanksgiving Feast for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) an overwhelming success.
The TASK Thanksgiving thank-you list includes:
Adrienne and Don Fawcett, Aggie Mannix, Ahmad Family, Albert Teixeira de Matto and Family, Alexandra Taggart, Antebi Family, Avery Family, Bancroft Family, Bell Family, Beloff Family, Bregenzer Family, Brown Family, Carey, Harry, Emma and Linnea Compton, Caton Family, Caulfield Family, Chandra and Bob Long, Chris, Devon and Jessica Landis, Coats Family, Cusma Family, Daryl Delaney and Family, Delatte Family, Dorsett Family, Dr. and Mrs. Mark McDonough and Family, Drs. Sue and Eli Perris, Dunne Family, Fedchin Family, Filepas Family, Fishman Family, Fleming Family, Fletcher Family, The Frederichs, Fontaine Family, Frank and Anita Jankowski.
Garber Family, Greener Family, Griffen Family, Grundy Family, Haines Family, Hassett Family, Hatke Family, Hefta Family, Heino Family, Hepburn Family, Hoffman Family, Holtermann Family, Hopkins Family, Horgan Family, Horsley Family, Jennifer Bredin, Joe DiMarcello and Cup of Joe, John, Melissa and Johnny Salyerds, Johnson Family, Karen and Bill Hawkey, Katie McDonough and Family, Laurie Kilstein and Family, Levondowski Family, Liam Foster and Family, Lieboff Family, Liu Family, Livernoche Family, Lori, Emily and Tommy Huber, Lytle Family, Mahn Family, Maria McDonough and Family, Mary Bradley, Matejka Family, McDougald-Auslander Family, Melodia Family, Mummert Family, Michelle Needham.
Mike and Barbara Witmer, Mintz Family, Morten Family, Moylan Family, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Smith and Billy and Bobby Smith, Murphy-Butler Family, Murray Family, Musio Family, Nini Family, Ordonez Family, Lisa and Dave Osterman, Ott Family, P. Ross-MacDonald, Pederson Family, Pam Raney, Patricia, Eric and Diana Fass, Patrick and Pamela Taylor, Peters Family, Plevy Family, Ross/Carmean Family, Sanders Family, Sandy and Dan Steinberg, Sarah Croghan, Sharon Di Falco, Slattery Family, Smith Family Dru, Deborah, Aaron and Lucy, Smotzer Family, Steve Mahle, Stuart and Cindy Carothers, Susan and Bob Huber and Family, Tartaglia Family, Tatar Family, Ted, Natalie, Andrew and Paul Shatynski, Tengi Family, Rice Family, Russell Family, Toussaint Family, Wagner Family, Wiley Family.
Special Thanks to the Staff and Faculty at Toll Gate Grammar School, Pennington Presbyterian Nursery School, St. Matthew’s Little Leisure Nursery School, Hopewell Country Day, St. James Nursery School, Girl Scouts and their families and Timberlane Middle School.
Toll Gate Grammar School, Pennington

