READER’S VOICE By Ted Van Hessen Ted Van Hessen has served 11 years on the council and will leave office Dec. 31.
As my tenure in elective office draws to a close, I appreciate this opportunity to share these thoughts with the people of South Brunswick.
It has been my privilege and honor to represent you these past 11 years. As a member of the Township Committee, as mayor, and as a member of the Township Council, I’ve been blessed to participate in so many aspects of our community.
The spectrum of our South Brunswick experience is undeniably spectacular, and while I’m certain it cannot be adequately described here, I’ll try, nonetheless. We are Little League, softball, soccer, Pop Warner football and cheerleading. We live through our schools, scholastic athletic teams, the band, the chorus, clubs and the classroom, particularly IPLE.
You are our volunteers: those who organize and coach youth sports, those who serve our first aid and rescue squads, our volunteer firefighters, our auxiliary police, parents who volunteer in our schools, our Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts at all levels, and particularly my nameless, faceless cohorts on the annual Halloween Trail.
We are a civic community, with hundreds and hundreds of people volunteering to make our municipal offerings the best they can be. You fill our many boards and commissions, our neighborhood coalitions, watchdog groups and our political parties; you are the civilians who help make our Police Department the best in the state, and those who raise your voices to the Planning Board, the zoning board and the Township Council on the issues important to you.
You are the hundreds of volunteers who brought the lessons of Anne Frank to life. We are our houses of worship; glorious in our diversity of faith, culture, language and color but united in our determination to celebrate the human experience in peace and harmony. We are friends and neighbors together, we are the South Brunswick family.
Each of you plays a vital role in our community, and I thank you for allowing me to share in your lives.
Throughout these years, you have given me the great fortune of getting to know many of you individually. You have shared with me your thoughts, your ideas and your concerns. At various times, you have given me your support and encouragement; while at other times you’ve expressed your opposition.
Regardless your position, I am eternally glad you expressed it for that dialogue is the bedrock of our system of governance.
South Brunswick has changed in these past 11 years, and we will continue to change in the years ahead in some ways for the better, and in other ways not. And while "steps forward" and "steps backward" are part of the human experience, what makes South Brunswick unique is our willingness to keep trying.
As a community, we will achieve success only when we are each engaged in our collective interests and wellbeing. Regardless your level of involvement today, I encourage you to increase that effort in the future by just 15 minutes each week. Despite our busy lives, I know we all can set aside those 15 minutes the benefits each of us will derive from those additional dozen or so hours each year are incalculable.
I extend my thanks and best wishes to all who I’ve had the honor to serve with, Republican and Democrat alike. While we have not always agreed on issues, I am grateful for your dedication of energy and time to our community.
To those who will assume their seats on the council, and to those who I leave behind, I wish you the best and ask only that you spare no effort in making South Brunswick the best we can possibly be.
Having been your elected representative, it is impossible not to recognize the hundreds of men and women who serve you on a daily basis. The employees of our township are, collectively, the best there are in any municipality. In each of our departments, including both the uniformed services and civilian employees, we are blessed by their dedication, their effort and their commitment to excellence. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to know you and see all of your work; and I am grateful to count many of you as friends.
Finally, I wish to thank you the people of South Brunswick. You have entrusted me to help guide and shape your community for four terms, spanning eleven years. You have endeared me with your faith and friendship and support. And you have humbled me as you stood by me through the good, the bad and the ugly. Words can neither express the pride and gratitude I feel, nor the value of life’s lessons which you have taught me; so I will leave it simply to …
Ted Van Hessen will leave the Township Council on Dec. 31 after 11 years.

