BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
EDISON — Just in case residents didn’t know, Mayor George A. Spadoro sent them a letter last week, assuring that a quality-of-life issue has been restored since he pulled the plug on a pesky industrial sign light — nine months ago.
“Maintaining and improving the quality of life in Edison’s neighborhoods is a top priority of my administration,” Spadoro’s letter said. “With that said, I am pleased to report that Edison and Heller Industrial Parks Inc. recently have reached an agreement to have the lights on the billboards that were shining into your neighborhood turned off permanently.”
But the issue was first raised in late March 2004 when residents in the area of Briar Avenue attended a council meeting and complained about the glare from the light, which illuminated a sign for Heller Industrial Park, on Mill Road near the New Jersey Turnpike.
Officials at Heller in April said they investigated the problem and turned off the disturbing lights.
Jeffrey Milanaik, president of Heller, said at the time the company did not realize the full impact of the discomfort residents in the area felt because of the glare the lights imposed
“We want to continue to be the good neighbor we feel we have been in Edison for 30 years,” Milanaik said. “Honestly, after the signs were erected and lit, only one person called the office, Mr. (William) Maldonado. After that call, we shut off one of four lights. Then we found out that people had showed up at a Township Council meeting. We had not realized the significance of what the residents felt.”
Two of the 400-watt fixtures that cast a glow on the industrial park’s 89-foot-tall signs advertising its own space for lease at the 8.5 million-square-foot facility were darkened April 2. The light beamed over a six-lane highway and into a residential neighborhood on Briar Avenue.
Heller turned off the most disturbing lights after the complaint — those on the southbound side of the northernmost billboard and the north side of the southernmost billboard.
Along with his Jan. 5 letter, Spadoro enclosed a June 21 letter from Milanaik, noting that the lights had been turned off and saying the fixtures for the disturbing lights had been removed as well.
“Some time has gone by since this action was taken and all of our neighbors’ complaints appear to be satisfied,” Milanaik said in a June 23 letter. “As it continues to be our desire to be a good neighbor, we have permanently removed the light fixtures.”
But as Heller made its own original decision to pull the plug on the signs in April, the mayor’s office announced that it had solved the problem. That was April 2, 2004.
“I’m very grateful that Ike Heller [owner of the park] has shown his dedication to being a good neighbor by agreeing to permanently stop lighting these two billboards,” Spadoro said in a prepared statement in April.
The same type of announcement came in the a letter dated Jan. 5, 2005.
Residents called it a typical political ploy used by the Spadoro administration to gain credit for something residents accomplished on their own.
“This type of letter was sent out en masse when our group, STOP, was working to save Oak Tree Pond in the 1990s,” said resident Jane Tousman. “I didn’t get one of these, probably because I live so far away from this particular site, but I’m not surprised by it. I’m particularly not surprised by the fact that the letter is coming out months after the problem was solved.”
After STOP hired its own lawyers, at an estimated cost of $50,000 to $60,000 for the six-year fight to save Oak Tree Pond, the mayor sent out letters saying he was taking care of the problem, Tousman said.
Resident Anthony Russomanno got one of the letters about the industrial sign and wondered how much the postage cost taxpayers to notify people well after the fact.
“Not only did this get taken care of months ago, I live four miles away from that place,” Russomanno said. “This just kills me. I remember this issue, though. The administration, essentially, caused the problem to begin with.
The Spadoro-appointed zoning board granted the variances to post the signs, said Russomanno.
“Then the neighbors fought it, the company took care of it and the mayor issued a press release taking credit for solving the problem,” he said. “Here it is, nine months later, and another ‘I saved the day’ statement gets sent out. The mayor should be embarrassed.”
Heller sought variances from the township in 2002 to put up the signs, Milanaik said.
“Essentially, we had to get the variances so that the signs could be placed where they could be seen,” he said. “The zoning in the township did not allow them to be installed in a visible spot.”
Even though permits were obtained through the township in 2002, the signs were not installed until late 2003, Milanaik said. The lights went on in early March 2004.
Russomanno has filed a request for public records to see how much the township spent on postage for the mayor’s Jan. 5 letter.