EDITORIAL
As a newspaper devoted solely to covering East Windsor and Hightstown, the Windsor-Hights Herald strives to give the area’s 30,000 residents everything they need to know about the towns in which they live. Such efforts, however, are complicated when officials are not willing to partner with us to provide the public with information.
Recently, as we’ve tried to get more information on the effect of the trash strike on Twin Rivers and the new cable TV contract, we’ve been stonewalled. The Twin Rivers board of directors and administration are refusing to release information to the Herald.
The Herald regrets that the Twin Rivers leadership has decided to make the Herald’s efforts to gather news on behalf of the residents of Twin Rivers more difficult. Attempts to speak with board President Scott Pohl have been unsuccessful; Mr. Pohl has hung up on us more than once.
By giving the Herald the silent treatment last week, Twin Rivers officials left residents in the dark about many aspects of a new cable contract to provide residents with The Dish Network instead of Comcast. We wanted to ask how Comcast’s revenue sharing plan would have worked, for example. We wanted to ask if residents will have the option of staying with Comcast (apparently, they do). We wanted to find out exactly what services won’t be available under the new plan. For example, residents who accept The Dish Network no longer will be able to see most Philadelphia Phillies, Sixers or Flyers games, because Comcast has the exclusive rights to broadcast most of these games.
But alas, we were in the dark, and therefore, so were the residents.
Mr. Pohl wrote in an e-mail last week that as far as not speaking with the Herald, "that is our right. This is America and we do have the right to make such a choice. Even elected public officials have the right not to comment further on a published topic."
Mr. Pohl is elected privately by Twin Rivers property owners, but still represents the people there, and his board of directors makes decisions that directly affect residents’ daily lives. These folks, many of whom subscribe to the Herald, deserve to know as much as possible about what’s going on in Twin Rivers. It’s also worrisome that without any board or administration sources, information will have to be gathered from other sources, and the board’s point of view may not be represented at all.
It is true that Mr. Pohl and the others have a right not to speak with the Herald. But there is a difference between having the right to do something and doing the right thing.
We will continue to do our job, and we encourage the board president and board members, elected to serve the people of Twin Rivers, to do the same. We will use every avenue available to provide thorough, timely and accurate information to the people of Twin Rivers.