Week of Feb. 24
By:
Shoveling snow not always best
To the editor:
I write in response to a page one article in the Feb. 10 issue of the Beacon ("Committee debates snow-shoveling law").
Once again, the subject of mandatory snow removal by residents has come up in Hillsborough, this time brought about by a perception of difficulties encountered by children making their way to school buses. I hope that our elected officials will continue to understand that residential snow removal is a complex issue that must be carefully considered from all perspectives.
Many residential properties in the township have sidewalk frontages of 100-200 feet and more. Clearing the results of even a modest snowfall from 150 feet of sidewalk is a difficult task at best, especially when you consider that most residents would have to do this manually, as the truck-mounted plows often hired to clear driveways can’t be applied to sidewalks.
Further complicating the issue is the fact that township plows, in their efforts to make the streets safe, must often deposit the snow from 12-foot-wide swaths of roadway onto the adjacent sidewalks.
In addition to tripling the amount of material on the sidewalk, this plowing action makes the snow much denser, heavier, and harder than fallen snow, and significantly more difficult to remove even for expensive snow blowers.
Winter weather brings potential danger to us all and we must practice patience and care to keep our families safe during the snow and ice season. Snow removal is at the forefront of these seasonal dangers, especially for our older residents.
Injuries from lifting and moving snow are all too common and, of course, there is always the threat of heart attack and stroke from attempting such heavy work in cold, inclement weather.
It seems that the greater health risks to Hillsborough residents lies in removing snow, not in navigating it.
What happened to library?
To the editor:
What’s happened to our Hillsborough library?
As I recall, the library was supposed to be closed for only a couple of weeks and would be opening by Thanksgiving. Then the date became "sometime in December."
Then the rumor was that it would open in January. Now, no one is even suggesting a new date.
While the library is closed, so are the valuable programs that were held there like the young children’s programs. School children do not have a local place to do their school research. Students who were supposed to intern at the library for a special high school program obviously have nowhere to intern.
Adults no longer can browse the stacks without traveling 10-15 miles to Bridgewater or Mary Jacobs. Now, we find that we cannot even pick up books in Hillsborough that we have reserved.
I happened to walk by the library in the municipal building. It does not look like a library it looks like a construction site.
Has anyone seen any information about the opening? I haven’t seen anything in the newspapers and there is a conspicuous absence of information on the Somerset County Library Web site.
I was at the Bridgewater library today. Did you know that an out-of-county resident will now pay $125 for a Somerset County Library card? That amount was determined by calculating how much in taxes went to the library for Somerset County residents. Are we getting value for the dollar for the past several months and for the months to come?
ýPage=006 Column=001 OK,0046.06þ
I know that if I were managing a project of this size for a corporation and gave a two week estimate and it is now three months past due, I wouldn’t be working for that corporation for much longer.
Please expedite completion of the library or, at least, let your customers (and taxpayers) know what is happening.
Millstone mayor taking town in wrong direction
To the editor:
The tiny historic Borough of Millstone in Somerset County is at a crossroads and Mayor Mary Patrick seems determined to take us in the wrong direction.
We are faced with a landowner’s COAH (Council on Affordable Housing) lawsuit seeking a builder’s remedy for Millstone’s legally mandated fair share of affordable housing. However, because Millstone had filed an affordable housing plan with COAH prior to the lawsuit (against the best efforts of our mayor, I might add), we are in a strong position to determine our future.
Millstone need not submit to a developer’s plan, as ordered by a court, to fulfill our COAH obligation. We can further develop and enhance our own plan.
Such a plan is being negotiated. The plan is designed to ensure Millstone’s future by meeting our COAH obligation, stabilizing or lowering taxes, providing sewer infrastructure, and preserving and respecting our historic heritage.
The construction allowed by the plan is a mixture of age-restricted housing, single-family homes and commercial development. The taxes Millstone residents currently pay could actually decrease under this plan.
All development is designed to minimize traffic and environmental impacts and to be consistent with Millstone’s historic character.
Currently, all borough residents and businesses rely on septic systems even though much of the borough’s land is only marginally suited for such systems.
Many residents have experienced septic system failure and found out the hard way the cost of system replacement. Many others have experienced difficulties selling their homes after their septic systems failed inspection.
Millstone has the unprecedented opportunity to acquire sewer infrastructure for the entire borough at no cost to taxpayers. Residents would only be responsible for hook-up fees and providing the connection from their homes to the main sewer line.
Land will also be set aside to create a 47-acre Heritage Park that will add to the already impressive amount of green acres in the borough. The Heritage Park will preserve the site of numerous Revolutionary War encampments that make it one of the most historically important areas in the state.
Millstone Borough is indeed at a crossroads. We can take actions to ensure our future or throw ourselves to the mercy of developers and the court.
However, Mayor Patrick and some Planning Board members are either against the plan or uncertain as to its benefits. We hope they will reconsider their objections.
Either that, or present an alternative vision which meets our legal obligations while providing for Millstone’s long-term survival.
If the plan would include sewers, that would be nice too.
Schools must work to fight bias
To the editor:
The rights of all citizens, especially children, should not be violated. Across the country, students’ rights are frequently infringed upon.
ýPage=006 Column=002 OK,0042.06þ
The public school systems across America commonly violate students’ rights through racial and gender discrimination, privacy violations, and infringing upon freedom of expression.
These injustices must end immediately to make students’ educational experiences more fair and pleasant in American public schools.
Discrimination is common in schools across the country, even 50 years after the Brown v. Board of Education Lawsuit, which ended school segregation.
Recently in Bullock Creek Middle School, seven white students attacked an eight-grader in a game of "KKK." The "game" was not halted until the recess bell rang. No action of prevention was initiated until the school system was criticized for the incident.
Further, in a recent incident in Jacksonville, Ark., the Jacksonville Middle School punished an homosexual 14 year-old student. He was often disciplined for his candidness, told that he must remain silent in the future, and was forced to read the Bible.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the school system, and demanded that the unconstitutional measures taken to reprimand the child cease immediately.
Additional violations of students’ privacy are still prevalent and have made their peak in various instances including mass searches. For instance, in Mumford High School, in Michigan, students were unlawfully lined in the corridors upon their entrance into school, at which point police searched their persons, bags, belongings, and after sending them all into the auditorium, their lockers.
When students questioned these unlawful actions, authorities barked at them to "shut up."
Parents and students were outraged, as they feel the purpose of going to a public school is to receive an education, not to be treated like prisoners. Without any suspicion, these authorities unlawfully turned this schoolhouse into a jailhouse.
Aside from illegal searches, many students across the country are the victims of drug testing. Schools implement drug tests, assuming the mindset of drug users will change if they know they are being tested.
However, this practice violates students’ rights, and there is no proof that drug testing has a deterrent effect on drug use. Unlike blood-alcohol content tests, which can reveal that a person is under the influence of alcohol and poses an alleged threat, drug tests simply reveal that the remnants of substances still linger in one’s body, perhaps weeks after use, at which point the student poses no alleged threat, whatsoever.
Perhaps the most atrocious violation of students’ rights is that of their freedom of expression. In a social environment, a student should be able to speak his mind openly, exposing other students’ minds to various ideas and possibilities.
However, when students are restricted from doing so, a problem clearly exists, and it must be stopped.
In a Utah high school in May 2004, students were reprimanded for wearing gay-based, anti-
smoking T-shirts which read "queers kick ash." The school district threatened to pull their gay-
straight alliance as a result of their outspokenness, a wrongdoing that lead to a lawsuit by the ACLU and much criticism across the nation.
The Department of Education has an obligation to all students to provide a healthy, safe, and comfortable learning atmosphere, and until these violations are eliminated, it has failed to do its job. Students are educated in an environment where their rights are not protected.
They have been silenced; they have been treated like prisoners, with their rights being denied; and they have been discriminated against, putting them in various uncomfortable positions for simply being who they are.
Until these atrocities are alleviated, students will never be comfortable in one of the places they should feel most comfortable, their home away from home.

