Letters-May 26, 2005

School grateful

for funding
To the editor:
   On behalf of the students, staff and Board of Education of West Amwell Elementary School, we would like to thank the Lambertville Area Education Foundation for matching the board’s contribution towards our technology program.
   Due to growing enrollment and lack of space, it became necessary to make our computer classroom portable. The board was unable to fund the entire expense for 25 computers and a cart. Your generous contribution has allowed us to ensure our children the quality technology education they deserve and need to succeed now and in the future.
   Foundations such as LEF are the helping hands education needs in these times of tax cuts, budget crunches and rising costs. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for your support and your tireless efforts on behalf of our students.

Dr. Todd A. Fay
superintendent
Cynthia H. Magill
president
West Amwell Board of Education

Fuzo asks

for support
To the editor:
   I am running for the state Assembly because I have the government and community experience as a former councilman, mayor, current county freeholder and member of several community based organizations needed to succeed in Trenton.
   I have a proven record of cutting the county tax rate six straight years and preserving more than 15,000 acres of open space from development.
   I have a real plan for common sense reform that will root out wasteful spending in the state’s Abbott School Districts, hold the state court justices accountable by making them face the voters in order to remain on the bench and make it harder for the politicians in Trenton to raise taxes by requiring no less than a two-thirds supermajority vote of the legislature to do so.
   Tuesday, June 7, I humbly ask for the support of our Republican voters in the primary for state Assembly in the 23rd District, and I hope I have earned their vote.
   To learn more about my campaign and me, visit my Web site at www.fuzoassembly.com and send me an e-mail.
   I’d be happy to answer any questions or concerns anyone would have personally.

Frank J. Fuzo
Lambertville

Committee needs

‘respectful’ leaders
To the editor:
   Delaware Township voters are very fortunate to have three outstanding residents on the ballot for Township Committee this June.
   Registered Democrats will have the opportunity to vote for Kristin McCarthy and Susan Lockwood and registered Republicans can vote for Kathy Katz.
   All three women are leaders residents can be proud to represent them on the Township Committee. They will dedicate the time and energy to understand the issues facing our township, encourage residents to have a voice in our local government and will work with their fellow committee members respectfully with open and honest dialogue to lead our township in healthy directions for all of our residents.
   Our Township Committee is in need of leaders who can promote respectful, thoughtful discussion and consensus-building among our diverse community in order to run our township effectively. With over-development threatening our rural township and our school and budgets that are called on to do "more with less" each year, we must elect the right leaders who understand our issues, know how to enforce our ordinances, protect our properties and budget wisely.
   These fine candidates know how to energize and involve the untapped talent, experience and knowledge residing in Delaware Township to assist their efforts, and they have the integrity to and desire to reach decisions and implement solutions after community input and fact-finding.
   Delaware Township voters couldn’t ask for more and have a golden opportunity to nominate McCarthy, Lockwood and Katz in our June primary.
   Our township’s future is at a turning point, and leadership is everything!

Marjorie Egarian
Delaware Township

Community being

‘torn apart’
To the editor:
   A small clique in West Amwell Township is on a truth rampage.
   They are furiously reviewing written and taped records of Township Committee and Planning Board meetings, looking for evidence of wrongdoing. They have left no rock unturned, pulling statements out of context, seeing conspiracies where there are only omissions, taking coincidence as evidence of plots.
   I’m not going to join the fray and try to set the record straight. I only know a small portion from my corner on the Open Space Committee.
   But I do want to suggest the nasty wrangling and the need to be proved right are tearing our community apart without accomplishing anything.
   At the last Township Committee meeting, everyone who spoke from outside this clique was systematically accused of lying. No idea is immune. Hours of effort are being wasted rehashing partial histories. This is so counter-productive.
   None of us is privileged with total knowledge. Each of us works through his little piece of the puzzle, hoping to get it right. Then, rather than assuming control over the whole truth, we should work together to figure out how to the larger picture back into focus.
   In a township as small as West Amwell, where everyone knows everybody, the Township Committee, especially the mayor, should be the force of reconciliation, melding concerns, ideas, opinions and even prejudices of the community into a plan of action. Instead, our mayor is encouraging dissent. We need to move past the divisive search for so-called truth to deal with what is possible.

Jamie Kamph
West Amwell

South should OK

‘must-do’ plan
To the editor:
   I would like to comment in regard to the recommendations of the Community Facilities Task Force that were presented to the South Hunterdon Regional High School Board May 19.
   As a parent and community member who has extensive experience, not only through my volunteer work with the Lambertville Area Education Foundation, but also as a college professor and psychologist working with students, faculty and administration of our other schools, I recognize the absolute necessity in bringing our middle and high school up to the reasonable standards that should be expected from a New Jersey school system.
   Therefore I urge the members of the South Board of Education to vote to approve the "must-do" plus the auditorium referendum plan.
   I recognize the board’s concern that the referendum put forth be one that would win. However, I know a number of families whose decision as to whether to send their children to South or to keep them enrolled is contingent on a serious and thorough upgrade.
   It is important for these families the facility and the educational opportunities within it are at least on par with reasonable standards, and it is my belief many consider the "must-do" plus the auditorium plan to be very reasonable.
   I fear South would lose the confidence of the community if not enough is done. With a dynamic administrative team now guiding the school, the time to act is now.
   If the board decides, as I hope, to put the "must-do" plus the auditorium plan out for a vote, I am confident their leadership will inspire the community. In doing so, we would keep from losing our base of active, concerned and dynamic parents and their children, who, by their very presence, would help to infuse South with the kind of parental involvement that makes good schools great and great schools even better.
   I appreciate the board’s sincere interest in demonstrating vision and leadership while accurately representing their constituents. I know they are concerned, as am I, about the voters who are likely to cast a no vote.
   It is my belief that because the vast majority of people in our community have good intentions, a reasoned and respectful outreach to them might help allay their fears and apprehensions and in some cases might even create support.
   As a fiscally conservative individual myself, I can well appreciate the concerns of seniors and others who already pay a significant amount in taxes. However, if those in the "no" demographics were able to experience first-hand some of the many wonderful children who attend South, and if they were also provided with solid, rational answers to their concerns, presented in a respectful manner, perhaps some noes would change to neutral or even a yes.
   As taxpayers, they would appreciate knowing that with a complete package being put forth as with the "must-do" plus the auditorium plan, they would not be asked for any other extraordinary measures for at least another decade. Moreover, they would likely find it prudent to take advantage of the supplemental state funds that are currently available in addition to using the auditorium as a community resource that could also serve as a profit-center.
   I wish the members of the board courage in their deliberations. I hope they trust the members of our community will step up and actively support the "must-do" plus the auditorium referendum plan. I believe our community will do so because it is both well reasoned and a reasonable plan.
   I urge the board to provide the leadership this community truly needs.

Jim Mastrich
Lambertville

Primary could decide

rural vs. development
To the editor:
   I read with interest recent articles that have appeared in area newspapers, describing issues that should be on all West Amwell Township residents — this up and coming primary election.
   Four articles have clearly called into question the operations of the township clerk’s office under Betty Jane Hunt’s tenure and until her retirement in December 2004.
   The articles described incomplete and missing information provided in an Open Public Records Act request. Others described the seizure of Planning Board and township records maintained by the township clerk’s office.
   In an earlier article the candidates’ comments appeared in the May 4, 2005, Beacon. In that article, Mrs. Hunt suggested her opponent, Nance Palladino, was employed full time elsewhere, and that has affected her performance on the Township Committee.
   I will remind Mrs. Hunt all members of the Township Committee and other boards are employed elsewhere full time and during Mrs. Hunt’s tenure as the full-time township clerk, she, too, served on the Planning Board and also held other township offices.
   As a footnote, it should be noted during Mrs. Palladino’s tenure on the Township Committee and other boards, she has never missed a meeting.
   Both candidates have openly stated they are committed to maintaining the township’s rural setting. The nasty secret is the concept of transfer of development rights. One of the major differences between the candidates is Nance Palladino has consistently voted against the transfer of development rights and against large-scale development.
   Betty Jane Hunt has stated her support for TDR and high-density development in West Amwell.
   To enact TDR, an infrastructure, including sewers, are required. Studies have shown TDR is only economically sound with the establishment of high-density housing of four, six or more units per acre.
   TDR establishes sending areas and receiving areas. Betty Jane Hunt, as a member of the Planning Board, has consistently voted a pro-development agenda in support of TDR, an agenda that, if allowed, would see a large portion of the township covered by condos, townhouses and strip malls.
   Another clear difference between the candidates is the openness and recording of public meetings. Nance Palladino has long urged the Township Committee to tape all public hearings. Betty Jane Hunt has opposed recording all township meetings, except those required by law, and then only the most minimum necessary.
   Now, the township clerk’s office has apparently come under scrutiny from two state agencies, the Government Records Council and the state Attorney General, and records for which Betty Jane Hunt was custodian have been seized by the Superior Court of New Jersey.
   I am an unaffiliated voter. I have voted in every general election since 1960 and take the responsibility of voting seriously. However, I have never voted in a primary election. This year, I find the local issues so important and compelling I must take a stand.
   I saw what happened to Montgomery and Hopewell townships when the voters made the wrong or no decision for candidates for local government. This year’s primary election June 7 may well determine the future of West Amwell Township. It will offer the township residents a clear and important choice in determining how West Amwell will appear well into the foreseeable future.
   The choice of candidates selected in this primary election will determine if the township will remain one of central New Jersey’s last vestiges of rural living or become a suburban community with high-density housing in a considerable portion of the township.

E. Weston Pfeiffer
West Amwell

Remembering

Doris Brandes
To the editor:
   It is surprising how many times I looked out my second-floor window and saw Doris Brandes carving her way through the crowd on Bridge Street.
   From above, she was easy to pick out. Hers was a different pace; a resolute stride amidst the shufflers and strollers. She had someplace to go.
   New Hope and Lambertville are in a lot of respects one town — two municipalities related by marriage, joined at the bridge — and the citizens co-mingle in each others events and affairs.
   Doris was involved in organizations on both sides of the river, founding this, initiating that and taking care of other things; always moving, always engaged. Her contribution to the community was huge.
   More than most towns, ours is a Michener novel where people cycle in and out of a larger story, leaving marks that influence the culture in large and small ways for generations. Doris will be remembered as a person of wonderful spirit and energy and, in disagreement, a force. She supported, encouraged and spoke her mind. She was a relentless advocate for the arts because she knew a society needs a questioning mind and a healthy imagination.
   When a town loses someone like that, it’s a strand of lights going out on the tree.
   Sometimes, I would look out the window and see her, in a winter parka or a summer fedora, conducting an impromptu board meeting on the sidewalk, indicating with animated gestures the next thing that needed to be done. Doris had a finger in a lot of pies, and she was always connecting people and ideas, pushing things forward.
   A fitting tribute would be a marker, set in any sidewalk on either side of the river, that says, "On this spot, Doris Brandes made good things happen."
   Many times I sat with Doris in meetings discussing an event in the art community or shared light and wicked conversation at an opening. But the Doris I will remember is the small figure with silver hair negotiating the tourists on Bridge Street, moving towards the next thing on her list.
   How big a life it was, and how fortunate we are Doris lived it here.

Robert Beck
Lumberville, Pa.

Daughter supports

mother’s candidacy
To the editor:
   Who are Catherine Urbanski and E. Weston Pfeiffer who know so little about my mother, Betty Jane Hunt, and yet write letters to the editor like they know so much?
   I grew up in West Amwell and never heard of either of them as volunteers in the community like my parents and many of our neighbors were.
   I lived with my mother for almost 20 years, and I can tell you that she is a good worker, a good organizer, very honest and devoted to West Amwell Township. She served on many township committees that weren’t part of her job.
   She was always nice to people and often worked nights and weekends to help township residents. To say my mother wants condos and strip malls is beyond ridiculous. Anyone who knows her at all knows how much she cares about preserving agriculture.
   Fortunately, I think most people in West Amwell do know who my mother really is and know she would make an excellent Township Committee member.
   If I still lived in West Amwell, I would be proud to be vote for her.

Sarah Jane Hunt
Charlotte, N.C.

Hunt would work

for best interests
To the editor:
   I have had the privilege of working with Betty Jane Hunt for over 30 years; 15 years as East Amwell Township clerk and 16 years as Lambertville city clerk.
   She was involved in the formation of the Hunterdon County Municipal Clerks Association. In 1982, state laws changed the clerk’s position from being an elected official to an appointed position and imposed continuing educational requirements.
   Betty Jane went beyond the requirements of a registered municipal clerk and earned the distinction of certified municipal clerk.
   We worked together on shared services in the construction office, municipal court and Public Works Department before such a term was a buzz word from the state. She dedicated her entire professional career to serve all of the citizens of West Amwell Township in a courteous, fair and friendly manner. She was available to everyone 24 hours, not just during office hours.
   Betty Jane has worked hard within the confines of state law to have conservative policies and ordinances enacted for the township consistent with its rural character.
   A Township Committee member should work for the best interests of all the citizens when deciding issues, not favoring any faction that is vocal at that moment.
   The citizens of West Amwell Township would be best served if they elect Betty Jane Hunt as a Township Committee member.

Mary Elizabeth Sheppard
Lambertville

Candidate thanks

NH-S voters
To the editor:
   To the New Hope-Solebury community, thank you so very much for your vote of confidence in the New Hope-Solebury Kids First team at last week’s primary election.
   Two of our candidates swept both party tickets — Bill Behre and Megan O’Brien — while three others came up winners as well — Amanda Elefante, Tamara Baldasari and Maggie Depp. Our sixth member, Carl Glassman, was 11 votes away from being selected.
   We couldn’t be prouder of the effort that was extended by everyone on behalf of our community and students. Without our volunteers, this result would not have been possible. Thank you to all of you.
   As our team moves forward, we will continue to support one another while staying focused on giving a voice to the community and the students. As the November election approaches, expect to read and hear more about each of our candidates. We have a diverse and dynamic bi-partisan group that welcomes the opportunity to represent you on your school board.

Amanda Elefante
NHS Kids First
New Hope

Postmaster thanks

community, workers
To the editor:
   I really want to thank the residents and postal employees in Lambertville for helping to make this year’s National Association of Letter Carriers Food Drive a big success.
   We collected approximately 1,500 pounds of non-perishable items for Fisherman’s Mark.
   Saturday, May 14, the postal workers in Lambertville joined their fellow postal employees in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America to deliver much more than mail when they walked and drove along their routes. In addition to their deliveries, carriers also collected non-perishable food donations from their customers participating in the 13th annual NALC Food Drive, the largest one-day food drive in the nation.
   Nearly 1,500 local NALC union branches in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico Guam and the Virgin islands were involved in the drive.
   The effort by letter carriers, with the help of rural letter carriers, other postal employees and numerous volunteers, has resulted in delivery of well over a half billion pounds of donations to community food bands and pantries over the past 12 years.
   Major supporters of the NALC National Food Drive included the U.S. Postal Service, Campbell Soup Company, Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, America’s Second Harvest, local United Ways throughout America and the AFL-CIO Community Services Network.
   Experts estimate 30 million people face hunger every day in America, including more than 12 million children.
   The food drive is another example of how postal employees do more in the community than just deliver the mail.

Ronelle Mihok
postmaster
Lambertville Post Office