By:
It’s time for change
on Borough Council
To the editor:
There is a similarity between the federal and Hightstown Borough governments.
They both believe themselves to be competent, intelligent, honest, open and supporters of the Constitution and its democratic principles. They both would like a balanced budget. It isn’t happening. We have secrecy in Washington. We have it in Hightstown. They borrow and spend in Washington. They borrow and spend in Hightstown. Maybe it isn’t such a bad policy to emulate the federal government since we are doing just that and no one cares. We just need to print money instead of raising property taxes.
Specifically, the DOT property on Maxwell Avenue was offered to Hightstown at no charge. It could have been made into a badly needed park for the citizens on the east side of Hightstown. It was quietly sold to a developer to create a housing ratable without ever being discussed by council.
Housing generates $7,000 in water/sewer hookup charges that the borough government wants to apply to its municipal budget instead of reducing the $1 million dollar bond for the new water tower. So we pay double the cost of the bond to finance current expenses.
The 80 units at Enchantment would generate $560,000 in connection fees that should be used to pay off the water tower bond. The borough has this revenue earmarked for next year’s current expenses.
Hightstown employs 82 people with a current expense of $3.6 million for salaries and other expenses. Add to that the $700,000 expenses hidden in the water/sewer budget and we have $4.3 million cost of government for 5,300 people. That amounts to $811 per person.
In East Windsor, the cost of government is less than $300 per person.
Our town is basically insolvent even with the money received from the state under Panter and Morgan’s auspices. The government can always raise taxes, which they do.
Did you know that our water/sewer rates are more than double East Windsor’s water/sewer rates? Did you know that if we revalued, our tax rate would be $2 per hundred in valuation instead of $5.38 per hundred?
It is time to vote out the two Republican incumbents for failing to achieve the attainable. Constance Harinxma and Ryan Rosenberg will add new faces to borough government that will question the policies and the secrecy of the present government, end the borrow-and-spend policy, provide all citizens an equal quality of life, reach agreements for a sharing of the borough’s inefficient services at a great savings to borough taxpayers, and provide some long-needed energy and intelligence for Borough Council.
Eugene E. Sarafin
Hightstown
The writer is a former Hightstown Borough councilman.
Borough, county
create more ‘potholes’
To the editor:
We have been hearing about the wrath of Katrina and now the wrath of Wilma. Now hear the wrath of Julie.
Have you ever been so mad you could just spit? The trash pickup and the recycling pickup is my gripe, but amazingly enough it’s not East Windsor I have a problem with, it is Hightstown and Mercer County Recycling.
My mother has been a resident of Hightstown for at least 20 years, and before that we lived in East Windsor. As the journey of life is lived, people hit bumps in the road and some hit big huge potholes. Well, my mother is currently going through a big pothole, so as dutiful children, my brother and I are doing our best to help out. We have been helping to clean and unclutter her life. She respectfully called the borough to inquire and get permission to have a pickup of bulk items. My brother traveled here and moved large items out the curb on the exact time and day that is permissible. What happens? The nice men in the nice big trash trucks drove on by without blinking.
"This must be a move-out; we don’t pick up move-out trash."
My mother was fit-to-be-tied and in hysterics called the borough, which sent out a representative to review the problem.
"Well, this looks like a move-out; we don’t pick up move-outs. You should have called us first."
Then the nice fellow tells this nice little lady that she must get this stuff off the street. How was she going to do that? In tears and upset she now must pay someone $300 to remove this trash. This must be another pothole in life.
Now, this week was recycling pickup. The dutiful daughter places the yellow and green cans at the curb. The same daughter travels back to check on the house, while mom is in the hospital dealing with another pothole in life, and guess what? Yes, you guessed it. Only one can is empty; the other is still full. I look and seek a reason by searching the rest of the street. The other residents’ cans are empty.
Is this another pothole in life? What is the problem? I then call Mercer County Recycling to be told, by a recording, to leave my name and number and they will get back to me. If this were a free service, I wouldn’t be all that concerned and chalk it up to "that’s what you get." But everyone knows, especially in Hightstown, that these services are not cheap.
So, before you go to the voting machines this November, ask some questions. Are you mad enough to spit? Ask why? Then do something about it.
Julie Ely
East Windsor
Borough incumbents
deserve support
To the editor:
Few people would question the fact that Hightstown has become a better place over the last few years. We can thank Nancy Walker Laudenberger and Ron Sackowitz, Hightstown Borough Council candidates, for being a part of that forward movement.
Their participation on council has been invaluable to the town. Nancy and Ron’s experience and knowledge are assets to the current council and should be retained in the next three years.
We are in the midst of several extremely important redevelopment projects in the heart of Hightstown. Nancy and Ron have been involved in the process all along and need to stay with it now. They will be able to keep the process going and build on what has been already accomplished.
We are optimistic about the redevelopment prospects of the rug mill and Minute Maid properties and the inclusion of the new fountain in downtown. We need Nancy and Ron to help complete these projects!
Besides working together as public officials of the town, Nancy and I have known one another since the birth of our sons … same day, same hour, same hospital! Ron and I also have a longtime relationship, since our days together at Hightstown High School. Perhaps knowing them both so well allows me to speak of their personal as well as political strengths.
Both are giving, caring individuals as evidenced by their volunteer spirit. The lists of each one’s contributions to the town are extensive, varied and vital. Nancy’s range from being the chairperson of the Community Fair to serving as a Domestic Violence Response Team volunteer. She regularly spends the night at the First Presbyterian Church as part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, providing a safe and secure place for some of Mercer County’s homeless. Then, Nancy gets up and attends to her many other responsibilities around town.
Ron volunteers as a member of the Wyckoff Mills Executive Board, has developed a water testing environmental program for students and has worked as a tutor, along with Nancy, in our East Windsor Regional School District’s Saturday Academy.
They are both real examples of volunteerism at its best, in addition to the committees and activities they work on at the council level. Both have the time, the experience and the proven dedication needed to continue as outstanding council members. They are the kind of engaged, hard-working council members that Hightstown needs. Please vote to return Nancy and Ron to council on Nov. 8!
Bob Patten
Mayor
Hightstown
Consider a vote
for a fresh new team
To the editor:
I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a social gathering over this past weekend with Constance Harinxma and Ryan Rosenberg, candidates for Borough Council. One of the points we discussed was the need to have council members who are actively engaged in the town’s needs, taking "ownership" of projects that have beneficial outcomes for our residents.
Current council members seeking to reclaim their post who list a good meeting attendance record as one of their key accomplishments after years of service certainly fall short of what we should expect from our elected and paid officials.
I had to smile as Constance was discussing her passion to roll up her sleeves to improve Hightstown’s youth recreational programs, as her boys ran circles around the dining room table, weaving in and out of party guests. I am sure what is part of her normal routine, having to split her attention between the adult discussion and keeping an eye on her boys, is a real life example of what Constance can bring to council that is currently missing.
Each decision of our elected officials should be made with consideration of the effects it will have on future generations. If elected, Constance would be the only member of council with school-aged children. Her personal desire to make their lives better has her plugged into a continuous source of fresh new views, and her juggling the needs of family and career are the same as the day-to-day lives of many borough families that desperately need to have a voice on council.
Complementing Constance Harinxma is her political running partner, Ryan Rosenberg. Ryan is a graphics designer with entrepreneurial business experience and an inherent sense for the need to give back to society. Ryan’s creative thinking is on display at his borough residence with his private artwork, which he will soon exhibit as part of a fundraiser for an environmental conservation organization. Talking with Ryan about the need to energize our commercial sector, I quickly became aware that Ryan understood the need for five- and 10-year strategic visions and business plans as a framework to make things happen instead of more dreams that will never become reality. What impressed me most, as Ryan and his wife toured me through their home, was the honest integrity to do good and to step up to the plate to be a voice for the voters.
Too many times we elect people who like to have their own opinions heard. Here’s our chance to vote for someone who actually wants to hear from his constituents to shape his vote that will set the borough’s policies. A candidate that actually wants to represent us now there’s a reason to vote Rosenberg!
Please consider a vote for creativity, innovation and a fresh new team on the scene to represent us and the future generations of Hightstown. Please join me on Nov. 8 and vote for Harinxma and Rosenberg.
Dan Buriak
Hightstown
The writer is a former Hightstown Borough councilman.
Corzine offers best
tax-reform plan
To the editor:
If there is one single issue that matters for Hightstown-East Windsor voters in this year’s gubernatorial election, it should be property tax reform. Both candidates this year acknowledge the importance of the issue, but only one has a realistic solution, and that is Jon Corzine.
Mr. Corzine has a plan to start lightening the burden for everyone, starting with an expansion of the New Jersey rebates. He would next use his political capital to call upon the Legislature to enact a permanent solution to the problem. If that does not achieve its purpose, Mr. Corzine would support a citizens’ constitutional convention to turn the task over to people elected by the voters to rewrite the state constitution to provide for a more equitable system of funding public education.
Doug Forrester, on the other hand, does not want a constitutional convention. He would prefer to leave the problem entirely in the hands of those who have failed so badly in the past to extricate us. Worse, his shorter-term "30-in-3" plan has been pronounced unworkable by all objective observers, many of whom are from his own party. In coming up with a final cost to the state, this plan assumes an annual growth in property taxes which is less than half (3 percent) of what it has actually been over the last 20 years (6.5 percent).
I’m voting for Jon Corzine this year, and I urge everyone who cares about principled property tax reform to do likewise.
Torry Watkins
Hightstown
Council has kept
local taxes stable
To the editor:
Reference M. Camiscioli’s Oct. 21 letter to the editor. The writer incorrectly represents the record of this East Windsor government.
Over the past 11 years, the municipal-purpose portion of the tax rate has gone up a total of only 4.5 cents, to the 2005 rate of 45 cents. Only 10 percent of the total tax bill goes to the municipal government; the rest goes to the school district and county. This means in dollars that in 2005, a property assessed at $200,000 pays $900 a year to the municipal government for all of the many local services and programs provided.
We have worked hard, through careful spending, limited borrowing proactive outreach for grants and private funds, to keep spending down and taxes stable.
Longer-term residents may recall the fiscally irresponsible record of the prior Republican administration of lost grants and overspending, charging $350,000 to the following year’s budget, along with a rundown unsightly Route 130, a ghost town of empty buildings along 571 and meetings marked by rancor, divisiveness and police.
We are proud of our record of accomplishment and will continue to work hard for our residents and the public interest. Please keep our team in place, by re-electing Perry Shapiro, Hector Duke and Alan Rosenberg on Nov. 8.
Marsha Weinstein
Township Councilwoman
East Windsor
Vote for those who
offer fresh ideas
To the editor:
A letter written by Mark Camiscioli, a Twin Rivers resident, and published in the Oct. 21 issue should be applauded for pointing out to the voters that the Township Council needs new ideas.
Mr. Camiscioli’s letter seems to be an addendum to Jim Gearhardt’s (New Jersey radio 101.5) idea of GRIP (Get rid of incumbent politicians) effort in New Jersey
I would like to point out that Messrs Shapiro, Rosenberg and Duke are residents of Twin Rivers and the people of Twin Rivers represent about 40 percent of the people in East Windsor. I don’t recall the last time I ever saw any of them come to an open board meeting in Twin Rivers.
This year they brought their dog-and-pony show to the people of Twin Rivers via a nice big ad in the Twin Rivers Today newspaper, but when was the last time any of them came down to an open board meeting to hear the concerns of their constituents in Twin Rivers?
I would like to remind Mr. Shapiro that many years ago (when he was president of the Twin Rivers Home Owners Association) there was a referendum held to add nine amendments to the Twin Rivers Indenture. Although the amendments were voted down, three of them magically appeared in the county clerk’s office and on our books as being legally approved because of a document signed by Perry Shapiro two years after the election. These amendments that were filed are very restrictive and took away certain property rights of the homeowners. I discussed this matter with Mr. Shapiro about three years ago and he said he thought the amendments had passed.
If Mr. Shapiro will not rectify wrongs that he is responsible for from the past how can we trust him with our future? Under the attendant circumstances I am not going to vote for Messrs Shapiro, Duke and Rosenberg and hope that the residents of all of East Windsor vote for people who will bring us fresh ideas and not higher taxes.
My hat is off to Mr. Camiscioli for the letter he wrote to the Herald last week.
Al Wally
East Windsor
Current government
getting the job done
To the editor:
Preserving open space and farms, fixing roadways, providing effective garbage collection, clearing snow, giving flu shots to seniors, buying park equipment and running summer camp programs are not partisan issues.
To vote for someone locally just because they are of a different party is silly. Why would we change just to change?
The current East Windsor mayor and council members are doing a great job for the people of our town. I would add that I enjoy the sense of community and the positive atmosphere of cooperation, working together and access to the public that the current officials bring to East Windsor.
On Nov. 8, join me in voting for Democratic East Windsor Council members Hector Duke, Alan Rosenberg and Perry Shapiro.
Jean McFarland
East Windsor

