Letters from the week of Dec. 29
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Generosity helped local families
To the editor:
On behalf of the families served by the Hillsborough Township Department of Social Services, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with our holiday food and gift drive.
Through the generosity of many people, we were able to assist more than 80 families during the holiday season.
The program is truly a community-wide effort. From the many volunteers who gave so much time to sort food and gifts, to all of our benefactors who "adopted" families local churches and schools, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, civic organizations, Fire Company No. 2, businesses and individual families please know that your kindness made the holidays enjoyable and less stressful for the participating families.
Many of the residents who participated in the program utilize the township food bank throughout the year. Usually they are facing a personal crisis that has affected their family.
They are residents who are working but not earning enough for the necessities, people dealing with a medical emergency or senior citizens on a fixed income. Many are not receiving any other type of governmental assistance other than using our food bank. Our generous community helps these families to stay intact and to live with dignity.
A special thanks to the staff at the Hillsborough Beacon for publishing the wish lists of families that had not yet found donors. They have been helping us with our holiday program for many years. We are grateful to them for their assistance.
Best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year!
Mary Ellen Stahley
Director of Social Services
ATV ordinance will need clarification
To the editor:
The way the ATV ordinance is outlined by Blair Meiser (in a letter to the Hillsborough Beacon Dec. 22) is quite ambiguous, as we will explain.
This ordinance must be spelled out completely and thoroughly, lest it be misleading and ineffective, and prejudicial against certain homeowners.
Quoting from Mr. Meiser’s letter, riders "cannot operate their vehicles within 450 feet of an occupied dwelling without permission."
It states further that "if they are riding within 450 feet of another (singular, as written) resident’s home, and making excessive noise, dust, or dirt, they could be in violation of the ordinance."
Quoting again, "a rider can be prosecuted if two or more residents who reside in separate residences within 200 feet of your property complain to the police…"
What is this? Which is it?
In your "many hours" of work, did you consider the whole township, especially the western portions of Hillsborough where the two or more residences within 200 feet of each other may not apply, due to the properties and density and spacing of housing? There are many areas where there are just a few residences where this ordinance will be completely ineffective.
As written, the ordinance appears circumstantial, conditional, prejudicial and biased. What if the "other" neighbor needed to enforce the ordinance is not home? On vacation? At work? Inside?
Does that mean that the members of a particular residence must suffer until they can muster another person to put into effect the ordinance as written?
Perhaps we are misunderstanding, but if you interpret the ordinance as explained in the letter, it is not clear.
It should read: "Anybody operating an ATV within 450 feet of any residence will be in violation." There is no other way to put it. Either you are in violation or not.
Why does it take two or more people to constitute a violation, when we have spelled out circumstances where the conditionality of the ordinance may preclude two people simultaneously being exposed to the quality of life issues presented by these vehicles?
It appears very elementary to us. What if the wind direction dictates that only one residence gets dusted over? What if the property dimensions or densities of two potential complainants exceed 200 feet, but yet the noise or dust still presents a problem?
Please think it over, gentlemen, before you enact this ordinance.
Again, if we have misinterpreted the ordinance as stated, we apologize.
Joe Bieniasz
Doran Manella
Long Hill Road
Too much time spent on riding rules
To the editor:
I just have to know how much time the Township Committee’s our tax dollars and time away from our normal activities are we going to spend on this ATV issue.
I have spent over four years thanks to a neighbor who believes that it’s OK to have, as he put it, a nursing home, a church and a library and school inside his home, but its not OK to have recreational vehicles outside of anyone’s home unless its according to his quality to life standards .
Quality of life now there’s a concept. Who determines one’s own "quality of life?" What if my qualify of life is to have weekend get-togethers with music unappealing to the neighbors?
Or buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle being a motorcycle rider, I can tell you that a Harley produces much more sound than a ATV or lawnmower. Starting that up at 6 a.m. might be an issue for those of us not wanting to hear it.
Or what if my neighbor’s quality of life is to have prayer meetings in their backyard less than 450 feet from my house and play reglious music while doing so? What if my family does not practice that same religion are they now not infringing on my quality of life and the upbringing of my children against my beliefs?
Should I complain? Should I call the police? What should I do?
Mike Cascio should never of been on the committee never. If he is on it, then I guess I should be too since we are both on opposite sides and as we all know he is the one who bought about this whole issue.
Therefore, I believe another member should be chosen. I feel I’m too personally involved to be a member Mr. Cascio should feel the same way.
Quality of life here’s one for the township to consider quality of life is whatever the individual who seeks it thinks it is. The only ordnance that should be in place is for times during the day or night that off road vehicles should not be operated the same as power tools or lawnmowers since all of these have about the same noise level.
Riding or operating machinery should be within the hours of 9 a.m. to p.m. I feel this is more than reasonable for the people who want their life to be held in total silence.
I still don’t know what to do for them when it comes to the trains, traffic, sirens, planes and the like but at least there’s a little relief that during the night since no lawnmowers or ATVs will be operated.
As for a time when I purchase my Harley and those that already have one in town usually we only take them to work or play in the summer since it is an on road vehicle Harley’s shouldn’t play a part in this mad plan for silencing the town of Hillsborough.
Lisa Payne
Hillsborough
Who defines ‘quality of life?’
To the editor:
Whose quality of life are these people talking about? You should be able to enjoy the things you love during the normal day hours.
If it was after the noise ordinance we already have then I can see complaining, but it isn’t.
No one should tell someone what to do or how to do it in the privacy of their home. Do we not know the meaning of "private property" or the meaning of "quality of life" anymore?
Who has the right to say what the quality of life is. Everyone has their different qualities of life they go by.
If I did not live in a townhouse and I had an acre or two of land and my daughter wanted to ride an ATV, she will. No one is going to tell my child not to enjoy life.
I would rather my child be outside enjoying her childhood, then sitting in front of a computer or at some kind of piano lessons that these anal retentive parents make their children take.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in school and teaching are children right from wrong and involving them in activities to help them grow and teach them responsibility, but they also have to enjoy life and learn to live it.
Take our great leaders, for example. Do you honestly think they stayed in doors all day? No, they were out enjoying the world seeing things and doing things they love.
How about Jeffrey Dahmer the serial killer, he was a brainiac, a loner and his parents made him stay in all day and study, study, study.
When is enough enough? When do we let kids be kids?
What’s next, no motorcycles, snow blowers, trains, lawnmowers?
I mean come on let’s get real and say what this really is about.
Some people enjoy harassing others. I have been witness to Mr. Cascio rudely harassing his neighbor’s kid he shouldn’t even be on the committee because he was the one who started this whole mess to begin with and he was already prejudice about it.
I thought being on a committee meant the members of the committee should be neutral and do what is right for the people in the township.
In all my years of living in Hillsborough I have never heard of such a problem, all of a sudden a family moves in near him who doesn’t live up to his quality of life standards and it’s a big mess. People have been riding ATV vehicle’s since before I was in diapers so why is it a big deal now. The kid hasn’t even ridden it in a year and when he did ride it was never that long and past dark and these kids never bothered anyone. When I was in school we used to ride dirt bikes and quads all over Hillsborough, no one ever complained.
I am a law abiding citizen of Hillsborough, I have a college education and I am the director of a large firm and I will say this, I believe everyone has the right to live the way they want to live, our towns have much bigger problems to deal with, our taxpayers should paying for things we need.
There are much more important issues in this world today then worrying about a lawnmower that goes a little more than 10 miles per hour.
Michelle Leahey
Hillsborough
Recreational riding good for kids
To the editor:
Please explain to me like I’m a 4-year-old, why I can’t ride my ATV within 450 feet of a neighbor when it’s well known that a lot of property owners who don’t have more than an acre usually only have about 300 feet of road frontage or less. Where does the 450 feet begin?
A lot of homeowners in the town have property that is deep rather than wide. I wonder how the police, some of whom ride ATVs or snowmobiles are going to feel going out on a call where teenagers are riding ATVs on their property, enjoying the day with friends or family and have to give them a ticket or worse?
Will the township feel better if they hung out at the local convenience store doing things that the parents were trying to keep them from doing by buying ATVs or snowmobiles?
Crime goes up and what? The quality of life is good for whom? Possibly one man or even several with no quality of life to begin with.
Is there so much time on these peoples hands or is it that their personal life so empty that complaining and causing other parents and the town such distress is all they can do to fill it?
I love outdoor sports, I don’t want my children going up inside a home with no idea of fun, running, jumping, yelling, playing baseball, riding horses or ATVs.
I want my children to live to know the world’s good and bad and to grow to be responsible adults.
Most of the worlds greatest heroes were outdoor people even George Washington chopped down the cherry tree, I wonder if George’s dad would rather that he stayed inside and busted up the furniture.
Stop this madness. Are we not the land of the free and the home of the brave? I don’t want to find my child doing illegal activity out of boredom or find him on a street corner hanging out. I want to see him ride an ATV where I can see it in my own back yard.
George N. Kochis
Hillsborough
Quit complaining about neighbors
To the editor:
I’d like to respond to the recent editorials and also because I watched TV and saw the meeting held on Dec.13.
Come on people, please stop this. What did the people say in the 1960s "make love not war?" Live and let live already it’s an ATV for God’s sake.
What’s next designated days to cut grass?
It’s a ATV not a plane. It’s enjoyment for the whole family. I know it is for mine.
It takes me about three to four hours to cut my grass I sure hope my neighbors don’t complain and call the police. Will I get a ticket for that? The lawnmower is old and very loud louder than my child’s ATV.
If I do get a ticket because it’s within the 450 feet issue, how do I plead? I also want to know if I can give the trainmaster a ticket because I can hear the train run even though its probably about ½ mile from my house but it is loud.
Come on let’s get real. This is Hillsborough a rural community not a small town or a city, we have ATV’s, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, horses and more that’s why so many of us moved here, a little taste of country living, granted its not as country as when I was young, but its no NYC.
Get a grip on life it’s meant to be lived not suffocated.
Melanie Colacci
Hillsborough

