LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Jan. 17
Time for decision on hospital site
To the editor:
The time has come for the Planning Board to makes its decision on the zoning for the hospital site. Further delay is in no one’s interest not the community’s, not the neighbors’, not the hospital’s.
The Planning Board should be credited for taking pains to make its processes beyond reproach, for listening carefully to everyone, for not wanting to shift to others what it should decide, and for striving for consensus. But, after eight meetings (six public), there is no justification for further meetings beyond the one scheduled for Jan. 19.
When the arguments on all sides have been presented, anything more moves away from reasoned consideration, inflaming emotions on all sides, damaging everyone. Though my preferences may not prevail, I am satisfied they have been heard by intelligent and dedicated individuals, our properly constituted authority.
Make a decision. Do your job. We will all adjust. Or, like Jonah when he saw that shirking his duty was creating a storm that threatened the whole ship, have the decency to ask to be thrown overboard.
John L. Powell
Snowden Lane
Princeton
Bicyclists need to take safety precautions
To the editor:
The other night while driving on Mount Lucas Road in Princeton, I used my low beams because of oncoming traffic. My speed was a few miles per hour below the posted limit, when I suddenly noticed that I was catching up with two cyclists. They looked like professional riders to judge by their clothes and helmets, except that they were not guarding their rear. No blinking or steady red lights, not even a reflector, nothing but solid, dark-colored clothes. Fortunately, I was able to brake in time and nothing happened.
Would you please print my remarks in the paper so that readers notice them? There are many other roads in the area where bikes and cars mix and where the difference in speeds is such that the low beams do not give the drivers enough braking distance to prevent accidents. Tell the cyclists that riding without rear protection is suicidal.
Ernst de Haas
Coppermine Road
Franklin
School taxes should be seen as investment
To the editor:
Property taxes are high. This reality was a major focus of last year’s gubernatorial election. However, dissatisfaction with property taxes must not become a convenient dumping ground when it comes to municipal and school politics. On Jan. 24, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional Board of Education will be asking residents to vote on a school facilities referendum.
In preparing to vote, it is important that residents not lose sight of the fact the supremacy of the WW-P school system generates great real estate demand from families wishing to move into the district. While property taxes have been inching up, our property values have been soaring, whether one lives in a retirement community or in a family neighborhood. Objectively, the school tax component of our property tax bill is not a tax at all, but an investment.
Nor should potential dissenters obscure the purpose of the referendum. It is not an "arms race" to keep our school facilities in line with those in neighboring towns. Nearly all of the proceeds will make needed changes in order to allow academic, athletic, artistic and musical talents to all flourish equally, without the impediment of unproductive facilities, many of which have gone unchanged for decades.
If there is still a doubt or two, take the time to study the referendum and it will be evident that the school board has addressed these needs responsibly. How responsible one might ask? A yes vote will have no increase in property taxes. That’s right. The referendum’s bond issue will replace one of equal value that is maturing.
A yes vote becomes a no-cost investment. Everyone should be able to get behind a transaction like that.
Kirk Loury
Brians Way
West Windsor
Schools in major need of improvement
To the editor:
I am urging the residents of West Windsor and Plainsboro to get out and vote on Tuesday, Jan. 24, to support the school facilities referendum.
I am writing this as a mother of two children in the district and also as a teacher. Last spring, I was fortunate enough to work at High School South as a long-term substitute teacher. I was there for over three months, which allowed me to get a real feel for the school and its needs. I can honestly confirm the school is in major need of the proposed improvements. I saw talented young musicians practicing in hallways and closets, outdated art rooms and overcrowded health classes. If we do not vote for the improvements now, I fear that High School South and other schools will continue to have problems for many years to come.
We owe it to both the dedicated teachers and our children to improve our schools. My children will go to High School South, where the majority of the funds will be spent, but this is a vote for the improvement of the school community. We need to improve our schools now to continue the excellent education our children have been receiving. In addition, because of the timing of this referendum, taxes for school debt service will not increase, as bonds for these projects will be issued as old debt is paid off. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Do not make voter apathy a choice for you. Put on your calendar today: Jan. 24 Vote for the improvement of our schools.
Linda Dean
Princeton Place
West Windsor
Synthetic turf fields are not a frill
To the editor:
On Jan. 24, the voters in West Windsor and Plainsboro will vote on two questions in the facilities referendum presented by the WW-P school district. The first question will authorize the board to raise about $25 million to upgrade five of the 10 district schools, four of which are the oldest in the district. The second question authorizes additional funding of about $2.3 million to upgrade one field at each high school to a multi-sport synthetic turf field.
Most of the people I have talked to understand the need to fix the older schools as covered by the first question. A few people have asked whether the synthetic turf fields in the second question are truly a need or a want.
I believe passing both questions is necessary to maintain the excellence of our school district. The synthetic turf fields offer both high schools several advantages including all-weather playability, low maintenance and unlimited playing time.
The synthetic turf fields being proposed are significantly different from the old Astroturf. The new-generation synthetic turf fields being considered consist of a surface of silky grass-like strands surrounded by "synthetic earth" created with rounded granules of sand and rubber. The result is a uniform, level and cushioned surface emulating natural grass fields in excellent condition, which could possibly reduce injuries.
The current grass fields are very difficult to maintain because they are constantly being used by students. Student teams use fields from early August and again from early March. As spring and fall are the growing seasons for grass, it makes it very difficult for the grass on these fields to grow, particularly with this degree of use. Due to limited availability of fields, we cannot rest a field to let the grass grow. The maintenance of the synthetic turf itself is significantly lower. The primary care is raking it by machine to keep the surface level.
Due to its durability, synthetic turf will allow the field to be used for physical education classes through the day and then for multiple sports such as soccer, lacrosse and field hockey, as well as football. It is expected that the marching band will even use the fields. The new field will provide three stations for the physical education classes. Due to limited availability of stations, the current class size in physical education and health classes is very large. In addition, this type of field drains very efficiently and can generally be used about 15 minutes after it rains.
The fields are an additional community resource that may be used by community groups such as the soccer association and Pop Warner football.
Several of our neighboring school districts, such as Montgomery, Princeton and Robbinsville, have installed such a field, because of the advantages it offers. Given its usage, these fields are truly a need in our district.
I hope you will join me in voting yes for both questions of the referendum.
Meghana Tawde
Penrose Lane
West Windsor
Codey leaves legacy of cruelty to animals
To the editor:
Gov. Richard J. Cody exits the office surrounded by an aura of hypocritical mental health reform. Despite their pleas, no compassion was offered for the mass of people victimized by endless wildlife killing and cruelty, rampages on public land, neighborhood white-tailed deer sniping, netting and head-bolting, and the biased "laws" of the state Division of Fish & Wildlife, and its 11-member, closed-shop, pro-hunting Fish & Game Council arm of enforcement. In fact, he blessed that bureaucracy last year with a $4 million windfall out of the general fund.
Shying away from blocking the controversial December 2005 black bear slaughter, his refusal to acknowledge substantial scientific alternatives caused emotional turmoil for thousands of nameless, faceless voters and others, whom politicians rarely meet. It was no happy holiday or new year being forced to endure the pre-holiday merrymaking of jolly, armed massacre-yielding head and hide bear trophies.
He should now beg forgiveness for all those sufferers, and their representative protesters, distraught by his failure to defend them against legalized violence. Without gubernatorial grandstanding on their behalf, they waited in vain for "ethics" to prevail against state and federal wildlife agency demands, which are funded by sales of hunting licenses and taxes on guns, ammunition and equipment.
Perhaps sanity will surface along the road to non-lethal wildlife management, protesting violence will not be considered a crime, and the rights and emotional well-being of all classes of people will be respected by legislation, not suffocation under dictatorship.
Otherwise, we have: "Politics and Sanity Never Together."
Margaret M. Anderson
Cherryville Road
Flemington