From the issue of Oct. 5, 2006.
Bypass position ‘disingenuous’
To the editor:
It is disheartening to watch Montgomery Mayor Louise Wilson continually recalibra te her position on the Route 206 bypass.
One of the reasons for Ms. Wilson’s ascension in Montgomery was her position on the bypass she was against it completely; which appeased the residents of the Pike Run Development.
Now that she has higher political aspirations, she is for the bypass. This is an attempt to pander to Hillsborough voters.
Unfortunately, she is against the current design in order to maintain her Pike Run voting base.
This latest position isn’t just politically convenient, it’s also disingenuous. The current bypass design was an integral part of the planning, and Montgomery’s approval of the Pike Run Development smack in the middle of the road was known to Ms. Wilson as her initial position and approach misled many residents into believing the bypass would be stopped.
While caveat emptor can be hard to accept, deceptive leadership is always unacceptable.
The bypass in its current alignment will bring immense traffic relief to Hillsborough, and allow it to move forward with planned economic development that will strengt hen its tax base. It is an integral part of the freeholders planning for traffic manage ment and Smart Growth in the southern portion of Somerset County.
Hillsborough and the bypass should not be held captive by Mayor Wilson’s parochial agenda and personal ambition.
Steve Cohen
Oak Terrace
Wilson consistent on project
To the editor:
In a recent letter to this newspaper, former Hillsborough Mayor Steven Sireci distorted the facts considerably in making an ugly partisan attack on the mayor of Montgomery Township, Louise Wilson.
Ms. Wilson’s position on the Route 206 Bypass has been consistent and clear. She does not oppose a bypass in Hillsborough, but feels that the current design is fundamentally flawed and way too expensive. She has argued persuasively that some changes in the design of the project could make it far less costly and at the same time alleviate big problems that the existing design would cause in Montgomery, Rocky Hill, Princeton and other points south.
Contrary to Dr. Sireci’s assertions, such a redesign would not "put the project back at square one."
To the contrary, there appears to be a growing consensus in DOT that a redesign could actually help move the project along. The state has repeatedly delayed the project due to its exorbitant cost: $180 million when you factor in construction, engineering and right-of-way purchases. Common sense dictates that a more affordable bypass is more likely to be built.
DOT officials are reported to admit, privately, that the road is a dinosaur that will not get built as currently designed.
Regarding the upcoming election for Somerset County Freeholder, I think it is wise to consider how diligently and effectively Louise Wilson has represented the interests of her constituents. She is fair-minded, intelligent and persistent. Isn’t this the kind of person you want representing you in government?
Wil Minggia
Belle Mead
Campaigns should limit signs
To the editor:
The war of the signs.
It’s political season and soon our public streets, promenades and anywhere there is a speck of space will be plastered with "Elect Me" or "Vote For Us" signs of all colors and political persuasions.
And then there will be the litter as they are either pulled or blown down over time with no one seemingly around to pick them up. Worse, they manage to block corners sometimes making it difficult to see.
I, for one, have had enough of them. They don’t really tell me about the candidates, who they are or shat they stand for; they just shout out names.
I know that name recognition is important but this is a plea to both parties in town: Please limit your signs. Don’t make your campaign into a signage contest.
People have the right to put your signs on their properties, but respect public highways and byways and quite frankly, don’t insult us by thinking you can win an election by overwhelming us with meaningless pieces of cardboard.
Concentrate on the issues. That’s what we voters want.
Larry Dumuchowski
Jamestown Common
Response incorrect on letter’s facts
To the editor:
In responding to my letter in the Sept. 21 edition of the Hillsborough Beacon in which I criticized the paper’s decision to print a cartoon that portrayed America as a criminal state resident Jon Mellor distorts the facts and lies about what I wrote.
First the lies:
I did not write, as Mr. Mellor suggests, that those who challenge or criticize the government are anti-American or that liberals love America less than conservatives. What I did write and what I stand by is that the constant drumbeat of anti-American rhetoric in the media does nothing but help our enemies.
Mr. Mellor states that I claimed that liberals like to "blame America first." I never wrote that. I used the word "liberal" once to describe the political orientation of the Beacon’s editorial board.
Mr. Mellor concludes that I would prefer to live in a country where the government controls the media. Yet, I pointed out that it’s a free country and the very fact that the cartoon in question could be published directly contradicted the cartoon’s premise.
Then there is the cherry-picking of facts to support the fallacious impression that President Bush is running roughshod over the Constitution.
For instance, Mr. Mellor notes, accurately, that the government has collected telephone records from millions of Americans. What is not conveyed by Mr. Mellor is that the government, according to the same USA Today article that broke the story, "does not record or listen to any conversations but uses the data numbers, times and locations to look for patterns that might suggest terrorist activity."
Mr. Mellor also states, accurately, that "hundreds of men are being held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere without council or trial." What he does not mention is that these men were either captured on battlefields or involved in terrorist activities. Moreover, the Geneva Convention allows for prisoners of war to be held until hostilities end.
In fact, by recent historical standards President Bush has exhibited remarkable restraint during wartime. For example, during World Wars I and II, while liberal Democrats Wilson and Roosevelt inhabited the White House, thousands of civilians were imprisoned or interned.
Finally, Mr. Mellor takes me to task for misusing Lincoln’s "House Divided" speech, claiming that Lincoln was referring to "the Civil War, not to criticism from the press or public debate." That’s just wrong. Lincoln made the speech almost three years before the Civil War began and was speaking precisely about the public debate over slavery, arguing that America could not survive, permanently half slave and half free.
A similar choice is before us today. President Bush may not be as eloquent as Lincoln, but his steadfastness in the war against Islamic fascists echoes the conclusion to Lincoln’s famous speech: "The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come."
Tom Griffo
Flemming Drive
Deer flourishing under hunting rules
To the editor:
In answer to J. McDonald’s letter of Sept. 28, apparently Mr. McDonald didn’t read my letter carefully. No where did I say that animals are not to be used for human consumption or other uses.
He assumes I am a vegan, or don’t care about the cruelties of factory farming and slaughter houses. He suggests that I am absolutely content eating meat from these tortured creatures well, he is wrong again.
If it were up to me, these horrible conditions wouldn’t exist. There have been improvements made by concerned people striving for humane treatment of all animals, no thanks to hunters.
Hunters on the other hand, are the direct cause of death and suffering by animals wounded and maimed by hunting.
As far as killing to control deer, no data supports this. When large numbers of deer are removed, competition for food, land and breeding opportunities is reduced therefore with plenty of food to go around, more births and twin and triplet births occur.
The Watchung Reservation Deer Management Report confirms this after three years of controlled hunting there, 60 percent of the pregnant deer killed had twins and 8 percent had triplets in their wombs.
Mr. McDonald says that overpopulation of deer is a New Jersey problem, but on the contrary, deer cross state lines. This is a result of years of so-called "Deer Management" programs by Fish and Wildlife.
Mr. McDonald says deer are opportunists but are more accurately described as a highly adaptable species, able to thrive in suburban environments.
If deer in the turn of the 20th century nearly wiped out by unregulated hunting, then one can say that regulated hunting led to the overpopulation of deer in the 21st century.
According to F&W Service’s National Hunting License report; in 1960 11 percent of the nation’s population were hunters, by 2004 it was down to 4 percent. Yes, Mr. McDonald hunters are a dying breed.
Mr. McDonald also mentions the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937 suggesting that through this law, it’s the hunter that supports hunting … well, not so. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2001, only 13 million Americans hunted. The number of Americans who own legal firearms is estimated to be between 65 and 70 million all of whom paid the Pittman-Robertson tax.
Although hunters like to brag about bearing the burden of conservation, the truth is that hunters do not pay their way.
Since 1970, they have hitched a ride on the backs of non-hunting gun owners. In addition, last year, the legislature appropriated $4.2 million in the new state budget and again this year, millions more were allotted for to give our tax dollars to pay for a system that supports killing wildlife.
Mr. McDonald stated that emotion has no place in nature. Since hunters like to say they are one with nature, then we can conclude that the act of killing over and over has desensitized his emotions about suffering and death. We should be concerned.
Ester Shields
Scott Drive
Candidates tackling trains’ whistles
To the editor:
For far too many years, living near the Norfolk Southern Railroad line has been an earsplitting nightmare for nearby residents, as the frequent freight trains on that line blast their horns continuously while passing through Hillsborough throughout every day and, even more disconcertedly, every night.
Sadly, there was no hope in sight because, during those years, one Township Committee after another did nothing but give lip service to the problem when residents brought the problem to their attention.
Under the leadership of recent Mayors Bob Wagner and Carl Suraci, however, the current Township Committee has listened and taken action. In the last two years, the Committee has placed $100,000 for the necessary level-crossing improvements in the capital budget, and, through its Planning Board members and appointees, negotiated with a developer to provide another $250,000 toward the construction of a "quiet zone" for the railroad in Hillsborough.
Moreover, the committee has now hired expert consultants to plan the quiet zone construction, and has tested crossing horns, which are a brand-new, low-cost option permitted by federal regulations.
The crossing horns are far less noisy than the horns on locomotives, and have a significantly more limited range, keeping the noise only where it needs to be at the crossings themselves. Using the quieter horns at some level-crossings, and using noiseless median barriers at others (an even lower cost solution), will make the Quiet Zone feasible within the current budget at a very manageable, and acceptable, cost to taxpayers.
As we have all learned to our dismay, not every Township Committee listens so sincerely, and acts so effectively. However, this committee, led by Mr. Wagner and Mr. Suraci, has understood the significance that this quality-of-life issue represents for thousands of their fellow residents, and, more importantly, is addressing that issue.
That’s all that people can ask from their local government.
So, in addition to having earned my sincere appreciation for their work on my behalf and that of my neighbors, Bob Wagner and Carl Suraci have also earned our vote on Election Day.
Thomas A. Della Croce
Hughey Lane
Developers should provide space
To the editor:
The township, Little League and residents shouldn’t be fighting each other over baseball field conditions they need to work together and push ordinances that force developers to build the infrastructure to support growth.
The existing complex will never be able to accommodate the new flow of children coming into the township because of major development projects. The Little League and committee should be working with major developers to have them (developers) incorporate recreation facilities within there new developments like many adult communities.
The developer can set aside land for use, the town can allow the Little League to have the land tax free and without Hillsborough intervention or funding. The Little League can have complete control of the fields including times, amount of games and even have lights if they wish.
The new residents moving into the community will know the field is there and be happy to live by the fields and watch the kids play day and night.
Township Committeeman Paul Drake and other committee members should have no problem convincing the Van Cleef family and other major developers that having a baseball park in the middle of there new estates will not impede sales or values of the new homes.
After all noise, traffic, and lights won’t be an issue just like it isn’t for the current residents around Willow Road Baseball Complex. A winning situation for all.
Jeffrey Consentino
Hillsborough
Wagner, Suraci honored promises
To the editor:
In considering for whom to vote this November for Township Committee, any candidates who can show me that they keep their promises, and get necessary things done, are way ahead of most officeholders.
In a letter to the Hillsborough Beacon near the end of the 2003 campaign, then-candidates Carl Suraci and Bob Wagner promised the following to voters:
"Rolling assessments of homeowners’ property, as applied in Hillsborough over the past few years, are thoroughly unfair, and have hurt many of our homeowners. This unfair system must go…"
"We promise to sweep aside administrative resistance to reductions in spending, and bring taxes under control…"
"We will also continue the good work done so far toward getting the mercury out of our township, and work with Congressman (Mike) Ferguson and all other concerned parties to see it quickly and safely out of town."
Mr. Suraci and Mr. Wagner won a close election. What have they done about those promises during their three years in office?
They stopped rolling re-assessments the next year, and they have stayed stopped.
In two of the next three years, they gave us a budget with no increase in municipal taxes.
They kept working with Congressman Ferguson, and the mercury will be leaving Hillsborough next spring.
Mr. Suraci and Mr. Wagner have also made other important commitments along the way, including establishment of a deer management program, sewers for the Claremont, South Belle Mead and Mountainview Road areas, railroad quiet zones, a customer-friendly Building Department, preservation of the GSA Depot and other key open space tracts, and a Charter Study Ordinance, and all are done or in progress.
Carl Suraci and Bob Wagner have kept their promises, and gotten the job done. The have my vote on Election Day, and they have earned yours.
Bill Bochinski
Hoagland Court

