Letters to the Editor, Nov. 2, 2006

Chauffeur service
To the editor:
   
Bob Giangrasso and the other vocal critics of recent busing cuts seem to believe that they have a right to taxpayer-sponsored chauffeur service for their children. Mr. Giangrasso seems to think that since he received busing in years past he should still receive it no matter what else needs to be cut. The fact of the matter is Mr. Giangrasso’s children were never "entitled" to busing. They simply received courtesy busing, which is much different than busing for safety reasons. Start telling the truth, please. If your children go to school at Stony Brook and you live right in Brandon Farms then there is no safety issue in walking your children to school if you choose to do so. No one is saying your children have to walk to school alone. You can choose to drive them or you can choose to walk. The truth is you liked the convenience of the bus in the past and want us all to pay for it for you again.
   Other people like Theresa Castonguay think that busing should be reinstated because it is inconvenient for working parents to drive their children to school. Well guess what? There’s a whole lot of parents who work who have never received busing and who manage to see their children to school safely. Should we all have to pay for Ms. Castonguay’s children’s busing because it is more convenient for her? She said she would rather see other programs cut before busing. I personally would rather see busing cuts if it means saving other more important school programs.
   This vocal minority should stop looking for everyone in town to subsidize busing for their own personal convenience. Stop looking for handouts and give us a break.
Joanne Simpkins
Hopewell Township
Quality of life?
To the editor:
   
Just when I thought the township could not destroy the quality of life in the southern tier any further, the Township Committee would like to have Capital Health System build their new hospital in the southern tier. They have already allowed new shopping areas to be built and many areas to have or will have cluster homes — all with what the existing residences cannot have — sewers. The north, east and west of Pennington seem to be the areas where quality of life has any meaning. These are areas where having a new church is a quality of life issue. At the rate the township is approving building in the southern tier, the only open space will be the lawns.
Robert L. Merrick
Hopewell Township
More than rectangles
To the editor:
   
I should be happy that our elected officials are rushing to announce where their next plan for athletic fields in our community will be located – and I would be if I thought for one minute their proposals were thoughtful and sincere.
   I have given everyone who has asked me about the proposal at Twin Pines the same answer, "Remember what month of the year it is!"
   It continues to mystify me that every major decision in Hopewell Township requires the input of a professional who can give the committee an opinion on which to base their decisions — except for recreation. We have a comprehensive recreation component of our Master Plan that states that further land acquisition for recreation is not necessary and clearly outlines sites and priorities for recreational facilities.
   — Hopewell Township’s 80-page Outdoor Recreation System Final Report was prepared by Kinsey Associates so that the community would have an outside, objective review of the recreational needs of the community and the resources available to meet those needs.
   — The report was introduced in September 2003.
   — The Planning Board reviewed the report as part of the Master Plan in November 2004.
   — The Final Report was adopted as the recreation component of the Master Plan in January 2005.
   — The findings of the report were reinforced following a review by a Mayors’ Task Force in September 2005.
   Yet, instead of pursuing a plan professionally prepared and endorsed by the community, our governing body for the last two years has introduced projects that are not included in the plan and have both fallen apart, leaving the community without the recreational facilities everyone agrees we need or the funding to make them happen. We need our governing body to implement the plan that has been created, reviewed and approved by the Planning Board, the Master Plan Committee, the Township Committee, and the Recreation Advisory Committee. The last three years have been spent planning, analyzing, evaluating and approving a recreational plan. In the meantime, nothing has been done to address the shortage of recreational facilities.
   Our community deserves more than rectangles drawn on the latest unusable site as a campaign photo op. We all look forward to the day when our municipal officials will truly lead the community to understand the importance of recreation in our community life and work to achieve the goals outlined in the Master Plan. We have a plan in place. It’s time to implement it!
Sheryl Stone
Hopewell Township
Project Democracy
To the editor:
   
Teaching young people the roles of citizenship in a democracy is an important goal of all parents and our educational institutions. Hopewell Valley has demonstrated this important role with its community program, Project Democracy. Through Project Democracy we are teaching our young people not only the value of voting but also creating a voting habit that will extend into their adult years.
   Project Democracy will be offering student voting during the General Election on November 7, 2006. Hopewell Valley students will be able to accompany their parents to the voting polls and vote on the same local candidates as their parents. This will include Hopewell Township Committee, Pennington Borough and Hopewell Borough candidates.
   Please continue this family tradition by taking your children to the voting polls with you on Election Day. Unfortunately, we have had a very difficult time finding volunteers to man our polling locations; so this year we are trying something new: unmanned polls. Students can vote anytime throughout the day. Instructions and ballots will be available at all student voting locations.
   Let’s teach our nation’s future leaders that our democracy needs their participation. For more information, or to become a member of Project Democracy, please contact Kim Bruno at 737-0918 or [email protected].
Kim Bruno
Hopewell Township
Veterans Day services
To the editor:
   
The calendars used to show that Nov. 11 was "Armistice Day." A brief news release on Nov. 11, 1918 stated, "At 11:01 this morning, silence fell like a gentle mist on the battlefields of Europe. The Germans signed an armistice at 5 a.m., the cease-fire taking effect six hours later. The war is over." However, a peace treaty was not signed between the Allies and Germany until June 28, 1919. The end of World War I was heralded as the "war to end all wars." More than 10 million men were killed in the war. In a single day, the British lost 60,000 men in the battle of the Somme in northern France. In the siege of Verdun in eastern France, the two sides had 1.2 million killed. In addition, 21 million were wounded and 7.5 million were taken prisoner or missing in action. On June 1, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation changing the name of Armistice Day to Veterans Day to honor all veterans of all wars.
   The Hopewell Valley Veterans Association (HVVA) is sponsoring services on Nov. 11 to honor all those men and women who have since served their country in time of need. Ceremonies lasting about one hour will be held at the proposed Valley-wide veterans memorial site on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m. This is the same site where groundbreaking ceremonies for a Veterans Memorial were held this past Memorial Day – just west of the township Public Works building.
   The general public, and especially all veterans, are cordially invited to participate. Veterans are encouraged to wear their uniforms, if at all possible, or at least their baseball caps showing their service. Several veterans will speak about their service. Weather conditions will dictate where parking will be allowed. Please follow the temporary traffic signs that will direct you to the approved parking area. Seating will be limited, so bring your lawn chairs. Handicapped personnel will be accommodated. Should inclement weather preclude outdoor activity, ceremonies will be conducted in the auditorium in the township Municipal Building.
Sevy Di Cocco
HVVA trustee
Yes on ballot question
To the editor:
   
One item on the ballot is to reduce the township open space tax from its present level to the level that was approved by the voters in various referendums. The revaluation has effectively doubled the revenue generated by the tax. I recommend voting yes on the ballot question to return the tax to the level approved by the voters. The Township Committee unanimously recommended the approval of this item because they recognize the impact taxes are having on township residents.
   It is interesting to note that that the biggest proponent of keeping the tax high is the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed and similar organizations, which pay no real estate taxes.
   Again, I recommend voting yes on this item to help reduce our taxes and still maintain our open space program.
William Schoelwer
Hopewell Township
No on ballot question
To the editor:
   
I continue to help in preserving open space in Hopewell Township because I love our open vistas and the cool forests. I continue to learn more about our wonderful natural heritage, and I feel our quality of life is enhanced by the preservation of the recreational opportunities, the biodiversity and the scenic wonder of our landscape. Not only that, but preserved open space cleans our water and air, reduces flooding, soil erosion, and noise. In addition, the economic benefits are great, globally, regionally and locally.
   Globally the preservation of our natural habitat reduces global warming by storing carbon from carbon dioxide and enhances air quality through the filtering capacity of plants. Regionally the great costs of floods that have impacted New Jersey taxpayers recently are reduced by the sponge-like capacity of preserved soils and forests, and the quality of our surface and groundwater is increased by the natural processes on preserved lands. Locally, open space enhances property values of current residents and reduces the numbers of new homes that only add to the negative tax burden on residents.
   The Hopewell Township open space tax is an important part of the equation that helps to preserve open space in our town. Over the years, we have used this tax to leverage over 90 percent of the actual costs for preservation from state, county and generous private contributions. Now is not the time to reduce this tax. Please vote no on Referendum #1 and help continue to save open space in Hopewell.
Edmund W. Stiles,
president, FoHVOS
A different world
To the editor:
   
In a discussion focusing on school safety, JoAnn Meyer said, "every cracked door represents access to strangers with unknown intentions." By removing nonmandated busing, the district cracks a door open itself. The number of children walking to school has fallen in the past 40 years because our world has dramatically changed. A safe trip to school is not solely dependent on sidewalks and stoplights. Single or dual working parents do not have the time to walk their children to school. In 1969 the "walking school bus" occurred naturally. Stay-at-home moms who knew all the children in the neighborhood were along the route to school. Large families of siblings walked together to ensure everyone’s safe arrival. The economic and social structure of our society has changed so much since then that the "walking school bus" is not feasible today.
   There are 339 registered sex offenders in Mercer County, traffic increases daily, and stressed parents rush to drive children who do not have a bus to school. Visit Stony Brook Elementary School to witness the near misses and congestion of minivans filled with children who have lost bus service. The NJ Transportation Commissioner says that there has been an increase in the number of elementary school students killed walking to school in recent years. It will get worse as our district continues to cut buses. This is the largest cracked door in our schools’ safety. Transporting all our children in buses is the responsible first step. It is a priority for other districts, why not ours?
Theresa Castonguay
Brandon Farms
Get to know

Pennington Library
To the editor:
   
If you haven’t dropped by the Pennington Library lately, you should. There are new programs, new employees, and new improvements still coming to one of Pennington’s best community resources. Linda Cangiano, a Lawrenceville mother of three children, is the library’s new director of children’s programming. She has already made a terrific impression on children attending story time, and is hoping to welcome many more young readers with weekly theme based programming based on literature, music and movement. Linda will be working to expand the children’s collection and will be a wonderful resource for parents and young readers alike. Sixth graders looking to share ideas, suggestions and each other’s company will soon have a community living room in the library. A book club is forming under the guidance of Ned Fletcher and Jennifer McAuliffe. The library will open for this group’s monthly Friday evening meetings, which will include gently directed book talk, readings and desserts.
   The "Great American Book" group has already formed under the direction of Pennington resident Tom Adelman. Participants are reading works that have been ranked among the "Best American fiction of the last 25 years." Everyone is welcome to be part of this discussion group which typically meets in the library the second Monday of every month. The library continues to host a book group on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. and again on the first Wednesday of each month at 10:30 a.m. Group members select the works to be discussed for the year. New members are always welcome. November’s selection is Robert Penn Warren’s "All the King’s Men," a Pulitzer Prize winner about American politics that is soon to be a major motion picture.
   Tara Russell, an active community volunteer, has joined the library staff as volunteer coordinator. If you are new to the area or have time and talent you would like to offer, please contact Tara at the library circulation desk. Volunteers are needed for small and large projects ranging from clerical work, shelving, and circulation to book and DVD collection development and web page design. You can join the library volunteers on a weekly or monthly basis.
   Eileen Heinzel, library liaison to Pennington Borough Council, recently presented a resolution that will authorize exterior improvements, including new landscape lighting, a patio under the pergola, a new concrete entry way and motorized door openers at the front of the building the library shares with Pennington Borough Hall. The library has been part of Pennington’s community for over 100 years and has been in its present location at 30 N. Main St. since 1995. Come in and have a look around and if you haven’t already, join! Membership is free to all residents of Pennington Borough, Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township and employees of the businesses in town.
Kathleen Doyle, director
Pennington Public Library
Money for soccer

or busing?
To the editor:
   
I want to let the school board know that, while it is rationing out bus stops to save money, I have one available. Our bus stop is at the bottom of our driveway, but we don’t want it.
   When my oldest daughter was 5, on her first day of school at Bear Tavern, she was put on the wrong bus coming home. When I went looking for her at school, there no way for the office to tell whether she had ever gotten on the bus or perhaps had tried to walk home; or, if she had gotten on a bus, which bus she was on. Nor was there a procedure for locating a lost child; she was missing for 1½ hours. Shortly after that, on the same day her class had a presentation on "stranger danger," she was surprised that no one was sitting in the driver’s seat of the bus to take her home. Minutes later, a man she had never seen before jumped on the bus and drove away without a word. By the time she got home, she was shaking and crying, sure that they were being kidnapped. The following year, a new bus driver did away with assigned seats. Because ours is one of the last stops, the bus was very crowded and it was hard for my child to find a place to sit in the morning. While she was still standing in the aisle, the bus driver would lurch forward to the next stop. After the second time she fell, I decided that she would no longer take the bus.
   Last year, it was easy to find a parking spot at the end of the day for pick up. This year, it is difficult because so many people pick up their children. The hall is extremely crowded now at pick up time; most who pick up every day do so because they feel the buses are simply not safe. This year, there have been lots more scary stories than in the past. These are some I have heard while standing in the school vestibule waiting for my children. Of course, by now, everyone knows the bus 12 story about the young substitute driver who, completely lost, tried to drive over the Washington Crossing Bridge and ended up on I-95, bringing the children home more than an hour past their regular time (the fifth-graders were trying to tell him how to get them home but he wouldn’t listen. Like with my daughter, there was no way for the parents to find out where their children were or when they were expected home).
   On, I believe, Oct. 10, a bus flipped over before it reached its first stop; but many children saw it on their way to school and it scared them to death. My third-grader said children were really freaked out. Bus 8 is a nightmare — sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t, it recently let a first-grader out in the middle of Pennington-Harbourton Road, way down the road from his house.
   Bus 2 also is sporadic in whether or not it comes in the morning. The driver chats on a cell phone while driving, and it makes the turn off Route 29 so fast onto Lafayette that the little children are in tears by the time they get home because they are afraid it’s going to tip over. Bus 7 lets a child, who lives in a cul-de-sac out on the opposite side of a busy road, so not only does he have to walk a long way home but he must cross in a spot blind to speeding drivers as the view is blocked by the crest of the hill. On another bus, a first-grader has been given lessons in self-defense by her mother to protect her against a big boy who has been choking children on her bus. (Whatever happened to fifth-grade bus safety people to maintain order on the bus?) I have heard several parents say the bus drivers yell "shut up" at the children. Just yesterday I heard another story of children put on the wrong bus. I haven’t gotten the full details yet but I will. How little children are supposed to follow the completely incoherent list of the bus lineup at pickup, which changes every day, is beyond me; I can’t follow it myself.
   I heard recently that, in Morris County, the buses are equipped with GPS so transportation knows where they are at all times. I can’t imagine why we don’t have that. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. As a friend said to me recently, we worry about our children getting the good grades and the right teachers and then we put them on a bus with someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing and God knows what will happen to them. Clearly, we get what we pay for. The transportation department and the elementary school have to deal with the bus company and resources they are given.
   The school board and municipalities need to come together with open minds and concern for the best interests and safety of the children. Sidewalks would be delightful, better for our health and for the environment, but not in January. Realistically, my children would love to ride their bikes to school in the spring and fall if we had sidewalks but when it is freezing, we would drive. There is no way that the current parking lot at Bear Tavern can absorb any more parent drivers. There is a vacant lot for sale next door to Bear Tavern, apparently owned by a developer ready to put up more houses for more families with more children. I believe that good planning should include investigation into buying or leasing that lot to develop a safe and effective drop-off area, with perhaps fifth-grade safety people to escort the children across the parking lot.
   I understand that the township is interested in paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to build more soccer fields at the Twin Pines airport, which needs "only a couple of goal posts and it’s good to go." I cannot figure out why it’s so expensive if it only needs a couple of goal posts. While I am supportive of student athletics and supported Back Timberlane, something has to give. If we can afford more soccer fields, clearly we can afford either safe bus transportation or an effective alternative.
Amie Rukenstein
Titusville
No on open space

tax question
To the editor:
   
On Nov. 7, Hopewell Township voters will be asked if they want to cut their open space tax rate in half. The question, really, is do we want to complete half of the township’s open space plan and leave the other half in the crosshairs of developers or do we want to realize our goals.
   Every nonpreserved acre faces an uncertain future. In order to protect farmland, aquifer recharge areas, our rural ambiance and our cherished sense of place, we need to expand the open space fund, not cripple the township’s ability to compete in the real estate marketplace. And nonprofit organizations cannot do it alone. Most acquisitions involve partnerships. The fact is, in some funding scenarios the municipality is required to participate or the deal is off.
   Recent news of a zoning variance application for what we thought was an idyllic vineyard underscores the vulnerability of nonpreserved land. Zoning can be, and will be, challenged.
   Hopewell Township’s open space and farmland protection programs have gotten off to a good start. Let’s finish the job! Vote "no" on the Hopewell Township open space tax question.
Patricia P. Sziber
Titusville
No on township

ballot question
To the editor and friends of the environment:
   
Among our opportunities on Election Day is the chance to preserve some of Hopewell Valley’s vital open space. We need open space. It is something that defines the character of the place that we live. Open Space is vital to adults and children alike. Farmland, natural lands, streams and drinking water are not something to be taken for granted. Children play in some of these environments, learning about everything from the cycle of the seasons to the lifecycle of our nonhuman neighbors. On Election Day, vote no on Hopewell Township Question #1 to support open space funding. The character of our community is priceless.
Jeff Hoagland
Hopewell Borough