LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Nov. 10
Mayor congratulates victor Anklowitz
To the editor:
I would like to congratulate Will Anklowitz on his victory in this election; Will worked hard and ran a good campaign. I look forward to working together with him to address all of the challenges and opportunities facing West Windsor.
Next, I would like to thank Barbara Pfeifer. Instead of sitting on the sidelines urging others to get involved, she had the courage to enter the arena and made a difference. I look forward to continuing to work with her in the future.
We should not misinterpret the results of this election as a vote against the transit village. Rather, it is a message that we need to do an even better job of educating the public about what possibilities the redevelopment of Princeton Junction offers. Too often, a lack of information creates a vacuum which can be filled by distortions from special interests with goals contrary to those of the larger community.
When I was re-elected last year with 87 percent of the vote, I made the transit village a centerpiece of my platform. Now that we are on the verge of moving forward we must be sure that everyone’s voice is heard during the process and that the process remains open, as it has been, to everyone in the community.
The transit village will not affect just one neighborhood; it will affect everybody in West Windsor. It will offer a town center in which to gather and interact with friends and neighbors, more parking for our residents, public amenities, and opportunities for all to live, shop and work. The transit village represents the future and I am confident that as the redevelopment planning process unfolds and people learn more about it, they will become vocal supporters.
Our vision is clear, our goals are attainable and together we will all work to do what is best for West Windsor.
Shing-Fu Hsueh
Mayor
West Windsor Township
Anklowitz offers thanks to voters
To the editor:
I thank the voters and residents of West Windsor for their support by electing me to our Township Council.
This election is a call by the residents to work on the issues that came up during the campaign.
I look forward to working with the administration and my colleagues on council to serve the township’s interests.
William Anklowitz
Windsor Pond Road
West Windsor
Proud, humbled by congressional race
To the editor:
I would like to congratulate my opponent, Rush Holt, on his recent victory in winning another term in Congress.
I believe we both have the interests of the people in mind, even though our positions may have been in opposite directions.
I believe Mr. Holt to be a decent, ethical and thoughtful congressman and I am sure he will serve the people well.
It was a tough but honest campaign a campaign based on the issues, not on character and personal attacks.
Thanks to the many volunteers who willingly gave their time and effort toward my campaign.
I believe in America, I believe in the freedom of the people and keeping America free. I am proud and honored to have had the chance to run for United States Congress, and humbled by the thousands in New Jersey’s 12th District who cast their votes to support me.
Joe Sinagra
12th District Congressional
District Candidate
Helmetta
State should clean up its own property
To the editor:
Montgomery Mayor Louise Wilson and her majority on the Township Committee have made plans to purchase the contaminated North Princeton Developmental Center property from the state for $5 million, and have negotiated a contract with an independent firm to perform the remediation for a "worst case" (Mayor Wilson’s words) total of $26 million.
Unfortunately, the mayor neglected to inform the school board and the superintendent (not to mention the public) about the nature and schedule of this cleanup, and the superintendent seemed alarmed that this negotiated contract did not consider the welfare of the Village School children.
As it happens, the contractor, Weston Industries, has estimated 18 to 24 months of continuous on-site demolition, excavation and reclamation to take place while the Village School is in session and 900 children are on site.
Because the school board wasn’t at the table for these negotiations, and it appears our environmental commission wasn’t either, the mayor’s worst-case scenario just got worse.
The contaminated dust plumes from the machinery, collapsing structures and bouncing heavy equipment tires will be rising into the air and settling onto the lawns, rooftops, air conditioning ducts and school buses while 900 of our elementary schoolchildren are right in the middle of it all, playing on the dust-covered lawns during recess and breathing the particulate from this production.
The words uttered by our Township Committee members when this scenario was brought to their attention at a previous meeting "Our children can treat it (the cleanup) as a classroom study in site remediation" are frighteningly naive.
Many tragedies could have been averted over the years just by exercising good judgment and common sense.
You just don’t perform a contaminated site remediation when there are 900 schoolchildren on the site regardless of how many hired experts tell you its safe.
Mayor Wilson may have let her ambition to create a "village" on the abandoned NPDC site cloud her judgment in an election year, but her failure to disclose to the public the details of the cleanup of contamination on a public school site is inexcusable.
Because of her insistence to keep most of the negotiations for this project in executive session and out of public and school board review, she has played fast and loose with the safety of our children.
I think it would be wise for Montgomery to cease all negotiations to purchase this property and instead tell the state to clean up its own contamination problems when our school is not in session. Meanwhile, we can encourage our Township Committee to rezone the area into parkland, a "village" or some other beneficial use to the town the state has proven it is not a responsible steward of property in our town.
If we don’t do this, the state is going to be laughing all the way to the bank, having unloaded a ticking bomb on Montgomery taxpayers for millions while the taxpayers are also stuck with an extremely expensive and risky cleanup that already is exceeding the mayor’s worst-case scenario.
Court Throckmorton
Sheppards Way
Montgomery
Changing laws remains elected officials’ duty
To the editor:
It seems that still another Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing on the Morgan Estates application for a variance will take place this month.
I still don’t understand why the board is even conducting hearings on this matter. It is a request to throw out the existing zoning law and change it to something completely different, but they still call it a "variance." It is clearly outside their bailiwick.
The zoning was established many years ago. It was done after lengthy public hearings before the Planning Board, which then submitted it to the Township Committee with its recommendation for approval, and it was subsequently voted into law by those elected officials after still more public hearings.
The function of the Zoning Board of Adjustment is to consider requests for variances by applicants facing severe hardship if the letter of the zoning law is strictly enforced. Such things as minor infringement of a setback requirement, or a height that might be a foot over the maximum at the peak of the roof, would fall within their power to grant if the hardship is legitimate.
I cannot believe, in spite of the recent abuses of "eminent domain" unleashed by liberal judges, that this appointed board has any authority to change our zoning law for the benefit of a private developer.
The power to change laws must remain with elected, not appointed, officials.
T. Burnet Fisher
Snowden Lane
Princeton
Let the Iraqis build their own security
To the editor:
Now that Democrats can influence Iraqi policy, we need to propose specifics. We need to start planning based on relevant, clear-headed evaluations of current conditions; Americans have had enough of plans based on Paul Wolfowitz’s ideological, pixie dust.
Here’s one relevant fact. Forty percent of Iraqis are unemployed, and as Fareed Zakaria suggested (Newsweek, November), that figure rises in insecure Sunni areas. Just imagine security, as Zakaria does, if 60 percent of those living in Detroit were unemployed. We need to evaluate fairly the response of most Iraqis to such conditions. They are not looking for protection to political entities as remote as their green-zone, ensconced government. Given the lawlessness they face, they chose (quite sensibly) to look to those they trust their families, clans and religious cohorts.
Let’s face some financial facts at home, too. The Bush administration tells us (or indicates through spending priorities) that we can’t afford health insurance, a decent minimum wage, Social Security (unless we shift risk to individuals), education loans, but we can afford a war that breeds more terrorists than it eliminates.
So, in Iraq, unemployment is at dangerous levels. Security is clan based, except when the U.S. steps in; and the U.S. is spending billions stepping in and stepping out again. We’ve already cut reconstruction funding. How do we do better?
First, admit that the Iraqi response to lawlessness makes sense. Trust is the foundation for security and law; and their trust in clans is not misplaced, just because it may become a basis for a legal system unfamiliar to us. Let Iraqis build their own law and security, their way. Whether the process leads to a tripartite nation, another dictatorship, representative government, or … is Iraqi business. Accept any Iraqi solution short of genocide.
Allowing them to develop their own government requires getting out of their way by withdrawing our troops from their cities. Our law at gunpoint simply delays the development of Iraqi law. We do have legitimate concerns about the terrorists we’ve encouraged in Iraq, so we don’t pull back so far that we can’t strike them quickly. We can offer help with Iraqi operations or training, but we state clearly that security is their problem to solve their way and that we are not so naive as to believe that Western democracy is the only way.
So what do we do about their jobless problem and our money problem? We pull our troops back to protect the only Iraqi resource that can produce large sums of Iraqi money, oil. Forget about spending money on scattered projects in cities until Iraqis establish security and until the oil provides cash. Concentrate our limited, redevelopment money on oil fields and delivery systems. Hire as many Iraqis as possible to secure the fields and rebuild them. Then prepare to see Iraqis do what other petro-governments do with their petro-money. They hire the unemployed until the money runs low.
Rich Miner
Dutchtown-Zion Road
Montgomery
Veterans Day recalls many sacrifices
To the editor:
Saturday is Veterans Day. It was on Nov. 11, 1918, at 11 a.m., that the guns of World War I, the "war to end all wars," fell silent.
While originally intended to recognize the men and women who served in that conflict, Veterans Day is now observed to recognize the service of the millions of men and women who served in subsequent wars and conflicts. Given the current war on terror, Veterans Day has even greater significance.
The men and women of our armed services have sacrificed much for America. Some have returned with disabilities while some remain classified as missing in action or prisoner of war. Every man and woman who has worn the uniform of the U.S. armed forces has made some level of sacrifice for our freedom and deserve our deepest gratitude.
As the state commander of the American Legion, I would like to encourage your readers to express their thanks to all veterans by attending any of the many Veterans Day programs sponsored by American Legion posts or other veterans organizations throughout New Jersey.
On behalf of the American Legion, it is my honor to extend thanks to all current and former members of the armed forces for their distinguished service to America.
Charles "Chuck" Robbins
State Commander
The American Legion
West Hanover Street
Trenton