A most important gift
To the editor:
Experience has given me a few assurances during the month of December. The weather will be unpredictable, someone will cut me off and steal my parking space at the mall, I will endure holiday weight gain, and there will be a critical blood shortage in our area.
Historically there has not been a strong turnout for blood donations during the December holidays. At the same time there are more illnesses and more scheduled medical procedures. There are more people on the road and more accidents. Our area trauma centers have to maintain minimum blood supplies or they will lose their status and must shut down. This entire crisis could be wiped out if people gave blood on a regular basis. It is quick, easy, it is safe, and it is very social. It is important.
A true gift is one that has meaning. On behalf of the American Red Cross, would you please consider giving one of the most important gifts of all.
St. James Church, Pennington, is hosting a memorial blood drive Saturday, Dec. 30, from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. in the gym. Please go to: pleasegiveblood.org/donate, sponsor code 6B04 and sign up today.
Cindy Persichilli,
coordinator
Area Blood Drive
American Red Cross
Need $2 million
by March 2007
To the editor:
Recent headlines told us of exciting plans to purchase the St. Michael’s property in the Hopewell Valley. This opportunity to preserve 337 acres in perpetuity is a chance to leave a legacy of health and beauty for generations to come. Conservation of this land will result in farmland preservation, public recreation with miles of new hiking trails, and enhanced grassland habitat essential for nesting birds and migrants.
The funds to purchase this property are being collected through public and private sources, under the umbrella of D&R Greenway Land Trust.
There is still $2 million that must be raised through private donations by March 15, 2007.
Direct donations, as well as two- and three-year pledges are accepted. Please make checks out to D&R Greenway Land Trust. Note on the check that the contribution is to support the preservation of the St. Michael’s property, and send to D&R Greenway Land Trust, 1 Preservation Place, Princeton, 08540.
D&R Greenway has raised $8 million toward the St. Michael’s property through public funding, and over $500,000 in private contributions. The remaining $2 million is up to us.
All who love this Valley need to come together to realize this preservation, this unique resource, by no means limited to the surrounding community. The immeasurable beauty and health benefits of this land will only persist when we succeed in raising the $2 million required for completion of the contract.
All who observe this beautiful tract from many Hopewell sites and hills need to join, with contributions large and small, in order for this critical opportunity in order to keep this land forever open. Think hard about the consequences, if we do not: a Rutgers University study predicts that New Jersey could become the first built-out state within a mere 30 years.
As we enter the season of holidays, see this as the best possible gift, to give and to receive. You could suggest to loved ones that they give to St. Michael’s, instead of purchasing some present for you in this season of light.
A gift of land would live on as a legacy that everyone should want to be a part of. Please help us make this a reality.
Christine Lokhammer
Hopewell
Collection to continue
To the editor:
Wanted to take a minute to thank the friends, families and past clients who stopped by during the Pennington Holiday Walk with scarves, gloves and hats in tow for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. It was great to see everyone, while spreading some holiday cheer.
Through the efforts of our sales partner, Andrea D’Angelo, and Manager Sue Van Selous, as an office we have become involved in serving meals for TASK and selling artwork for the A-Team (a group of self-taught artists who use the services of TASK). Recently, while serving at the center, we were asked to collect scarves, hats, gloves and socks for distribution.
We will continue to collect these items through the winter months at our Pennington Office in Hopewell Crossing (800 Denow Road). Feel free to stop by with new or gently used items. Again, thanks for your support.
Emily Schwab
Gloria Nilson
GMAC Real Estate, Pennington
Adopt-a-Flag
To the editor:
On behalf on the Borough of Pennington, Pennington Parks and Recreation would like to thank The Commito Family, which has adopted a flag in honor of Richard D. Richey. This flag will join the dozens of other flags lining the streets of Pennington from Memorial Day to Veterans Day honoring our veterans. If your family is interested in honoring someone you know with an American flag to be displayed along the streets of Pennington, please visit: www.penningtonboro.org/Adopt_a_Flag.pdf for an Adopt-a-Flag form or call me at 737-0019 for more information.
Kit Chandler
Pennington Parks
and Recreation Commission
Farmland
preservation myths
To the editor:
In his guest column appearing in your Nov.30 edition, sate Secretary of Agriculture Charles Kuperus did an admirable job of mythologizing the benefits of the state’s Farmland Preservation Program. I’m with him on his first two paragraphs about how the program is saving open space. The storytelling starts with the body of his column where he talks about the maintenance of "a local and secure source of food and other farm products."
I am not alone in my skepticism. According to the Middlesex County Board of Agriculture (MCBA) in its May 3, 2006 letter sent to the executive director of the Farmland Preservation Program, "taxpayers are being made to believe that farms are being preserved, when in many cases, we are merely preserving open space, not necessarily farms." The dirty little secret behind the fairy tale cover of farmland preservation in New Jersey is that "more and more wealthy people are purchasing preserved farms and many of these buyers have no intention of actively farming the property."
How could this possibly be happening, you might ask? To start with, the program does not actually require any farming whatsoever on these deed-restricted lands. That’s right, the owner of a preserved farm could be in total compliance with the easement language without ever planting a single seed or raising a single animal on preserved farmland. In other words, the use of a preserved farm as an estate or country retreat is completely consistent with the requirements of the program. That any farming ever happens at all on these lands is essentially an accidental outcome, in many cases ultimately driven by the tax advantages of farmland assessment, rather than a requirement of the program or the needs of a local food system, for that matter. This basically is farming made way too easy with the result that "it seems that the state is seeing an increase in estates rather than production agriculture on these sites," again quoting from the May 3 letter of the MCBA.
Don’t get me wrong, farmland preservation is critical to the survival of agriculture in the state. Unfortunately, the program is currently designed to preserve equity in preserved farmland at the expense of future generations of farmers who were not born into land ownership. Consequently, preserved farmland may be sold for top dollar to a hedge fund manager looking for a country retreat rather than an experienced and successful food crop farmer looking to make the leap from renting to ownership. Other states, such as Vermont and Massachusetts, have courageously reformed their farmland preservation programs to ensure that the land remains affordable to future generations of farmers.
In preparing the public for another request for funding of the preservation program, Secretary Kuperus would be well advised to listen to the MCBA, which cautions that "in the long run, it may become impossible to ask New Jersey taxpayers to fund this program" without first addressing this problem.
James Kinsel
Honey Brook Organic Farm
Hopewell Township
Twin Pines
should be saved
To the editor:
I make this presentation thinking that with the impending loss of Twin Pines Airport as an airport it is indeed a very sad day. I hope to present some thoughts, which may suggest a possible solution to this situation and save the airport and at the same time provide ball fields at another location.
The unfortunate revaluation on the property makes a situation where the property owner is being force to sell the property because of the high real estate taxes. This seems very unfair when any municipality is allowed to increase the taxes 220 percent in one shot.
Some of the airports that no longer exist in New Jersey are Florence, Nassau Smithville, Manahawkin, Windsor, Bader Field (Atlantic City), Smithville and Red Bank. Some of the extinct airports in eastern Pennsylvania are Morrisville, Flying Dutchman, Buhl Field, 3-M, and Turner Field. There are others. Many of them do not exist now because of economic reasons. Will the loss of small general aviation airports stop when there are none left? Twin Pines, as the oldest operating airport in New Jersey, should be saved. Once an airport closes it is closed forever.
How many ball fields are needed and what kind of fields? Is the Twin Pines property large enough to meet the total needs of the municipalities involved? It appears that the Rosedale Park property is much better suited for ball fields than Twin Pines Airport. There are some areas of Rosedale Park that have been farmed, where there would not have to be a tree removed to build the ball fields and parking area. The county should cooperate and have the ball fields built there. It would be much less costly.
I now live in Bordentown, but I grew up in Hopewell Township. My grandfather’s farm on Blackwell Road was part of the original Rosedale Park acquisition in 1950s. It was great that it didn’t go for residential development. I am now retired, but I was previously employed as a land acquisition negotiator with the Green Acres Program, State of New Jersey. I was with Green Acres when the county purchased approximately 700 acres from AT&T and added it to Rosedale Park. I believe that land was purchased for open space and recreation. In my opinion, that would mean that ball fields would be appropriate for a small portion of that location. When the Bordentown soccer league needed fields the soccer league entered into an agreement with the Department of Corrections and turned some vacant farm land into ball fields with no cost for the use of the land.
There are different ways of funding, which might be possible for the purchase of the airport property. Contact should be made with the Department of Transportation, Aviation Division, which has provided financial assistance for preservation of other airports in New Jersey in the past. The landowner could possibly sever the development credits on the property so it would never be developed into residential homes and he would receive financial compensation. There are foundations that give grants for worthwhile projects of land preservation and properties of historic value. Time is needed to allow these proposals to come together and the landowner needs some tax relief so he is not forced to sell the property now.
Jerrold Stout
Bordentown

