Week of May 10
Take a walk to stop cancer
To the editor:
If you’re female, your chance of getting it is 38 percent. If you’re male, you have a 45 percent chance of getting it. And the older you get, the higher your odds get to having it. It’s something so close to home that it has most likely impacted a family member, friend, or co-worker. No, it’s not a tax audit or your odds of getting a speeding ticket. But it is a statistic you don’t want to be part of.
In 2007, over 1.4 million of our American neighbors will be diagnosed with it and over 550,000 will die from it this year in the U.S. alone. It’s cancer.
What goes through your minds when you hear that word? Is it anger, fear, apathy, compassion? How many of you have thought "It can’t affect me, I’m healthy". Or, maybe "Will our health insurance cover it or will it wipe out our life savings"? And how gut wrenching is it to hear that your child, or parent, or wife or husband has it?
On June 9 until sunrise June 10, many of your friends and neighbors will be participating in the local American Cancer Society Relay for Life event being held for the sixth consecutive year at New Egypt High School. Teams (including many from our local schools) are currently holding numerous local events to support fundraising activities to raise awareness and funds to fight cancer.
This year, your local Relay for Life teams will eclipse the half million dollar cumulative donation mark, a major milestone for our rural communities.
There is still plenty of time to get involved. You can join a current team, make a donation, form your own team, or just plan to come to the around-the-clock June event and enjoy the food, music, and activities.
Through your generosity, your collective efforts have helped the ACS fight to cure cancer by funding numerous successful cancer drug developments, advocating non-smoking legislation, and improving the 5 year survival rate of cancer patients to over 66 percent.
If you would like to be involved or to request additional information about the New Egypt Relay Event, contact Anita Pfefferkorn, Chairwoman of the New Egypt Relay at [email protected] or visit www.acsevents.org/relay/nj/newegypt or for cancer information please visit www.cancer.org or call 1-800-ACS-2345.
John Pfefferkorn,
Chairman, Public Relations,
New Egypt Relay For Life
Resident pleas for common sense
To the editor:
Please consider this is a plea for sanity and common sense in Upper Freehold.
For the last eight years, our community has been in constant turmoil over zoning, rising taxes, and whether to adopt a township Master Plan that prioritizes preservation of vanishing vistas, environmentally sensitive land, and historical farmland.
As long-time participants in the efforts to bring rational environmental, historical and economic planning to Upper Freehold, we humbly ask that our fellow citizens consider ‘The Common Sense Plan to Save Upper Freehold.’ This plan can help create a public consensus so the talking can end and action begin.
1) Keep people out of the process who are lame ducks. The current Township Committee should defer final action on the Master Plan and its zoning components until the new Township Committee is seated in seven months. There will be a major shift to slow growth and pro-taxpayer/environmental policies no matter who wins the election this year. Mayor Stephen Fleischacker and Deputy Mayor Bill Miscoski (neither of whom are running for reelection) should not be shaping it.
2) Take this Planning Board out of the Master Planning Process. This Planning Board should not take any final action on the Master Plan or zoning until the new Township Committee takes office in seven months. Former Committeeman Sal Diecidue was defeated because he sold out the preservationist viewpoint. He, along with Mr. Fleischaker and Mr. Miscoski, are responsible for the pro-development Upper Freehold Planning Board. New members are needed with a preservationist and environmentalist viewpoint. In parting shots from two former Planning Board members Joe Toscano and Bill Search agreed that the Planning Board is dominated by pro-developer interests.
3) New planner needed for master planning process. The new Township Committee should immediately fire Township Planner Mark Remsa. Mr. Remsa was hired by the failed Diecidue/Fleischacker/ Miscoski alliance. We need a planner who reflects the consensus of the community not a "village center" nightmare.
4) Replace village centers with preservationist policies. The new Township Committee needs to decisively reject and put to rest any further consideration of Smart Growth and high density housing "village centers." One needs to look no farther than Washington Township to see the disaster Smart Growth has been there, according to Mayor David Fried.
5) Get back on track with zoning Adopt 6-10 Acre zoning without the 35-percent density bonuses. Aren’t we all tired of "smart" talkers who spin words to delay the implementation of strong zoning policies? We need to bring the whole community together to seek new resources for preservation of more farmland and supporting the equine industry if we are to maintain our rural and historic character.
The current Township Committee has lost credibility and legitimacy while being led by two lame duck members who are out of step with the community. We believe that unless the new Township Committee enacts the above list of policies starting January 2008, we will face years of more conflict and division as our remaining agricultural heritage is turned into McMansions.
Sue Kozel and
Chris Berzinski
Upper Freehold
Feasibility study available online
To the editor:
During the past year, the Crosswicks/Doctors Creek Regional Greenway Planning Group has been conducting the Doctors Creek to Assunpink Creek Trail feasibility study, with the assistance of Forbes Environmental and Land Use Planning. The purpose of the study is to determine the feasibility of a Doctors/Assunpink Creek trail. The study is funded by a grant from the Office of Environmental Services of the New Jersey DEP, with matching funding from Allentown Borough, Hamilton, Millstone and Upper Freehold Townships. An initial public meeting was held on Sept. 5, 2006.
A draft final report with maps is available for review online at the group’s Web site, www.ccdcgreenway.org. The report is the result of the efforts by the Greenway Group and its consultant. Based on comment, minor revisions to the report and maps will be made at this information posted on the Web site as final. The public is invited to attend a meeting at which the Feasibility Study will be discussed. The meeting will take place on Monday, June 25 at the Allentown First Aid Squad building, Walker Avenue, Allentown, beginning at 7 p.m. For further information, contact [email protected].
Elizabeth Poinsett,
Chairwoman,
Crosswicks/Doctor’s Creek
Regional Greenway
Planning Group