From the June 7 edition
Name change petition filed
To the editor:
On Monday, I filed a petition in the township clerk’s office to change the name of Washington Township to "Township of Robbinsville."
A name change will help establish recognition of our community. We have seen many changes in the past four years new houses, new stores and a new high school. A total of six "Washington Townships" was giving us an identity problem. The state Department of Transportation did not help us when it posted a "Washington" sign on I-195 at Exit 7. Yet New Jersey maps issued by AAA indicate Robbinsville, not Washington Township.
Mail, packages and shipments sent to the wrong addresses, with the name change, would be corrected.
The next project will be to change our ZIP code. I do not like my mailing address to be a Trenton ZIP code. It is wrong. Our township has grown from 3,100 residents to more than 11,000 and we need our own ZIP code. We want 08619 to be a Robbinsville-only ZIP code. We have to get the U.S. Postal Service to agree with us on this change.
Can I get a volunteer to help me with this project? Call me at (609) 273-6239.
Lewis Koushel,
Washington
Ex-board member critical of new BOE
To the editor:
On May 30, a crowd of about 150 community members, teachers and students gathered and waited one and a half hours past the Plumsted Township Board of Education’s slated start time of 7:30 p.m., to plead with the three newest board members (Tony O’Donnell and Lawrence Downs, who were elected in April and Board President Joanna Barlow, who was elected last year) to not make changes that would affect students in the high school, middle school and the elementary school. Although they stated during the two-and-a-half-hour public comment session that they were listening and taking into consideration all the comments, the three newest board members voted on their own agenda anyway.
As a former board member, I have never seen such an angry crowd at any of the meetings that I had been part of. Once again at this meeting one of the new board members put down past boards of education. I am here to say I am proud to have been part of past boards that put students first. I am not proud of our three newest members. How dare they put down previous boards and say that kids are not what is important.
In the six years that I was in office I worked with some of the finest people this community Vice President Herb Marinari who would do anything for any one in this community; Keith Buckalew, who left the board so that he could have the opportunity to take care of our fine schools; Karen Amburgy, who helped bring the Township Committee and the board together; Albert Petroni who spent countless days in Washington, D.C. fighting for impact aid; and Kathy Sandford, who has put in more volunteer hours in our schools than anyone I know. So to the three newest members until you have done all that these people have done, do not put them down and call them ineffective.
To our new board president: who is running the show, you or your father? This man does not even live here in New Egypt and is now at every board meeting standing in the back motioning to you. It appears that he may be telling you when to speak and when not to speak. Is this his board presidency or yours?
For those who are not sure what the big crowd was about, it was about the rearrangement of administration and the cutting of administrative costs. The amount: $25,000. This amount will not have an impact on your tax rate, although some of you may feel good about the so-called cutting of the "fat." What will this cut do? It will affect the children. How many? Well, the high school and elementary school are directly affected, but does it matter how many? If one student loses a scholarship, or if one child does not get the counseling he or she needs, that is too much.
So what is next for a newest three board members? What personal agendas do they have? Who is hurt next, your child or mine?
Kathy McCaughey,
Plumsted

