In defense of hospital
To the editor:
Think what the property that Capital Health wants to build on would look like with a Target, Dick’s or Wal-Mart that the property is already zoned for.
That kind of development would create much more traffic than a hospital would. Hospital traffic is not all concentrated into certain times of the day plus the staff works in shifts. Let us also look at the number of cars that would come into the hospital versus the number of cars that arrive and depart Merrill Lynch every day (no property tax breaks there). Most ambulance noise is created when ambulances depart from the rescue squads in the communities, pick up patients and then go to the hospital. These ambulances would still make noise no matter where the hospital is located. Ambulance noise is mainly a function of where the victim is, not where he or she is going.
The proposed hospital would pay some property taxes. Yes, the hospital is a nonprofit, but the gift shops, coffee shops, etc. are for-profit businesses and as such will pay property taxes. Yes, the hospital will bring in new jobs to the area. Take the doctors and senior administrators out of the equation and you are left with a lot of people who probably can’t afford the high costs and high property taxes we enjoy here in Hopewell Valley.
We are not talking about a sudden influx of employees from out-of-state; most of the employees would come from the Trenton campus and they already have homes I’m sure they wouldn’t sell to move 10 minutes closer.
Many people in the town know about the hospital and are not concerned about its arrival. In fact some of us would appreciate a hospital that is only 10 minutes closer. When you are having a heart attack, every minute without treatment decreases your chance of survival by 10 percent. We could do much worse.
Peter McGrath
Titusville
Ill-advised project
To the editor:
The proposed new D&R Greenway parking lot near the southeast corner of Featherbed Lane and Hopewell-Wertsville Road in Hopewell Township is an ill-advised project. It duplicates two underutilized D&R parking lots within a 2-mile radius, creates hazards for children adjacent to a school bus stop and encourages increased motor vehicle traffic in the environmentally sensitive Sourland Mountains.
The two nearby D&R-related parking lots, which provide access to the same networks of trails to be reached from the proposed new parking lot, are seldom used. Hikers wishing to use the proposed Featherbed Lane parking lot would need to walk about 0.2 miles parallel to the Hopewell-Wertsville Road and then cross that heavily-traveled road to reach the same trails.
We urge the D&R Greenway to look into means of increasing utilization of the existing McBurney Woods and Sourland Preserve lots. Once this has been accomplished, and you finally conclude that another parking lot is needed in this area, then we encourage you to consider safer alternative locations.
We support and appreciate the efforts of the D&R Greenway to enhance the environment. In this case, we would hope the Greenway would carefully assess the environmental impacts of the proposed new parking lot.
Denise Forrester
Steve Kazakoff and Carol Kehoe
Tom and Diane Seessel
Eric Wasserman and Jane Weier
Ron and Eileen Conticelli
John Butaud and Eileen Pittenger
Jim Jansma and Shirley Koehler
Hopewell Township
Capital Health responds
To the editor:
On behalf of Capital Health System, I want to thank Donald Hirsh for his interest in our proposed new hospital, as expressed in his letter to the editor in the July 12 issue of the Hopewell Valley News. It is important, however, to bring context to the issues he raises.
It is inaccurate to compare the hospital plan to a "no-build" scenario as the proposed new hospital site is already approved to permit construction. The previously approved plan for the Southfields land development calls for 1.7 million square feet of development estimated to house 9,000 employees and generate about 2,400 peak hour vehicle trips and 37,200 daily trips.
On the other hand, the proposed hospital plan would contain 900,000 square feet of hospital space, 146,202 square feet of medical offices, and accommodate just 1,300 employees, which is considerably less. Peak hour vehicle trips would be less (about 1,000) with 90 percent of the traffic coming and going via I-95/Scotch Road southbound, according to our most recent traffic study. In fact, even with visitor vehicle trips included, the total daily traffic flow to and from the site would be less.
The medical offices in the proposed plan would provide an estimated $1.6 million in annual revenue to Hopewell Township, of which $1.2 million would go toward the school district’s budget. That amount represents the cost to educate approximately 85 children each year or pay the debt service on a new $16 million building.
Because our employees already work near Hopewell Township, it is not expected that many, if any, of our employees would move into the township due to the relocation of the hospitalas Mr. Hirsh implied in his letter.
Under the proposed plan, more than one-third of the property would remain as open space. Compared to the already approved Southfields development, the proposed hospital represents a better use of the property. It fits with the rural character of the Hopewell Valley, is better for the environment and brings less traffic to the area.
I encourage residents to continue this dialogue at a series of information sessions over the summer and a public meeting in September to discuss the traffic and economic impact. A schedule will be announced soon. If you can’t attend, but would like to discuss a concern, please contact me at 609-394-6091 or e-mail: jo’[email protected].
Jayne O’Connor
Capital Health System
Wants impeachment
To the editor:
The time has come for every citizen of our great country to defend the Constitution and demand impeachment proceedings for Bush/Cheney. The overreaching of executive authority must be addressed by Congress now to prevent the decline of our democracy into an authoritarian state. Today the government is kidnapping people with foreign names and sending them to other countries to be tortured; tomorrow it could happen to you or me, if we do not act to stop these illegal practices.
The strength of our Constitution is derived from the checks and balances established between the three branches of government. It was wrong for Nancy Pelosi to "take impeachment off the table" as it removed the ultimate authority of Congress to prevent a president from acting like a king and refusing to be accountable to Congress and the people.
The list of high crimes and misdemeanors is a long one: lying to the public and Congress to start an illegal and immoral war; use of torture; failure to protect the people of the United States; contempt of Congress by failing to present subpoenaed documents and witnesses; and illegal surveillance through wiretapping and interception of e-mails.
The Republicans loudly decried the lies of Bill Clinton, claiming that the Rule of Law is based on the truth, and lying about one’s sex life rises to the level of an impeachable offense. So let us urge both Republicans and Democrats to defend the Constitution and tell the president and vice president that they are not above the law.
The people’s voice must be heard to encourage Congress to resolve the Constitutional crisis we now face. The founding fathers foresaw just such a crisis, and they prescribed impeachment as the solution. If you love our country and believe in democracy, write to your congressman today to demand that Congress perform its Constitutional duty and impeach Bush/Cheney.
Stephanie Harris
Hopewell Township
‘Blessed to have you’
To the editor:
I want to express my heartfelt thanks to the many community members who came to assist my fellow staff members and many elderly residents at Stony Brook Assisted Living in Pennington last week.
Everyone needed to be evacuated from our building in an emergent situation. I must applaud the county-area rescue service providers who came to assist in the evacuation process.
Hopewell, Pennington, Lawrenceville, Ewing, Titusville, (and anyone else I may have missed) all came with professionalism, kindness and lots of bottled water! They were very attentive to the individual needs of our elderly residents, assisting anywhere they could. It was a very hot day, involving many people, but it all went quite smoothly.
Thank you one and all. We are very blessed to have you.
Kathy DiGaetano, RN
Stony Brook Assisted Living

