Capital Health plan is regional issue
To the editor:
Capital Health System needs to provide answers to all the citizens in the Valley (not just Hopewell Township) and to the broader community of taxpayers they would serve, including our neighbors in Ewing and Trenton. Conveniently, their advertisements for information sessions are directed at township residents, are being held during the dead of summer (August) and note personnel will be on hand to discuss patient services. Do they have plans to discuss with the broader public anything besides patient services?
Residents of the communities surrounding Hopewell Township, i.e., many of us who also pay for the costs of the regional school district and all who pay federal, state, county and local taxes, deserve some answers from this nonprofit hospital project, which has implications at all those levels of government. To believe that the medical offices associated with the hospital and the hospital itself will have no net increase in personnel needing access to work and possibly housing is naive. The region, not just Hopewell Township, once again will be subsidizing water, sewer, roads, and schools in an area that will definitely grow for a hospital that touts private rooms.
Capital Health and the leaders at all levels of government need to recognize this is a regional issue and should be working together to provide answers and solutions. It is not just about the township and the hospital. For residents of Pennington, who pay for the schools and have interlocal agreements with the township, again we are becoming choked as an island left to suffer the steady stream of vehicles making their way through our residential streets, as well as speeders and now it would seem emergency vehicles and employees that will come to a new facility (undoubtedly existing employees will change their routes). There will be roads to repair, cascading impacts upon our regional school district and potential implications for water resources and possibly regional sewer allocation. Will Capital Health help pay for traffic calming in Pennington? Road maintenance? Enforcement? More children in the schools? Crossing guards?
There are regional planning implications regarding public safety and public services. Will this be a foot in the door to build new roads or expand roads, including Route 31, which is already unsafe given the traffic increases and large trucks? How will emergency vehicles get to the hospital? Are there defined routes ensuring they do not need to snake through residential streets? Does Capital Health promise to not take advantage of proximity to Mercer County Airport with an eye toward becoming some sort of regional trauma center?
I have seen no regional meetings or dialogue with state, county, and local leaders to explain a coordinated plan. Let us not forget that one of the big reasons transportation officials touted the Millstone Bypass was the inability of emergency vehicles to get to the University Medical Center at Princeton. With the construction on Route 31 just south of I-95 and the existing traffic, do we really believe this new hospital and associated development will make things better?
Citizens should remember that the debate does not begin with the hospital. The premise that the property must be developed just because there is an approved development plan from years ago is just wrong. Approval to build does not mean one must build. Merrill Lynch (whose assets are in the trillions) could instead choose to deed restrict its property whereby it would receive considerable tax savings. It could also choose to plant trees, create habitat, or just hold onto its land and given time, as the property will only increase in value, sell carbon credits in various marketplaces being established (for instance, the newly formed Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative underway in New Jersey).
Remember taxpayers of New Jersey subsidized Merrill Lynch, which, according to a report, received millions in state loans under Gov. Christie Whitman for equipment, office furniture, sales tax savings, a state economic development grant, and state-brokered funds for improving the Scotch Road interchange. At the time, the State Planning Commission chairman called the project a "missed opportunity," saying the state should have provided millions in revitalizing Trenton.
I am not naive enough to think Merrill Lynch has any intention of becoming a better corporate citizen and sadly, this hospital appears to be another missed opportunity for Trenton. So, is there a way to make any lemonade from what many people think is inevitable? Capital Health has a duty to address concerns in the broader community, including investing in redevelopment in the surrounding communities that helped them achieve the profits by which they can afford to build a new hospital. These communities already have infrastructure and the hospital should be working to put in housing for seniors, health care professionals, nurses, teachers, and others who cannot afford to live in the area.
A true community hospital with tax exempt status that relies on local and state taxpayers to pick up the bills for state, county, and local access, as well as regional school district implications, should be bringing together officials from all levels of government including the municipalities from Trenton to Hopewell Borough, together with their citizens to make living in the Capitol Region safe, affordable and with reverence to its rich natural and cultural heritage.
Marjorie Kaplan
Pennington

