Letters for week of Aug. 17

By:
Borough spending is ‘appalling’
To the editor:
   I have lived in the Hightstown area for many years and often chuckle or frown at some of the stories I have read in the Windsor-Hights Herald. Last week as I read the Herald I was appalled at how the Hightstown Borough Council has royally screwed the residents of this fine town again.
   The big headline on Page 3A is the fact that the Borough (Council) has approved a tax hike for the already money-trapped residents and to add insult to injury we are now being held responsible for footing the cost of an approximately $90,000 ambulance. But the icing on the crumbled cake was a smaller article on the same page stating that Ms. Candace Gallagher was given an extension and raise to add to her change purse of salaries.
   So let’s see how this breaks down: borough administrator — $26,850; borough clerk — $72,338; overseer of computer systems — $5,296; registrar — $3,530; grand total $108,014.
   This isn’t about Ms. Gallagher; it’s about the audacity of the Borough Council’s continued justification of why salary increases are necessary, outrageous purchases, etc., at the expense of the taxpayers. In today’s world, if a company is strapped for money, the managers and staffs don’t get raises for years while working with fewer resources, less money and more sacrifices.
   How can you the council justify approving the purchase of an ambulance, a raise for Ms. Gallagher and sock us with a 12-cent local tax hike?
   Ms. Gallagher, if you have good will toward the residents of Hightstown, give up your salaries of borough administrator, overseer of computer systems and registrar and ask the Borough Council to apply those salaries toward the purchase of the ambulance!!!!
   Furthermore, if members of the council have full-time jobs and get paid for serving the community, they should also forfeit their salaries.
   Please join the rest of us as we struggle to keep up with living in Hightstown.
Eliana Cosme
Hightstown
Mayor, board off base with Minute Maid plan
To the editor:
   When a developer pays $250,000 per acre for the 37-acre Minute Maid property, the land use has to be such that the land costs are recovered.
   For this particular site, housing or a retail shopping center, of which we have many, are the choices. Housing was the choice at 246 units on 16 acres with a density of 17 units per acre. That is a $17,000 per-unit cost.
   In conjunction with the tacit approval of Bob Patten, the developer proceeded with developing a preliminary presentation to the Planning Board in July. The developer’s representatives proposed 105 townhouses and 141 condominiums atop retail space. They told the mayor the units’ value would be $400,000.
   They also offered the mayor the Peddie bridge, which he bought and now collects tolls.
   Mayor Patten is out of control as is his in-step Planning Board, when it comes to Hightstown’s future. It appears the idea of developing a land use plan for the Minute Maid property on Mercer Street is based only on what the developer wants, in conjunction with Patten’s private participation, as presented to the Planning Board. Patten and his puppet Nancy Laudenberger spent the evening trying to direct their hand-picked Republican Planning Board members in one direction: the urbanization of the Minute Maid property with housing densities of 15 to 20 units per acre. The charade under the leadership of Tamara Lee, our professional planner, was continuously redirected by Patten and Laudenberger to high-density housing against any intelligent input from a few Planning Board members
   All our mayor can see is a ratable to support his ever-increasing municipal budget. There is no potential land use that Patten will not discuss in private with a developer and then guarantee its acceptance by the Planning Board. So far no one has approached him for a nuclear plant radio-active material storage center for the site.
   Out of a nine-member board, he is guaranteed five of his Republicans nonthinking appointees will do whatever he wants.
   The mayor’s ratable chase has become all encompassing yet he is the very reason the Bank Street mill project has gone nowhere. He wants the developer to add 6,000 square feet to borough hall plus retails shops in front of borough hall. The developer says he can’t finance the project under these conditions and has said this for the past 18 months. It appears that the mayor finally yielded and a developer’s agreement will be presented in September.
   The Republican cabal on the Planning Board, consisting of eight regular and three alternates appointed by Patten, has one Democrat council member. We have on Borough Council six Democrat members who are in step with the needs of our community. Hopefully they will offset this totally out-of-step mayor, his Planning Board and his desire to urbanize Hightstown, no matter what the consequences. Republicans are consistent with an out-of-control and an out-of-step president in Washington and mayor in Hightstown.
Eugene E. Sarafin
Hightstown