BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP: Meeting sparks Turnpike discussion

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
The subject of the impending New Jersey Turnpike expansion reared its head again at this week’s Township Committee meeting, when residents and officials brought up the matter once again.
    The meeting was considerably calmer than that of late January, when about 25 residents showed up to voice their extreme displeasure with recent developments in the expansion project.
    The discord has centered around the New Jersey Turnpike Authority’s plan to expand the highway, which runs by the Clifton Mills development. Its residents have expressed a great deal of concern about the noise they expect as a result of the expansion project.
    During public comment at the Monday meeting, former Committeeman Robert Delaney, of Alfred Drive, took issue with some of the claims of Deputy Mayor James Cann, the township’s liaison to the Turnpike Authority. Mr. Cann spoke at the committee’s Jan. 26 meeting and discussed the matter in a letter to the Register-News’ Feb. 5 edition.
    Mr. Delaney said this week he believed Mr. Cann should push harder for the Turnpike Authority to accommodate the township.
    “My concern is that you’re here representing and serving the residents of Bordentown, and while yes, you were able to get the Turnpike Authority to agree to some of the things that were already on the table, I don’t necessarily know that those things are serving the residents of Bordentown Township in an effective manner,” Mr. Delaney said.
    For instance, he said, the land the township will receive from the authority could cost a great deal of money to develop. Mr. Delaney also offered ideas for things the township could, or should have, requested.
    “When we got to the Turnpike Authority, let’s try to maximize what we’re getting,” he said. “If they’re against the sound wall that’s fine… but I think at this point we need to do what we possibly can” for residents, he said.
    Mayor William Morelli called Mr. Delaney’s ideas “romantic but impractical,” adding that sports leagues might be able to develop the land the township receives.
    Winding Brook Road resident Stephen Monson spoke after Mr. Delaney, and had a different view of the matter.
    “I think that Deputy Mayor Cann has made remarkable progress in light of the fact that the Turnpike (Authority), on Oct. 9, pulled back everything and said they weren’t going to do anything,” he said, referring to an October letter to the township from the Turnpike Authority stating time had run out to discuss options for the highway widening project.
    Mr. Monson criticized what he called the “inappropriate” conduct of last year’s committee during an August presentation from the Turnpike Authority, contrasting it with recent interactions between the authority and Mr. Cann.
    “The fact that the designees of this present committee have been able to work with the Turnpike commissioner to achieve some restoration of what we were offered originally, that deserves a great deal of credit, not criticism,” he said.
    Committeeman Mark Roselli replied to what he called “self-serving” comments, saying there was nothing wrong with the committee’s behavior at the August meeting.
    “The decision made by the Turnpike Authority to take ‘everything’ off the table was clearly a decision they made for leverage purposes,” he said, “and if anyone thinks otherwise, they’re kidding themselves.”
    Mr. Roselli also addressed Mr. Cann, saying he could have told him about the Sharon School in Robbinsville, which received a sound wall from the Authority, he said, despite not meeting its requirements for a residential area.
    Mr. Cann replied that he was familiar with the situation, but DOT officials said they did not see anything wrong with granting a wall to the school but not Bordentown Township.
    “They said because there’s no standard for a school, they don’t feel they’re setting a precedent,” he said.