By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The two candidates running to replace Township Committeewoman Susan Goetz shared on Tuesday the same priorities for Cranbury, from traffic safety, road repairs, the future of the new library and the local economy.
Democrat Matt Scott and Republican Nancy Witt answered questions for about 90 minutes from a crowd that had packed the large group room, in Cranbury School, for the forum.
On supporting small businesses, Witt suggested looking at “zoning and planning regulations” to make it easier to adjust them to support stores that want to open in town.
Scott said he wants to see increased “foot traffic” in the downtown and make Cranbury more walkable. He said he supports changing zoning regulations for downtown businesses to create “places that we can walk to.” He offered that the town should eliminate a requirement for businesses to provide off-street parking spots. Scott, who lives on Main Street, called traffic safety “the number one priority.”
“Every day I see the volume and speed of traffic that’s going on,” he said. “And I think that enforcement is great, but I also think we need to talk about maybe infrastructure – traffic calming measures to actually change the flow of traffic in town.”
Witt, also a Main Street resident, touched on the truck traffic that warehouses will generate. She then pivoted to the library, which is close to having enough money to start constructing a new building.
“We’re almost there,” she said. “Where’s the rest of the money going to come from?”
Scott said that he had been in office, he would have recommended the project be bonded and “we build a library.”
“I mean there’s nothing more important to a town than a public space where everyone can come … and share in the wonder of being around a lot of books,” he said.
Both candidates agreed on an environmental issue. Witt said Brainard Lake needs to be dredged, a position that Scott said he supports.
On road repairs, Witt said the town has to do a certain number of them, like on Petty Road.
Witt, originally from Pennsylvania, earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She spent 14 years as a nurse, and now serves as vice president at the locally based Sweetwater Construction, the company founded by her now late husband, Ron.
She offered her “business experience” as a selling point to voters.
“In fact, success demands precise planning, precise budgeting and precise project execution,” she said. “My experience in these fundamentals is an important perquisite to balancing multiple, important priorities with limited available resources.”
Scott, a graduate of Fordham University, is a physician assistant at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx, New York. In that role, he said he has to make “life and death decisions,” like who needs to have surgery.
“And that’s part of my daily bailiwick. Those are the kinds of decisions I’m used to making,” he said.
He and his wife, Heather, moved to Cranbury with their three children from Maplewood, in 2009.
He was asked by an audience member about whether he belonged to Indivisible Cranbury, a group formed to oppose President Donald Trump. Scott, a self-described “progressive Democrat,” said he was not a part of the group but that he agreed “generally” with what the organization says.
“With that said, if elected, I do not plan on implementing all the things they want to do nationally,” he said. “I don’t plan on bringing that to the town committee. That’s not why I’m running.”
Both candidates agreed they would not support Cranbury becoming a sanctuary city, a step Princeton and other communities in New Jersey and around the country have done to limit the cooperation between local police and federal immigration authorities.
“I do want to voice my opinion on progressive issues,” he said. “Does that mean I want to change the flavor and nature of the town? No, it doesn’t.”
“It’s a tough call,” she said, “but it’s not the law of the land for us to take on the role of a sanctuary city.”
Later in the forum, Witt was asked about conflicts of interest involving her company and how she would handle one. She said the firm does not do any work with public bodies. But she does lease 10 parking spaces, in the Sweetwater lot, to the town, for retail parking.
“I don’t think it represents a conflict of interest,” she said.
The winner of the Nov. 7 election will join a five-member governing body in which Democrats hold four of the seats. On a night when both candidates were asked about diversity in the town, no one raised how the governing body would not have a woman serving in 2018 were Scott to beat Witt next month.
For her part, Witt did not bring up the gender issue during the forum.
