Category: Independent Opinion

  • All the laws in the world won’t stop bad behavior

    Greg Bean Coda Memo to members of the New Jersey Assembly: Your highly touted ban on talking on a cell phone while driving is a dismal failure, at least judging by the numbers of people I see happily flouting the law on my way to and from work every day. This morning, I actually saw…

  • For them, the choice was black and white

    Greg Bean Coda I remember a day in early spring, sometime in the late 1960s, when Uncle Earl showed up on our doorstep with a new vacuum cleaner. It was his first day on the job, selling Hoovers door to door, and he wanted to try out his new sales pitch on my mother, who…

  • KBA should have let all owners vote

    On March 7, the KBA (Keyport Business Alliance) circus was in town. They were all there — the ringmaster, the clowns, the strongman, the jugglers, the monkeys, and so on. The show went on, but many of the people who paid for admission were prevented from participating. Business owners and commercial-property owners pay a special…

  • Support of Red Cross is reflection of spirit

    America is a special place, where someone you may not know will give you their blood, save you from drowning or provide you with shelter. In 1943, President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the American Red Cross as a true reflection of that humanitarian, volunteer spirit and proclaimed March as Red Cross Month, a tradition that has…

  • Hazlet resident says Merla should step down

    Independent staff writer Karen E. Bowes reports in the March 9 issue that at the March 1 Keyport Borough Council meeting, Mayor John Merla spoke to “a standing-room-only crowd of supporters.” This puts somewhat of a positive media slant on Merla’s position in the Keyport community. However, if one turns a few short pages and…

  • Don’t hesitate to donate because of mayor’s arrest

    I was very disappointed to read the letter last week about Mayor John Merla (“Merla should do the ‘sensible thing’ — resign”). My concern is not the issue of Mayor Merla resigning and whether he is guilty or innocent of the charges brought against him. My concern is the reference to the tsunami relief effort…

  • Obituaries

    Addie M. Shifflet Fletcher Mrs. Fletcher, 82, of Hazlet, died March 12 at Bayshore Community Hospital, Holmdel. Born in West Virginia, she resided in Trenton prior to moving to Hazlet 12 years ago. She was a homemaker. She was a communicant of Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, Union Beach. She is survived by five daughters,…

  • Election results leave KBA future uncertain

    The Keyport Business Alliance missed a golden opportunity to silence its detractors last week, presiding over a controversial election that may have sparked a lethal backlash. A story and editorial we ran in January about the Concerned Business Owners, a group formed to disband the KBA and the Business Improvement District tax it levied, drew…