Category: Independent Opinion
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Holmdel resident says Fink, not GOP, preserved land
In a recent letter, former Holmdel Mayor Mollie Giamanco credits the old guard Republicans with saving all of the open space in Holmdel. It is true some land was saved during their 27 years in office, but it was always someone else and not the Republican-controlled Township Committee that took the initiative to save land.…
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Board’s move a lesson on ‘reverse ageism’
What a great idea announced earlier this week by the Board of Elections to attempt to get young people involved in the voting process. The goal is supposed to be to train them to help with the upcoming elections so they can be involved at an early age, with the hope they will continue to…
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Reader likes Fink’s fiscal and environmental policies
Reader likes Fink’s fiscal and environmental policies In May 2002, a local periodical honored me with an article about me as a community maker. Holmdel’s Chief of Police R. Bruce Phillips had recommended me because of my involvement in community affairs. Following the Jaycee Creed, "service to humanity is the best work of life," I…
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Hazlet Township needs to vote yes for open space
How much development is enough in Hazlet Township? How many strip malls, townhouses and roads does a town really need to be livable? The Bayshore Regional Watershed Council believes Hazlet Township has changed enough in the past 40 years and it is now time for residents to start preserving land for open space. Acres of…
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Resident is well pleased with Larry Fink’s record
It’s that time of the year again when aspiring regular Republican politicians such as Pat Impreveduto try to learn the age-old art of political spin. This consists of making a negative into a positive by the careful replacement of specific negative facts with artfully contrived broad generalities. To wit: campaigning as a member of the…
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Hazlet needs activists like Paul Coughlin and Scott Aagre
I am grateful to the Independent for publishing a letter I wrote on Aug. 21, 2002, on the proposed open space tax in Hazlet last year even though the editors held a different opinion. Well, a year has gone by and the voters of Hazlet chose a new committee person and defeated the proposed open…
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Fink commended for tax settlement with Lucent
Mayor Larry Fink deserves high praise for Holmdel’s favorable tax settlement with Lucent Technologies. Letter writer (Independent, Sept. 17) Joe Speranza’s criticisms are based on incomplete and erroneous information. In 1997, the township — under Republican leadership — negotiated a tax settlement with Lucent reducing its assessment by $78 million during three years to an…
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Cluster zoning allows too many units, resident says
Having lived in Holmdel for 20 years and serving as secretary of the Board of Adjustment (and as secretary to the Planning Board in an adjacent town in the ’60s), I know Holmdel has been historically conservative with its land use policies for many years. In many cases, Holmdel’s policies and ordinances are more stringent…
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Azzolina seeks accurate description of ‘town center’
I resent the attack on me and my employees in the letter to the editor by Gerard P. Scharfenberger of Middletown. Mr. Scharfenberger writes that he finds my defense of the proposed town square at Middletown to be hostile: "Most unnerving was the open hostility shown by Assemblyman Joe Azzolina toward anyone who dared oppose…
