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Vol. LXV, No. 35
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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Vol. LXV, No. 35
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
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INGRID W. REED
Cameron Court
ANDREE MARKS
Cameron Court
SHARON MURRAY, Operations Manager
Princeton Community Television
EMILY C. BARTELS
Walnut Lane
To the Editor
The two Princetons are fortunate that consolidation provides us with a unique opportunity to manage more effectively the fiscal crunch that confronts all governments in New Jersey.
Our state, our counties, our municipalities and our school boards all face significant shortfall in revenues and expenses that continue to rise even with the cutbacks achieved this year. To see these projections, check out the report “Facing our Future” at www.cnjg.org. (I am part the group that prepared it.) We in Princeton will need to make choices as to how we can provide the services we want and need within a responsible budget. We can do this much better with the information supplied by the Consolidation Study Commission. Voting for consolidation means that we can plan for change, achieve real savings and preserve the services our community values. I am proud of the Princetons for their record of sharing of services, but we all must face the fact that this pragmatic approach is often inefficient and has not addressed the costly services of police, public works, and municipal management.
Advocating for consolidation is not new for me — I co-managed the Borough campaign in 1979 when we lost by 30 votes, and I voted for it in 1996 because I believed and still do that we are one community that tries to support two governments. Changing this made sense in the past. It does even more today when it is essential for sustaining the Princeton community. I believe we are so vulnerable to the systemic fiscal stress we are facing that we should embrace the many improvements in the 21st century version of consolidation and recognize the opportunities it presents for the wide diversity of people who live in both the Township and the Borough.
INGRID W. REED
Cameron Court
To the Editor:
A letter in last week’s Town Topics (“With Consolidation, Planning Districts Would Not Be About Power Sharing”) discussed advisory planning districts and the Witherspoon -Jackson, Linden Lane and Jefferson-Moore neighborhoods. What the writer seems to have overlooked is that those neighborhoods are currently all divided by Borough/Township borders. Those neighborhoods are not comprised solely of Borough residents; there are Township residents, too. Consolidation would allow Advisory Planning Districts to be established to unite those neighborhoods, help residents unify their efforts, organize and further enable the preservation of neighborhood character.
Isn’t it time we stop disenfranchising our Borough and Township residents, forcing them to go to both Borough Council and Township Committee meetings in order to have their voices heard when many community-wide issues span both communities? Advisory Planning Districts and a single governing body would provide accountability, efficiency, and most likely lead to increased civic participation. It’s time to work together and unite our community.
ANDREE MARKS
Cameron Court
To the Editor:
I am an employee of Princeton Community Television working in the Valley Road School Building. Over the last few years a plethora of architects, electrical engineers, structural engineers, and a brick mason have examined the building. Listening to these professionals comment on just how viable and valuable a building the Valley Road School Building is, I have become increasingly convinced it is worth salvaging. In its current condition, it certainly is in need of some tender loving care, but if I thought that there was any environmental or physical danger to me, I could simply increase my hours in my family business and walk away.
What choice do we want to demonstrate to Princeton’s children as we teach them the importance of conservation?
SHARON MURRAY, Operations Manager
Princeton Community Television
To the Editor:
Please tell me which of our city officials could possibly justify our outrageously high property tax rates when those officials have just spent thousands of our tax dollars (along with state money) badly needed for education et al, installing absolutely useless thermoplastic bicycles on our streets? It may well be that Princeton drivers have not been particularly welcoming to bicyclists in their lanes or that rogue bikers are routinely going the wrong way; as a driver and biker I’ve experienced none of these problems, but perhaps I’ve just missed the huge crisis during the 14 years that I’ve been living here? But to think that drivers and bikers don’t know what the rules are — rather than that they just don’t care — or that their bad behavior will be modified in any way by these expensive graphics called “sharrows” (an invented and inane name), strikes me as unbelievably naïve.
EMILY C. BARTELS
Walnut Lane