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Vol. LXIII, No. 36
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Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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Vol. LXIII, No. 36
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Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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Tilghman Pitts
Christopher Drive
Ettl Farm
Jerry Berkelhammer
Allison Road
Eva Kaplan
Pennington
Lucille B. Gaignault
Bank Street
To the Editor:
The officials of the Princeton Township Public Works Department need to get out and smell the flowers. Literally! If they did, they might notice that one of the pleasant consequences of the region’s current warming trend is that the gardening season lasts longer than it did in the past. Flowers, ornamental grasses, shrubs and the like, which had as recently as a decade ago, been relegated to the compost heap by late October now thrive well into November. Unfortunately, the Public Works Department still schedules its last collection of brush for the first full week in October when many gardens still flourish. Perhaps it’s time to rethink the current policy.
Those of us who do our own gardening — and there are more than a few of us left — are forced to hire crews to cart away brush at considerable expense because the Township suspends its pick-up earlier than necessary. Is it fair that those who pay taxes in the Township are effectively forced to pay for the same service twice? The Public Works Department should take its cue from Mother Nature and move the final brush removal date back a month. As it is, in September and October when the trucks roll through the neighborhoods to remove brush, they often find very little to remove.
To be sure, this is not the most important decision Princeton Township has to face, but unlike the inexplicable decision to close Rosedale Road for 135 days to replace a bridge that could have been replaced in half the time, it is one that is guaranteed to please. In many cases change is a good thing. In this instance, taking a cue from our changing climate and letting gardeners enjoy their gardens a bit longer, without incurring extra expense for doing so, is change that can be enjoyed by all.
Tilghman Pitts
Christopher Drive
Ettl Farm
To the Editor:
In his letter in the August 26 Town Topics congratulating Township Committee for endorsing the concept of a Princeton Ridge Preserve, Daniel Harris assumes the resolution would include the Lowe tract on Bunn Drive.
Township Committee has long recognized the lack of suitable senior housing in Princeton. In particular it has indicated its support of the Hillier plan for senior housing on the Lowe tract.
I, too, have an assumption about the resolution. I assume it does not include the Lowe tract.
Jerry Berkelhammer
Allison Road
To the Editor:
I’ve just been made aware of a bill that has been introduced before New Jersey’s State Legislature by current elected Assembly members Reed Gusciora and Sheila Oliver. This bill is designed to effectuate mandatory consolidation of many of our New Jersey local towns and to establish local governments for the then new municipalities. Little did I know that New Jersey, as a state, has sovereignty beyond its residents’ opposition to such consolidation! To assuage our townspeople, Assemblyman Gusciora and Assemblywoman Oliver have included an alternative to consolidation — requirement to share community services for fiscal soundness. If passed, this bill requires that the aforementioned specifications be realized within six to ten years. Evidently, the bill’s proponents don’t care about addressing places that have balanced budgets with minimal property tax increases or whose members are willing to have higher taxes to support their 24/7 police protection, self-sufficient well water supply, etc. These historic towns will inevitably lose their small, hometown ambiance — their quality of life. Throughout our great country, citizens lament that the Federal Government wants to usurp States’ Rights but what about the State Government turning around and doing likewise to its cities and towns? Please prevent this Bill A4077 Gusciora from being passed.
Eva Kaplan
Pennington
To the Editor:
It is both sad and alarming to read that in our presumably enlightened community there are still pet owners who have never heard of spaying and neutering their animals (Town Topics, August 26, “57 Cats Captured in Borough Neighborhood”). Cats are sensitive, intelligent creatures which deserve better than to proliferate, flea-ridden, neglected, ill, and unloved.
Mark Johnson already has his hands full coping with the local wildlife, and SAVE already had too many cats; now, because of someone’s total disregard for the most elementary rules of cat ownership, much time and money must be spent to trap, spay, neuter, de-flea, vaccinate, and find decent homes for dozens of cats. O tempora! O mores!
Lucille B. Gaignault
Bank Street