Letters

I am very excited about New Jersey becoming the 11th state to pass a no-smoking law.

I have been in the food and beverage industry for more than 17 years, and I think it is about time that I and my fellow co-workers are awarded the same consideration that everyone else enjoys. You are not allowed to smoke in our hospitals, office buildings and schools. Why? Because smoking kills.

People are saying that it will hurt business, but I disagree. Take a look at the surrounding states that have passed a similar law, and they have full bars and restaurants.

In this day and age, people are still going out to eat and drink. Smokers are used to stepping outside to light up at work — now they will have to do the same at our bars and restaurants.

Finally, I will be able to breathe clean air in my place of work. I can’t wait for April 15.

Greg Wathen

Milltown

Don’t waste tax dollars on unnecessary bus service

The Monroe Township government has just started a shuttle-bus service for its seniors. This service is to be paid out of local property taxes.

The rationale for the service, according to Township Councilman Irwin Nalitt, is to make life easier for the township’s senior citizens. However admirable Mr. Nalitt’s intentions, he needs a reality check.

The vast majority of the senior citizens (age 55 and above) in Monroe drive their own cars. Very few seniors need bus service. However, for the few that do, there is already a substantial amount of bus service in Monroe. All of the planned retirement communities (PRCs), including Mr. Nalitt’s community of Concordia, offer transportation services to their residents. The backup to the PRC service is the Middlesex County Area-Wide Trans-portation Service (AWTS). I see the AWTS vans in my community, Rossmoor, on a daily basis.

I had assumed that the PRC services and AWTS were doing the job, but according to Mr. Nalitt, they are not. Why else would Monroe start its own bus company?

Instead of squandering tax dollars on an unneeded bus service, Mr. Nalitt and the other council members should be visiting the PRCs and demanding that they improve the bus service that they provide.

Next, they need to go to the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders and demand that the freeholders fix AWTS so that the seniors in Monroe can be better served.

However, things don’t always happen instantaneously. In the interim between the demands for and the actual improvements, I have a plan for the mayor and council to assist the Monroe seniors, and that is for the mayor and council to drive the seniors themselves. After all, they all have cars and drive.

Three council members, Vincent Tamburro, Irwin Nalitt and Henry Miller, are retired and have unlimited amounts of time. Mayor Richard Pucci and Councilwoman Joanne Connelly are employed at the county. These six should be more than sufficient.

Since Irwin Nalitt is the spokesperson for this service, I would recommend that seniors contact him to schedule their ride.

Harold V. Kane

Monroe

Triangle activities have appearance of ‘bait-and-switch’

Shawn P. Taylor, chairman of the East Brunswick Democratic Organization, provided quite a spin in his letter to the editor (“Setting Record Straight on Golden Triangle,” Sentinel, Jan. 26) accusing me of misinformation, distortion and fabrication regarding my letter to the editor in the Jan. 12 issue of the Sentinel (“Contract Should Be Rebid to Avoid Appearance of Pay-to-Play”).

First of all, I didn’t state that the East Brunswick Democratic Party and the candidates for mayor and Township Council received direct contributions from Toll Brothers. I did state that Toll Brothers contributed $35,000 to the political party in power. To support my claim for this statement, I did a brief search on the Internet and found that Toll Brothers and its principals contributed $47,400 to the Democratic Party throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The Golden Triangle activities surrounding the review and acceptance of the proposals have all the appearances of a “bait-and-switch” deal. Let’s look at the facts as presented to the people of East Brunswick.

We were told that the Toll Brothers proposal was the best provided by developers. The proposal contained two conditions that were very acceptable — there would be only 200-plus age-restricted residential units, and the height of the buildings would not exceed 60 feet. During negotiations, after the Toll Brothers proposal was accepted, the age-restricted units were discarded in favor of 400-plus nonage-restricted units. Had this been in the original proposal, I doubt that the proposal would have been accepted. The same goes for the change in building heights from 60 to 120 feet.

For those who are not familiar with the term “bait and switch,” it relates to retail merchants who offer a desirable item at a low cost that is very attractive to buyers. When the buyer attempts to buy the item, he or she is greeted by a slick salesperson who states that the item has been sold out and that a less desirable item is available. The salesperson is persuasive and sells the item that brings more profit to the seller. Sound familiar?

I can understand how the council, planning staff and the citizen committee chose the original Toll Brothers proposal, but I cannot understand how they were sold a whole new concept that would have been refused, in my opinion, if presented originally. It doesn’t follow any logical thinking.

To make matters worse for the taxpayers of East Brunswick, I was told that the mortgage held by the township on the property would not be charged any interest. How about that? Toll Brothers owes the township $27 million and will pay it off without any interest. The township could really use interest money for many expenses or reducing property taxes.

I have questions regarding the effect the Golden Triangle will have on the township.

• How many one- and two-bedroom units will be constructed, and how many children are anticipated to be residing in those units?

• How many services will be required (i.e., fire protection, police protection, garbage removal and snow removal), and at what cost?

• Will there be a strain on our sewer and water system?

• What amount of taxes is expected from this development?

• What effect, if any, will it have on the traffic flow on Route 18?

Frank J. Coury

East Brunswick

Superintendent of schools extends thanks to community

The entire Monroe community should be publicly thanked for the overwhelming support that was extended toward passing the Jan. 24 referendum for a new elementary school. The voter turnout was exceptional, and, as demonstrated by the margin of 3,481 yes votes as opposed to 1,697 no votes, there is certainly a clear mandate to move forward with this much-needed project.

It was especially gratifying to observe that all facets of the community supported this referendum. Not only did the parents of the district’s children vote to overwhelmingly support this project, the voters residing within the district’s planned retirement communities demonstrated their support. I would like to personally thank all the residents who voted positively for this project.

Mayor Richard Pucci, members of the Monroe Township Council, Ernie Feist (the township engineer) and the township administration should also be thanked for their continued collaboration with the Board of Education. It was through their efforts that the township was able to donate to the board the 30 acres that are necessary to build the school on Applegarth Road. This is just another example of how the township and the board are working together to address the continued increases to the district’s enrollment.

Finally, I would like to thank all my administrators, the Monroe Township Education Association, the district’s PTOs and other parent-teacher associations, and Kids 1st for all their outstanding efforts that went into passing this much-needed referendum.

Ralph P. Ferrie, Ed.D.

superintendent of schools

Monroe

Many contributed to passage of school referendum

On behalf of the Monroe Township Board of Education and the students in our district, I would like to thank the community for its overwhelming support of our recent bond referendum for a new elementary school.

I’d especially like to thank the Kids 1st. organization and the PTAs/PTOs in our township for their support in understanding the need for this school and their help in getting out our message.

With our school population growing at a rate of 300-350 students per year and the possibility of utilizing 60 portable classrooms next year, this new school will help ease the overcrowding as we continue to give our children a quality education in quality facilities they deserve.

Again, thanks to all of you who have made this possible.

Kathy Kolupanowich

president

Monroe Township Board of Education