Your Turn
Pat Cambies
Guest Column
Letter writer disagrees with Cultural Arts council member’s assessment of new Middletown cultural arts center
(Open letter to Alfred D. Faust, Middletown Township Cultural and Arts Council)

Regarding your letter in the Sept. 4 issue of the Independent concerning the recent politically motivated letters and ads criticizing the work-in-progress arts center near the train station, if the arts center is not one person’s project, I wonder where those words came from?

If not one person’s pet project, it is clearly political patronage at its best. You are right. No building is attractive during construction, but we were led to believe this building was in good shape and could easily be converted. The naked eye and least experienced person could tell that was not correct. Now the building is totally taken apart and can be seen clear through that it is not in good shape. The Banfield building should be demolished.

That site should be an extension of the train station and made into commuter parking that would bring revenue into the town and eliminate the need for commuter parking at Sears.

What makes your chosen area so important that it needs a cultural center? I believe it is an area with narrow roads overburdened with traffic, insufficient signalization to ease the congestion and stacking, and not enough commuter parking at the train station so that commuters are parking in surrounding residential areas and [at] Sears.

What about the swim club we taxpayers were told we don’t pay for, but we know we do? Isn’t that just about half a block from Route 35?

To me, the swim club is a more central and easily accessible location than your chosen location.

What about Croydon Hall? Don’t we have art shows and cultural events and Middletown Day there, attended by thousands? That is close to Route 36 and accessible by bus either on Leonardville Road or Route 36.

What about any of the empty shopping centers along Route 35? Believe it or not, most people have transportation today, so placing something on either highway that goes through Middletown is probably more convenient than the area now under construction.

Instead of temporarily relocating the library to the shopping center near Chapel Hill, the township should have purchased that viable set of buildings, built the library, built the cultural/arts center, and maybe some other forms of entertainment to make it a one-stop entertainment, learning and fun area.

But I wonder if the owner of that shopping center may not be as big a political supporter as the owner of the Banfield building, or ready to retire.

We residents have a right to complain when we are told one thing and see something else. We do have a right to complain when we are told things are free and know they aren’t. We do have a right to complain when things are bought for the good of the residents by a few against a majority of the residents’ wishes.

I am sure your council does good work, but I am also sure many residents do not avail themselves of your work because there is no interest, not because there is no central location or it is free or not free, or there is plenty of parking or lack of parking. Like everything else in Middletown, eventually the taxpayers pay and pay.

With all of the things wrong in Middletown, an arts/cultural center eating up our tax dollars is not making us pleased, no matter how much you try to gloss it over. It is not a project the majority is happy with.

Shame on the Township Committee.

Pat Cambies is a resident of the Belford section of Middletown