Letters

’Balance is the key’ in train station redevelopment

As I raise a third generation in the town of Matawan, I can honestly say, “There’s no place like home.” I have seen many changes, but what remains is as necessary to my Aberdeen neighbors — literally across the street — as it is to my Matawan side.

When looking at the front page of the Independent Aug. 10 issue, I am once again reminded the Aberdeen government seems to think it should be put above Matawan. I am referring to the train station sign. I am not going to pretend I understand all the politics involved, but it certainly appears the Matawan government cared more about the effects this train station redevelopment plan was going to have on residents than did Aberdeen. Let’s face it, the more valuable residential properties are not located on “that side of the tracks.”

I guess none of this should surprise me when we live in a time that finds government taking its residents’ homes based on the conclusion that their buddy builder corporation can provide a valuable fiscal improvement to the town. In other words, the end justifies the means.

So to Matawan and Aberdeen government, I propose you practice as I do with my neighbors across the street, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The two towns face each other on my end of Atlantic Avenue every day. We both hope for the same things. As we wave to each other, the line in the middle of the street is something we simply cross over to see how the other is doing. It doesn’t block our view of seeing the children playing and growing. It doesn’t get in the way of feeling sad when a neighbor moves or in welcoming the newcomer. It doesn’t make us think our side of the street should look better. After all, which side do you see when you come out of your front door every day?

I propose to both sides — stop, look and listen. We can all benefit from this change if it is handled with care and consideration — balance is the key here. It is not going to be an easy accomplishment. Anything worth having never is. Yet, if we can clearly define our goals, then our journey there can be a growing experience.

Perhaps a piece of history can be honored again — a time when our towns were the same town. Check your history books — once upon a time there was a place called Middletown Point and they lived (yet to be determined) every after.

Patricia Tamburello

Matawan

First Aid Council endorses ICE system

We never know when we might fall ill while away from home, become incapacitated in a motor vehicle accident or even a mass-casualty incident. To help emergency officials contact a victim’s loved ones, there is a new system called ICE (In Case of Emergency). The ICE campaign encourages cell phone users to program emergency contact information into their phones under the ICE listing.

This could allow emergency responders and hospital staffs to access contacts and quickly alert family or friends. It also might help rescuers obtain vital medical information about a patient who cannot convey the information himself. ICE is free and easy to use, but it’s not foolproof. Password-protected cell phones might prohibit access to the information, or an accident might render a cell phone inoperable.

Nevertheless, the nonprofit New Jersey State First Aid Council — which represents more than 20,000 emergency medical services (EMS) volunteers throughout New Jersey — endorses the ICE campaign and urges Garden State residents to use it. It could help save precious time and lives.

David Schimmel

Director of Mobilization and Disaster Services

New Jersey State First Aid Council

Hazlet resident doesn’t want ‘mudslinging campaign’

Recently the Democratic candidates for Township Committee unveiled a less-expensive alternate plan to building the town hall in Veterans Park, involving purchasing and renovating an existing building on Middle Road. There is a dispute in the cost of the alternate plan, though when the higher cost Scott Broschart claims is considered, the alternative plan would still have saved us $3.5 million.

Broschart claims this alternative plan is a scam and will result in a 17.5 percent tax increase. The only way these numbers work out to this kind of increase is if the property were purchased and completely paid for in the same year. I wonder why he didn’t consider financing this alternative plan like the Township Committee’s plan.

Let’s look at the Township Committee’s plan for a $5.5 million town hall. If this amount were to be paid in the same year instead of financed, the tax increase would be 58 percent. Neither plan is really feasible for a lump-sum payment and would be financed. Yet he would have us believe the alternate plan would result in this huge tax increase. Who is really scamming us here?

We have a member of the Township Committee who is clearly more interested in partisan politics than considering the best interests of Hazlet. Had he considered the plan and simply stated a few reasons why he feels the plan would or would not work, I could accept that. Instead, he comes out accusing others of perpetrating a scam, and manipulates the information in an effort to make the plan he supports look better — in effect, scamming us. We need representation that will put Hazlet’s best interest ahead of partisan politics.

We here in Hazlet have not had the same type of mudslinging smear campaigns that are often seen on the state- and national-level campaigns. We are a quiet bedroom community and do not want this type of politics here. If you want to participate in this type of politics, then run for a state office and get out of Hazlet. Don’t drag us down into the gutter with you.

Tom Donnelly

Hazlet

Keep the dream of Mabel Smith Douglass alive

News headlines about Rutgers University’s plans to reduce its distinct and separate colleges into residential campuses greatly disturbed me. I am not an alumnus, but a resident who took pride in my state’s great university system. I am also a legislator who knows such an act will forever change the character of Rutgers.

Most of all, I am deeply disturbed that Douglass College — the largest and most outstanding of women’s colleges — is threatened with extinction by its parent. I hope many New Jerseyans question this task force recommendation so a thorough discussion can take place. Many mistakes are made in the name of “simplifying” or “streamlining” existing procedures. If indeed this achieves administrative efficiency, it is a great price to pay.

Blending Douglass College into the larger Rutgers system as a campus will in fact eliminate the college distinguished as the No. 1 women’s college by “Money Magazine’s Guide to Best College Buys Now.” Unlike other higher-education institutions, Douglass offers a unique experience to women as a college within a large research university. Douglass women are educated in the coed environment of the larger world outside the campus borders, but have their own campus organizations and groups, competing with their female peers for leadership roles within Douglass. So what, you say?

It is in just such settings where the early steps of strong women leaders both encouraged by the faculty and taken by the students. It is an environment where high expectations are met with high performance. Of the small numbers of corporate CEOs and board of directors members in the United States who are women, an overwhelming majority of them were graduates of women’s colleges. We need more women in these circles of power, and we must continue to support the institutions which help them get there. Douglass College is just such a place, with many innovative programs, such as Douglass project for women in math, science and engineering, the public leadership education network, and where the Center for the American Woman in Politics, the Center for Women and Work, the Institute for Women’s Leadership, and the Center for Women’s Global Leadership are located. Douglass students have many places to explore, grow, and challenge themselves and others, while developing into leaders in the process.

As a society, we are diminished because women still face barriers in taking their rightful place in positions of power in government, business and politics. As a member of the New Jersey Legislature for more than 24 years, I have seen women members arrive and leave, but their numbers have not grown in great proportion. At present, only 15.8 percent of our state Legislature is female. And at this time, we have no women serving in New Jersey’s 15-member congressional delegation.

“Dissolving” Douglass College is just the kind of plan that will impede the progress of women’s movement into top positions, whether it be in the public sphere or the private sphere. I call upon all who value the contributions of both men and women in all arenas of life to question the Rutgers plan to absorb Douglass College into the larger Rutgers identity. I urge you to contact President Richard McCormick and tell him it is a terrible idea. I think in this case, the sum of the parts of Rutgers University is greater (and stronger) than the whole. As a legislator, I will do whatever I can to help keep the dream of Mabel Smith Douglass, the New Jersey Federation of Women’s Clubs, and all proud women graduates of Douglass College, alive. I urge all other legislators to do the same.

Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina

Middletown