As election day approaches on Tuesday, November 2, and voters head to the polls, one thing is certain: Democrats Mike Weaver and Ed Yates will be reelected to serve their third terms on the Plainsboro Township Committee. That is because they are running unopposed. But that is not so unusual because they both ran unopposed in 2001. ##M:[more]##
“I’m not sure why the Republicans don’t run against us,” says Yates. “You’d have to ask them.”
For Weaver it is simply that Plainsboro residents are pleased with the status quo. “From our polling, the vast majority of residents are pleased with the direction in which the township is going,” he says. “It is difficult to mount a challenge when the citizens are by-and-large happy. There are certainly things that need to be addressed, but the quality of life in Plainsboro is something that its residents are pleased with.”
Both incumbents say that Plainsboro’s accomplishments include the Village Center, which is now beginning construction; continued smart growth planning; and the fact that Plainsboro enjoys the highest bond rating and lowest tax rate in Middlesex County.
Yates, who works for the Five Star Electrical Corporation, says that he is particularly pleased with the fact that 50 percent of the land in the township is preserved land. Weaver, who is also the deputy of community affairs for the State of New Jersey, points to the creation of the Plainsboro Municipal cable channel. “I spearheaded the cable television advisory committee that negotiated the creation of the channel,” he says. The township received a $100,”000 grant from Comcast to provide equipment.
Both committeemen say that there are important issues the township faces during the next three years. “We need to continue the municipal and community improvements, such as the Village Center, the new library, intersection improvements, and traffic issues,” says Weaver. He also says that tax fairness in Plainsboro, particularly as it relates to school taxes, will be important issue to pursue during his next term.
Yates says that he would like to pursue a reduction of truck traffic along Dey Road. “The municipal waste trucks are getting off the turnpike, evidently to avoid the tolls, and coming down Dey Road toward Route 1 and Interstate 95,” says Yates. “The supreme court overturned the state regulation (that allowed towns to restrict interstate trucks from using local roads), but (congressman) Rush Holt is trying to change that. Those roads are just not designed for that kind of traffic.”
