Canal Pointe – Just Say No to Hospital##M:[more]##
The following letter was sent to Barry S. Rabner, president and CEO of the University Medical Center at Princeton, by the Canal Pointe Condominium Association.
Dear Mr. Rabner:
We were very surprised to learn from Mayor Hsueh that Carnegie Center is on the short list of two locations now being considered for the relocation of its medical complex. We would have thought that the demonstrated opposition in the Canal Pointe Boulevard communities would have ruled-out this location as a viable alternative.
As you are aware, Canal Pointe presented petitions opposed to the medical complex project to the West Windsor council with over 400 signatures. In addition, the Canal Pointe Board of Trustees has voted to oppose the project, and is prepared to utilize its Association’s considerable resources to see that this project is never built at Carnegie Center.
Our community believes that the construction of a large medical complex at Carnegie Center will adversely affect our quality of life and, consequently, the property values in this area.
Since the contemplated site is not zoned for a hospital, building at this location will require a change in the master plan as well as a zoning variance. We are committed to challenging the legality of any such change or variance, and have no doubt that, with the means available to us, we will prevail.
If you intend that this project be realized, we urge you to consider well your other location alternatives. Personally, I support the expansion of the hospital and would welcome locating this in the West Windsor/Plainsboro area; but I hope that a more appropriate location will ultimately be chosen.
David A. Wolfe
President,
Canal Pointe Board of Trustees
Another Miss
At Rail Station
New Jersey Transit’s design of the new transit village at the Princeton Junction railroad station (The News, July 22) does not contain the most needed item, additional PARKING. NJ Transit’s design of the nearby Hamilton Railroad Station with very inadequate parking, along with the three-year wait to get a parking permit at Princeton Junction, should have been the “vision.”
Dick Stone
The Stone Group,
Human Resource Consulting, Sayre Drive
Proud of Peddie
I was very pleased and excited with your front-page story about David Kay, the local student who attends the Peddie School. When your child does not attend the local school you sometimes feel left out of the community.
We have been residents of West Windsor for 18 years. Our son Alex went to West Windsor-Plainsboro through the eighth grade and then to Peddie. Alex is also involved in an interesting program at Peddie — one of 13 students taking part of Peddie’s Summer Signature Series. Applicants must create a proposal for a three to six week project and then write a paper and give a 30-minute presentation. He just returned from Washington, D.C., where he had a four-week internship in the office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services while staying at George Washington University.
He left on July 17 for a 13-day trip to Europe (the Hague, Brussels and Paris), attending a National Student Leadership Conference, Diplomacy Abroad. During the month of August he is finishing his program with an internship in the office of Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein. It is a wonderful opportunity for a rising senior.
While we are proud residents of West Windsor and staunch supporters of the West Windsor-Plainsboro school system, we are also the proud parents of a Peddie School student.
Alisa Schlosser
Howard Drive, Princeton Junction
Plainsboro’s Taxes
The following is a letter to Plainsboro mayor Peter Cantu:
Dear Mayor Cantu:
I am a 23-year resident and have voted for you repeatedly. I am writing to tell you that I am outraged at the tax bill I just received, up $2,”100 over last year. The taxes on my two bedroom townhome are now over $6,”000.
I am a senior citizen living on a fixed income. I was under the impression that Plainsboro’s many ratables would keep our tax rate down. I do understand that we have had a revaluation of our homes.
Like myself, many homeowners will be seriously affected by this increase. Our incomes are not rising as our expenses are. I would appreciate knowing what can be done about this financial jolt.
Phyllis Spiegel
90 Tennyson Drive
I moved to Plainsboro in 1992 because of the school system. When we purchased our home, it cost $223,”000 and property taxes were $5,”000. We scrimped and saved in order to be able to afford a home here and until now have been able to make ends meet.
We received our new tax bill and nearly had heart failure. Our home was revalued at $519,”000 and our taxes increased from $7,”013 to $10,”320 — nearly a 50 percent increase.
This increase is totally absurd and will force many long-time residents and elderly citizens out of their homes. I can understand the need for an annual cost of living increase, but nowhere near 50 percent.
The tax increase is way out of line and must be overturned.
Jim Fraunberger
Plainsboro
More Criticism
Of Plainsboro PD
I emphatically support Robert Rosetta in his letter to the editor of the WW-P News on July 22. I write to further expose the travesties of justice and corruption manifested daily in Plainsboro. On June 6 I received a ticket for making a left turn onto Maple Avenue from Plainsboro Road at 8:43 a.m. I did not know that there was no left turn permitted from 7-9 a.m. nor from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. My car stereo was on, displaying the radio station and not the time. It was therefore impossible for me to evaluate the information on the sign and comply safely as an unsuspecting driver in the middle of a turn.
Immediately after I made the left turn, I was stopped by a police officer, who proceeded to give me a ticket with the patronizing “generosity” of citing me only for violating the local ordinance (96-17.1) as opposed to violating the NJ motor vehicle statute for making an “improper left turn,” a 3-point ticket.
So I called in and pleaded “not guilty.” I had to miss an entire day of school because the “not guilty” trials are always scheduled last on the court docket. When it was my turn, suddenly it needed to be postponed because the judge had a meeting that day. So it was rescheduled.
On my second court date, I again waited an entire day in court, and this time I was called up by the prosecutor and he verbally abused and harassed me. He threatened me with elevating the charges to the 3-point violation should I refuse to plead “guilty,” angrily calling me “ungrateful,” as well as threatening to tell the police department to “stop letting people off easy as they did with me.”
Rejecting the harassment, I decided to sit for a trial. But when I was called up by the judge, it turned out the cop was on vacation, and therefore my trial would have to be rescheduled again. My “motion to dismiss” was denied even though the witness was not present. Apparently, he had failed to be subpoenaed by the court, and my “not guilty” plea was not entered properly. The judge said, “I am giving the city another chance, as I would do with you.”
So now my trial is rescheduled to September 7. It turns out that, on that date, I will be in college at Harvard and will be unable to show up at court. I called the court clerk to ask for a continuance (postponement), but it was denied, on the grounds that the trial must be on a date when the officer is available. Therefore I must pay the ticket.
This is disgraceful. I am denied my Constitutional right to a fair and speedy trail after having wasted two days in court and being harassed, degraded, and ridiculed.
Yifei Chen
Villages of Princeton Crossing
