Following is another chapter of the on-going saga: Wild West Windsor.
I attended two public meetings (school and council) earlier this week and would like to invite you, the reader, to come out to see how and where your tax dollars are being spent. West Windsor Council meetings are an inexpensive “date night” with your spouse or dear friend and contain infinitely more intrigue than a Hollywood script. Scarcely a month ago, we were electing new representatives to Council.
Residents’ apathy is complicit with permitting runaway expenses in both the township and WW-P schools. Perhaps your property taxes are not high enough?
1. In late August prior to Hurricane Irene, I requested the township cease recycling its old steel street signs by sending them out via dumpster for 10-cents a pound. I offered to coordinate the effort at no cost to the township to sell them as mementoes . Proceeds would go to the WW Historical Society or a local restoration project. Result? Silence.
2. We have no feedback from a proposal (on November 18) to lease a portion of the privately owned American Cyanamid Research greenhouses for the fledgling medical marijuana enterprise being fought throughout the state. Trenton legislators would be eager to check on the “operations and sampling” by driving to West Windsor during lunch hour. The former $2 million annual ratable languishes but the state is preparing to purchase and construct operations throughout the state.
3. West Windsor Council’s agenda meeting was a marathon two-plus hours. It was conveniently not videotaped, which permits Council to discuss — and enact — controversial resolutions without a pesky public. To wit: a $150,000 Nature Center proposal plus $117,291 for another Public Works truck. (Shouldn’t West Windsor wait to purchase some old mail trucks and retrofit them with snow plows?)
If the current sewer break crisis near the train station remains a financial unknown, why are officials racing to spend money on dream projects that might wait? Previously I have expressed concern about where funding will come from to replace our aging infrastructure as the Shing Dynasty continues its unabated spending.
4. The leasing particulars for the US Postal Service at Princeton Junction remain somewhat secret. Our government leaders never explained why the post office moved from downtown Route 571! What are your suggestions for future uses? How will West Windsor replace the current $11,000 monthly rent and still subsidize the Arts Council? Note: USPS is on the fast track to lose $14.1B in 2012.
5. Discussion continued about funding for the Penns Neck flood water study. Washington Road has flooded at least once a year for the past 28 years of my residency and the preceding 50 years. Adding to the flooding will be the proposed 800 dwelling units from InterCap’s new transit village.
Shouldn’t a project exacerbating the problem contribute funding to mitigate the problem? Where is Mercer County funding? What is available from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Board? And why is this just starting now when West Windsor’s mayor — involved as an elected official for almost 20 years — is a professional PhD water expert?
6. Should you be asking when the township taxpayers will receive reimbursement of over $1 million spent on engineers, architects, consultants, lawyers, and litigation — without your approval? Why would elected officials proceed with this project when Council members never presented their own fiscal analysis instead of relying on financial information from the developer?
7. What have you heard, if anything, regarding the departure of Tyco from Roszel Road? And the storied Hillier architectural firm on Alexander Road has quietly closed its West Windsor operations. Need some office space?
8. The WW-P school district might be sitting on a surplus of $10 million in taxpayer funds. Your money. By statute, that money must be returned to taxpayers. Too, the Board is quietly negotiating with the teacher / supervisor/ and administrator unions this year.
I have wondered how the school board can see three to five years into the future. By contrast, New York Governor Cuomo just negotiated a four-year, 55,000-member union contract for years one to three with a 0 percent freeze and a 2 percent increase in the fourth year.
There is word scarcely heard in either the township or school district: austerity.
Let’s see what the West Windsor municipal budget looks like when it is introduced in early January. Don’t forget the final Council business meeting on Monday, December 19, at 7 p.m. I hope to see you there and value your input!
Pete Weale
Penns Neck
Editor’s note: The British buyer of the Hillier firm ran into economic problems and closed the office at Alexander Park. Tyco has divided its operations on Roszel Road into three divisions, one of which will be relocated to Florida in late 2012. The company expects that the remaining two divisions will continue to have a significant presence in West Windsor.
