The following statement was delivered at the celebration event on Saturday, October 20, at the home of David and Sue Parris following the re-opening of the Route 1 jughandles.
Atribute to Eric Payne, Tamerra Moeller, and Sue Parris, those involved with Smart Traffic Solutions, and to the people of Penns Neck:
Who will ever forget what our neighborhood has gone through in the last few months? It was like reading the stories about your favorite sports teams and players — who is up, who is down, who is on the bench, who is ahead, and who is behind. Except this wasn’t a sporting event. The NJDOT Route 1 Pilot Study was — and is — a drama with plenty of characters, character development, and even with surprise climaxes.
I have come up with a descriptive phrase for all that we have gone through. I wish I made up this phrase. It was used by the people of the South after the event to describe the Civil War, and most recently it was used by politics professor Larry Sabato of my beloved University of Virginia to describe the forced resignation and reinstatement of University President Teresa Sullivan:
“The Recent Unpleasantness.”
And this is the phrase I will use from now on.
Many of us were stretched in what we could do, and what we did in response — interactions with township officials, with township staff, with commuters at the rail station early in the morning and in the early evening hours, with parents at back to school nights, in casual conversations with strangers while in a line to make a purchase, in extended conversations with those who overheard the first conversations. We walked the streets, stood in the middle of the street, with fliers or petition appeals cards in hand to give to any passerby, to the stopped cars on Washington Road and on the surrounding streets, and to the stranger’s car in your driveway.
The community of Penns Neck roared, and the roar could be heard in the chambers and offices of Township Hall, in the chambers of the County Freeholders in Trenton, in the offices of State Assembly and State Senate Representatives, in the editorial offices throughout this region, in emails, in text messages, in tweets, in Facebook likes, and in particular, at a certain government agency in Ewing Township, the State Department of Transportation.
It was a good thing that Commissioner James Simpson acted with the closure of the Route One Pilot Study last Saturday. The lions of Penns Neck were roaring, and getting louder, helped by those affected in the surrounding area, and there would be no silence between here and Trenton.
Another thing happened for me — a joy amidst this adversity. I have come to meet and get to know some wonderful people right beyond my doorstep — fellow residents who care and have a deep passion for this place we call home. The lions are continuing to build a community, and the building of this lion’s den is actively watched admirably by those surrounding us.
Sam Beard of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service has impressed this idea upon me. The efforts of one person can truly make a difference. The greatness of our community and our nation has been because of the efforts of volunteers, ordinary people doing extraordinary things, to make the world a better place by caring for the needs of others.
I extend a heart-filled thank you to Eric Payne, Tamerra Moeller, and Sue Parris, for their dedicated service on behalf of our community, and for helping us to achieve what has now happened. I doubt these three persons have slept much at all in the last month, putting aside all other obligations and priorities of life, to focus on achieving the opening of the jughandles, and the restoration of our community. Again, thank you. Thank you bigtime.
We are not done yet in having a perfect traffic solution. We know that.
And I look forward to the day — some day — that we can look back at the recent unpleasantness and laugh at the absurdity of it all.
Curtis Hoberman
Penns Neck
