To the Editor: Teachers’ Contract##M:[more]##
I read your article about the teachers’ contract becoming derailed over health insurance for domestic partners. An important issue was missing from the article: Do our teachers currently contribute toward their health insurance? And, if not, will they contribute under the new contract? I would like to know.
Look, I respect the work that our teachers do, and we have at least three teachers in our neighborhood — all wonderful, hard-working women. But I have had to contribute toward my health insurance for about 15 years now, as have most non-government workers, and it keeps going up every year. On top of that, our raises have had a 4 percent maximum for the last four years, while the teachers are being offered 4.85 percent. In short, I think the proposed contract is a bit too generous, compared to what I see out here in the real world.
If the school board wants to give the teachers 4.85 percent, fine — but not with free health insurance too. As for “domestic partners,” it sounds to me like the union leaders don’t realize how good they have it and they’ve gotten a bit greedy.
Martin Timins
West Windsor
Editor’s note: The teachers do not contribute anything to the cost of their health benefits in the current contract, nor will they in the next contract. “Under the state health benefits law, they can’t,” says board member Stan Katz. For more on the contract talks, see story, page 1.
Vision Says Thanks
The Community Vision Team would like to thank you, the voters, for giving us your overwhelming support in the 2005 municipal elections. Throughout the campaign we had multiple opportunities to listen to your issues, concerns, and hopes for our community. Please continue to communicate with us. We will work hard to make West Windsor an even more desirable place to live.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to give a special thank you to all of you who gave assistance by campaigning with us door to door, hosting “coffees,” putting up signs, creating websites, and making donations and phone calls. The extra effort was phenomenal. A job well done!
We look forward to serving all West Windsor residents with exciting plans for the future.
Shing-Fu Hsueh, Mayor
Linda Geevers, Council Member-elect
Heidi Kleinman, Council Member-elect
Miller’s Mark
I thank Alison Miller for her contributions and her dedication to the politics of West Windsor Township. She has been on the council for many years. She cares about the community. She always speaks her mind. She is a true independent. There are many projects around town in which we can see her mark.
Perhaps she lost her bid for mayor because her constituency is not the majority, but her opinion should be counted and respected. I hope that she will continue to serve the community in other capacities.
Joseph Sun
West Windsor
A Call for Tenants’ Rights
The following is a letter submitted to state Senator Peter Inverso (R-14th), and assembly members Linda Greenstein (D-14th) and Bill Baroni (R-14th).
For the past two years I have worked as an advocate for tenants’ rights in Plainsboro. My activities are much needed in addressing bias against tenants. In our society tenants are not given the same consideration as the landlords who take our rent. This is a throw-back to the early days of our Republic, when only landowners had any real rights, such as voting or slave-ownership. This system is an anachronism. It is our money that pays the property taxes: 18 percent of our rents go to property taxes. In Plainsboro that amounts to about $175 per month for a one-bedroom apartment. No one with a one-bedroom apartment needs the school system we are paying for.
Primarily we are protesting the $40 per month added for surcharges on services that we believe should be covered in the rent as stipulated in the Warranty of Habitability. The common sense of this should be self evident. We are being taxed through these surcharges without our rights being protected.
There is almost nothing built into New Jersey’s system to protect tenants’ interests. Our only recourse is the courts, where bias for landlords’ interests has been evident as well. We need a stricter code of laws to protect tenants’ rights.
Penalties are the individual application of the law. Laws specify the penalties. Clarity prevails when mild or severe penalties are clearly differentiated according to the nature of the crime. Laws are strengthened by a just application of penalties. This clarity and severity serve to instill respect for the law. It is not that penalties are ends in themselves. That would result in another sort of corruption; as if revenue enhancement from small-town speed-traps represents law enforcement, and not some racket sanctioned by a local judge’s rationalizations.
The obstructions suffered in the social life of any group increase when there is a lack of clarity in their legal codes and slackness in executing them. The way to strengthen the law is to make it clear and to make penalties certain and swift.
None of these principles of sound governance can be seen in the way Plainsboro, or New Jersey as a whole, treats our rental population. If the Warranty of Habitability can be taken as a baseline of what tenants can expect for their rent money, then Plainsboro is rife with gross injustice.
Many of us call it cronyism and a dire corruption of sound capitalism. Our rights have been trampled for profits to out-of-state corporations. Why has (Plainsboro Mayor Peter Cantu’s) administration allowed millions of dollars to leave our community in this way? Real rent control would have put an end to it, and kept about $10 million in town. We need new laws and clean government, not crony capitalism that takes millions of dollars out of state for the use of our water.
Assemblywoman Greenstein offered to sponsor a bill addressing this situation on February 2 of this year. Since then about a quarter of a million dollars has been taken out of AIMCO properties alone, as surcharges for the use of water/sewer. This loss of money is not good for our community or state. While working on the budget please take these facts into consideration. Laws against this kind of bilking with keep money here.
Patrick D. Goldsmith
Plainsboro
Founder of TRAIN (Tenants Rights and Information Network)
Time to Resurrect Plainsboro Rail?
I have long been a proponent of the two-mile Dinky extension from Princeton Junction into Plainsboro.
The purpose of a Plainsboro Dinky Station is that it permits train access for residents/workers/reverse commuters, via interconnection, to New York, Philadelphia, and beyond, for residential and Forrestal commercial and seniors communities. It also permits excellent access to Newark Airport. Taxpayer and corporate money currently spent ferrying passengers to and from Plainsboro to Princeton Junction, New York City, and the airports, could more conveniently and cost-effectively catch the Dinky to Princeton Junction.
This would occur within existing right-of-way with a refurbished railbed. Over the past 18 years through sustained efforts, I have tried to effect a public-private partnership with Merrill Lynch, New Jersey Transit, and Plainsboro Township. I believe we could add additional progressive corporate partners such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Forrestal Center. The new owners of the Merrill property should recognize the obvious benefits of being able to entertain guests, conferences, and training opportunities via the Dinky to its doorstep.
I believe we need to put money toward actual construction, instead of studying it ad nauseam. I have kept Mayor Peter Cantu apprised of my efforts. George Warrington, executive director of NJT, is the former president of Amtrak. Amtrak controls the right of way and its current financial plight presents a unique opportunity. Mr. Warrington might facilitate or mitigate any obstacles to the public-private partnership which might increase rail revenues to the Northeast Corridor.
The key? A public-private partnership that will bring our communities — business and residential — together with untold benefits.
Dormant rail construction equipment situated at the Jersey Avenue railyards a few miles away can lay a mile of track in one day. A proposed Plainsboro Dinky station/platform cuts down on commuter/residential traffic through Grovers Mill and Princeton Junction when Plainsboro could have its own “kiss & ride” station and covered platform. It could have a paid commuter parking garage on either side of the Scudders Mill Road signaled intersection. The station platform itself might be constructed near the current helipad adjacent to the Merrill Lynch Training & Conference Center or in the shadows of the Scudders Mill Road overpass/bridge.
Expanding the base of the bridge at Plainsboro Road would need to be done to permit Dinky passage and eliminate the current danger of that bridge. This is a nominal expense as part of the capital improvement.
Transit/Dinky tickets can be sold via the ticket vending machines found in all NJT stations. Staffed ticket offices would continue in Princeton Junction.
Continued existence of the Dinky is based on the argument that it feeds additional passenger revenue into NJT/Amtrak. It provides improved access between and among the communities of Princeton University, Princeton Borough, Princeton Junction, and Plainsboro. Such an expansion meets that economic test. It also permits the equipment to be more effectively utilized during extended periods of downtime awaiting the arrivals/departures of trains at Princeton Junction.
In light of ever-increasing energy and transportation costs, this might be an excellent time to revisit this. The universe of those to benefit from this extension has expanded. We have many area transportation consortia, planners, and community leaders who might scrutinize this. I believe this is a less invasive solution to the extraordinary studies and hundreds of thousands of plan dollars being spent on Bus Rapid Transit. The planners have had their way for 20 years; now it is time to do something!
I would like to invite area leaders to look at this two-mile extension to see if the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.
Since a picture saves 1,”000 words, I invite the West Windsor & Plainsboro News to provide some simple pictures to illustrate and educate our communities. You might also interview key civic and corporate leaders as well as regular townspeople and commuters to document why this idea deserves area-wide support. Peter R. Weale
144 Fisher Place, West Windsor
Men’s Health Alert
Take notice, men! June 13 to 19 is National Men’s Health Week, and although men of all ages should have routine checkups and seek preventive care or health counseling from their physicians, the majority do not. Three times as many men as women have not seen a doctor — and more than half of all men have not had a physical exam – in the previous year.
Many of the top ten cases of death and disability, as well as many of the normal changes that occur as men age, can be prevented or delayed with early diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, it is common for men to avoid seeking care until they are in their 40s. The most common reasons given include cost, time constraints, fear of what might be discovered, lack of trust in the medical system and a general discomfort in discussing health related issues.
We need to increase awareness among men about the value of preventive care in their overall health, as well as specific male-related health problems such as prostate and testicular cancer.
In addition, making positive lifestyle choices — eating a lower fat diet, getting regular exercise, not smoking, drinking in moderation, and keeping your weight under control — are also key factors for staying healthy. Early detection, prompt treatment and prevention are equal partners in maintaining good health throughout an entire lifetime.
Robert Hary
Health Officer, West Windsor
Correction
The article on Hannah Lohr-Pearson, the nine-year-old performing at the New School for Music Study (The News, May 13) incorrectly identified Hannah’s mother. She is Jane Lohr.
Joanne Tyne, the musicologist and teacher of music history referred to in the article, is Hannah’s Suzuki piano teacher.
The News regrets the error.
