Hersh For Council
I like Diane Ciccone. My run for council has never been about beating Diane. My run for Council is about serving you, the community of West Windsor. I happen to have the background, resourceful energy, and leadership skills that West Windsor needs, and I want to help. The choice is between “well intended” and “gets it done.” It is time for action.
If you want the township to go green and improve your quality of life, but you are tired of paying more and more taxes, you elect the person who has spent over 17,000 hours doing similar work. You elect the person who has a long track record of success in delivering budget decreases at the same time as service improvements in the public and private sectors. That expert is me.
If you want to improve safety in the community for your children and grandchildren and improve walkways to and from the train station, you elect the person who has a three- year-old child, the person who inherently gets what needs to be done to keep children safe, the person who walks to the train station. That father and commuter is me.
If you want to rejuvenate 571 between Wallace and Alexander roads and are tired of hearing that 571 is a priority while no action is taken, you elect the person who is taking action on 571. You elect the person who led the petitioning of the Mayor and Council to focus on improving 571 first, before we divert our attention and resources elsewhere. You elect the person who created the 571 Day event. You elect the person who arranged for the new property manager of the Acme shopping center to come out and have a dialogue with township residents. You elect the person who won’t stop until 571 is rejuvenated. That community leader is me.
If you want someone who will bring openness and responsiveness back to Council, you elect the person who puts his personal cell phone number and E-mail on his campaign business card. You elect the person whom you know will call you back, regardless of the hour your emergency takes place. You elect the person who will listen to you and engage you in determining the solution. You elect the person who understands that receiving your vote is not because I am your oldest friend, but because you know I will fight for you every single day and achieve your goals for West Windsor. If you vote for me, I will be that Council member.
Andrew Hersh
5 Halstead Place
More For Hersh
I met Andrew last year when he and his son moved into our neighborhood. Living in a small townhome community affords you the opportunity to spend quality time with your neighbors, and I can tell you Andrew is a quality neighbor. He’s friendly, honest, dedicated, and passionate. He’s the type of neighbor you can trust your children with. He truly cares about West Windsor and making it the “best place to live” for all of us.
Andrew is smart, articulate, and has a keen business sense. His work experience (risk management), and more importantly his work successes (saving companies millions of dollars without cutting quality services), are invaluable traits.
What most impresses me about Andrew is his commitment to being a much-needed bridge builder within and between the West Windsor Council, the community, and organizations that promote and support our township. Andrew is a step in the right direction in creating a non-partisan council that is going to put “our” needs first.
Dan Damon
Halstead Place
It is long past time we take action to restore financial sanity to our town government’s glutinous spending appetite. We need responsible government that knows how to set priorities and work within a budget that both reflects the important things we need as a town, and the economic context of these times. It takes leadership to know when to say yes, when to say no. Unfortunately, this is something that is lacking from our town government, as evidenced by our average 10 percent year-over-year tax increase over the last eight years.
You have a clear choice to make on November 3. I’m sure that Diane Ciccone is a nice person and means well, but you need to make the call whether she has demonstrated the leadership we need in town government to restore fiscal sanity. During her relatively short time on council, she has voted yes for:
A 5.5 percent budget increase when our neighboring communities held their budgets at a 0 percent increase. Her claim was that she came into the budget process too late to vote anything but yes.
To spend initially almost $1 million of your tax dollars on refurbishing the old fire house for use by the arts council. You ask yourself if an isolated old firehouse with its 20 parking space makes any sense for an arts building. And with all the other space we have around town (e.g. schools, senior center, other open space we could buy/lease, private industry, Ellsworth Center’s empty buildings) was this a rational use of tax dollars?
A $20,000+/year raise to over $140,000/year for a township employee and $800,000 this year for the mayor’s transit village.
What does Andrew Hersh offer? He spearheaded the initiative to redirect our attention to 571. This is our true town center. How embarrassing is it to you to drive into our town gateway area and see the boarded up and abandoned stores? Our neighboring communities don’t have anything like this. Just us. Active member of the bike and pedestrian alliance and FOWWOS Demonstrated ability to prioritize, make the tough choices, and operate within a budget.
So when you vote, ask yourself whether you want another obedient member of the Shing Fu tax crew or someone who will fight for what is best for our town and us taxpayers. I’m voting for Andrew Hersh.
Mike Baxter
Most politicians I have listened to believe that the only way to deliver community services is to raise taxes. I found it very refreshing to listen to Andrew Hersh, candidate for West Windsor Council, share his ideas about improving the community without assaulting homeowners with the planned 8 percent tax increase next year.
During his recent talk Andrew discussed steps that he is already undertaking to reverse the blight that is plaguing the 571 corridor through a campaign called “571 First.” Andrew is meeting with landlords as well as business owners to determine efforts the township can take to help 571 businesses survive. Among ideas coming out of these discussions are paving a sidewalk, creating incentives to attract businesses, and allowing local artists (and school children) to paint the boarded buildings.
Perhaps what is most interesting about Andrew making 571 a key plank on his platform is that it reveals his sound business sense. Instead of continuing to throw as much as $800,000 a year at studying the feasibility of creating a retail mall at the Princeton Junction train station, Andrew believes that we should fix existing challenged neighborhoods first. Returning 571 to health would generate tax revenues for the township and thus reduce pressure on local homeowners. Some of his other ideas:
– Securing corporate sponsorship for community events.
– Deriving revenue by sharing services of municipal assets. For example, charging other communities for the use of West Windsor’s court house.
– Competitive bidding for municipal projects.
– Collective purchasing of services important to homeowners (e.g. lawn mowing, roofing).
Andrew seems to have the practical experience to bring his ideas to fruition. Andrew’s day job is a supply chain management expert with Marsh & McLellan. If elected, Andrew Hersh would bring West Windsor more than 17,000 hours of experience in improving services while reducing costs.
David Wanetick
2 Juliet Court
West Windsor needs a new councilmember who will be able to analyze complex issues and offer the best solutions. Andrew Hersh has these qualities and more. He is bright, enthusiastic, solution- oriented and a natural consensus builder. His experience, as vice president at Marsh & McLennan, dealing with evaluation of financial impact and risk management in large and small companies, enhanced by his ability to provide constructive solutions, will be a refreshing addition to WW council.
Hersh understands that we need pragmatic solutions to fix current problems before we focus resources on new ventures. He has already started to move forward with his plan to revitalize Route 571 between Wallace and Alexander roads. His approach includes engaging the community as part of the solution. Hersh will add independent views as a councilmember, drawing upon his experience to resolve tough issues to move WW forward. Hemi Nae
11 Wycombe Way
