Editor’s note: M. Patricia Ward, West Windsor’s director of community development, submitted the following in response to Pete Weale’s letter to the editor in the May 1 issue of the News. In his letter Weale took issue with many of the points made in Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh’s state of the township address.
In the May 1 issue of the WW-P News, there was a letter that presented a number of inaccuracies or misconceptions. I would like to correct these for the record.
The first concerns the mayor’s attendance at council meetings. Under our current form of government, created under the Faulkner Act (strong mayor/council), the mayor’s attendance is not required at Council meetings. Surrounding towns have different forms of government where the mayors attend meetings and vote.
Concerning overstaffing, there are not two engineers in Community Development, there is only one. The engineering division has three professionals, two of whom are licensed. These are the township engineer and the landscape architect. Among the many responsibilities each individual has, the township engineer and the landscape architect perform reviews of Planning Board applications. The professionals in the engineering division also perform inspections.
The reason that we can get so much done with so few professionals is that we augment staff with consulting engineers whom we manage. While professional service agreements (PSAs) are no-bid, we request proposals for the scope of work from a list of pre-qualified engineering firms. We then award the project to the firm we feel is best for the project at the least cost. To perform all projects with in-house staff would result in a lot fewer projects being completed.
Concerning projects like sidewalks along Cranbury Road, there is a process that we need to follow as well as coordination with Mercer County since it is a county road. Specific to Cranbury Road sidewalks, first a concept needed to be developed. This concept was then vetted among administration, council, and the public.
Now the concept can be turned into a detailed plan. We need to know the exact locations where the sidewalk will go on every property — hopefully staying in the existing right-of-way; we need to know any disruption to wetlands where we will need to get permits before starting; we need to know where slopes may need to be retained and how these should be engineered; we need to know required utility pole relocations; and we need the bid specifications that will allow us to award the project to a contractor. These projects are required to go to bid.
Concerning development in the township, the mayor is the first contact for new development coming in to the township, so he is directly involved with new businesses and business expansion.
Concerning the Grover house, it was demolished for $35,000 with funding budgeted for and approved through the standard township council process. The township has made a major investment in the Schenck Farmstead as the museum of the farming era of West Windsor.
Use of the Grover house would have been limited to a groundskeeper for the farm property by Green Acres. There was no need for a groundskeeper. There was already a farmer.
Concerning the Little Bear Brook Flood Study, the data gathering and analysis took our consultant longer than anticipated but the final report is being printed now.
I don’t know what the writer means when he states that “The West Windsor Historical Society, sans 501(c)3 non-profit designation, has been the beneficiary of $1.8 million in taxpayer funds yet there is no financial accounting to taxpayers.” The West Windsor Historical Society is a group of West Windsor residents, organized as a non-profit (not a 501(c)3). The members give of their time to locate historical artifacts that can be displayed at the Schenck Farmstead to provide school children and others with a taste of a past era in West Windsor’s farming history. They are docents of the farm giving tours and lectures.
Any money spent by the township was to restore and enhance the farmstead over many years, with funding budgeted for and approved through the standard township council process.
As far as “litigious counsel” is concerned, West Windsor gets sued as any other township and must defend itself, none of which is attributable to the mayor. Concerning “bicycle paths to nowhere,” we have a bicycle and sidewalk element of the master plan that has been followed since its adoption. While we may have missing segments, we do have a capital budget that considers the plan to complete links for sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
West Windsor Township is a “Complete Streets” municipality, which means that when we reconstruct roads, we look to accommodate walking and biking as well whenever feasible.
I hope that this helps to clarify some of these misconceptions for the record.
M. Patricia Ward
Director, Community
Development, West Windsor
