Opinions concerning New Milford and Dumont (Source: Twin Boro News): Elements merged in N.M. victory Dear Editor: Tremendous thanks to New Milford’s Zoning Board for not permitting Hekemian to endanger our residents and destroy our community. I hope our mayor backs their decision with all the support she can muster. Immense gratitude to Councilwoman Grant, Councilwoman Duffie, Councilman Putrino and Councilman Ashley for their principled stand against the aggressive development of the United Water property. Enormous thanks also to SOD, Oradell, all the objectors, everyone who donated, and to Paul Grygiel for showing the experts how it should be done. This victory would not be ours if all these elements hadn’t come together. The Zoning Board’s unanimous denial of Hekemian’s application should make it clear to S. Hekemian Group, Lawrence Inserra, Diego Robalino, Dominic Colucci, Mayor Subrizi, Superintendent Polizzi and the board of education that the massive overdevelopment. if permitted to go through — by way of conceptual deals, compromise or lawsuit — would significantly negatively impact the residents of New Milford. In their denials, the judicious Zoning Board members listed one grievous impact after another. This not only validates objectors’ fears regarding this monstrosity, but it also confirms their reasons for fighting it. Therefore, it would be immoral, and even criminal, for Hekemian, Inserra or anyone else, to pursue developing the United Water property as proposed. Nevertheless, New Milford is being sued by Hekemian for that purpose. According to the Sept. 9, 2012 mayor and council minutes, Mayor Subrizi called Peter Hekemian to ask if their original offer would still be available, and the answer was yes. By rezoning the property, the 221 units proposed would be eliminated. Since affordable housing is the crux of Hekemian’s lawsuit, this information would be damaging to his case. Regardless of Mayor Subrizi’s personal preference for a ShopRite or not, in order to protect her town, one would expect that she is duty-bound to testify that Hekemian revealed his willingness to drop the apartments in return for rezoning. This would expose Hekemian for using affordable housing as a means of coercion to intimidate New Milford into giving him his monstrous commercial development, and could potentially put an end to a costly court battle. Michelle Hayden New Milford ---------------------------------------------------------- Negative effects if building succeeds Dear Editor The Borough of Dumont and its citizens, along with the neighboring communities, will be negatively affected if the proposed buyer of the D’Angelo Farms property who is suing the Borough of Dumont gets his way and is allowed to build high-density apartment buildings on this property. Dumont has a population density of 8,812 people per square mile and, by allowing overly concentrated housing to be constructed on the D’Angelo’s site, a tremendous burden would be placed on Dumont’s school system, the DPW, police, fire, and ambulance departments. Negative environmental and infrastructure issues would be huge. Please let your voice be heard by contacting the mayor and council and attend the meetings that are listed on the recycling calendar, since the future of Dumont lies either in the hands of the families that know and love Dumont or unscrupulous builders that have no regard for Dumont. Jacqueline Corless Dumont ---------------------------------------------------------- N.M. pair continue to divide town Dear Editor: Grant and Duffie are at it again, finger-pointing and discharging negative untruths in the local media that will get us nowhere. Nothing is to be gained by this but continuing to split the town on an already-controversial subject. The Zoning Board worked very hard and for a long period of time on this issue, and came to a decision that was very well thought out. I congratulate each of the members for a job well done, and may this application lead to where it will. But to publicly continue to divide the town at every twist and turn of any municipal decision, only paints this pair of holding inner political anger. We all live in town; we all want what is best; we cannot all be in agreement all the time. One can only define this distasteful letter as a launching pad for their 2014 campaign. Instead of leaving the council in a good note, it seems like they want to be remembered as continuously spewing controversies on the way out. I urge these representatives to not lose focus these next few months on why they were elected, to leave the loathing at home and try instead to unite the town so that we may continue to move forward. Diego Robalino, Councilman New Milford ---------------------------------------------------------- Save Dumont from overdevelopment Dear Editor: After attending my first meeting about the DAngelo’s land on March 4, I urge all of the people in town the importance to start attending our council meetings. We need to spread the word so that everyone in town can join in the support efforts of the many caring residents that are trying to save our town from overdevelopment and high-density housing. Do we really want to sit by and do nothing, and allow these apartments to put a burden on our schools, police, fire, ambulance and DPW, in addition to the traffic these apartments will create? Think about what this will do to all of our taxes, but most important to the quality of life for the families that live on the surrounding streets. It is time for the town to pull together so we can keep Dumont the town we chose to live in and raise our families! Denise Haenschen Dumont ---------------------------------------------------------- Words are mixed for political gain Dear editor: In response to Councilwoman Hedy Grant’s Sounding Off in the last weeks Twin-Boro News, I would like to say that she is clearly mixing words for her political gain. This happens to be a campaign year for Ms. Grant, and she knows the public is going to be very upset when they realize she wasted thousands of their dollars in a politically motivated lawsuit against New Milford that a judge found to be without merit. Taking what is necessary legal actions during a planning board meeting and attempting to use them against Mayor Subrizi is nothing more than a cheap-shot political move. The one thing I have to say about Ms. Grant is that she is consistent; she consistently has no regard for spending and wasting taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars. Dominic Colucci, Councilman New Milford ---------------------------------------------------------- Free to now talk, mayor backs ruling Dear Editor: Once again, Ms. Duffie and Ms. Grant have chosen to divide New Milford with their political rhetoric in the Twin Boro News Dear Editor forum. Instead of bringing the ideas to the table and discussing their ideas face to face in an open session in front of the public, they have taken to political sniping — and so early in the season. I am relieved that the Zoning Board has come to a decision regarding the United Water property, and I am pleased with the decision they came to. I also appreciate the hard hours they put in listening to all the testimony. Originally, when the application included the possibility of New Milford getting open space for our own use, I was in favor of exploring the re-zoning issue. There was no support to this, and we moved on. Following the two-year application process, many things changed in the application. During this time, as mayor, my input was not legally permitted to be part of the Zoning Board process, and my public opinions were muted due to legal constraints. Now that the final version of the application has been voted on, I am anxious to voice my opinion. I am glad that the Zoning Board voted the way they did. The application no longer benefits New Milford in any way, shape or form. At the end of the application, there were millions of dollars of road improvement costs that were foisted to our column of responsibility. That is unacceptable. At the Planning Board I have advocated for the revision of our master plan to include the notion that the property should remain residentially zoned. The final version of the master plan is still being worked on, and we invite your input. This is the chance for a united New Milford to move forward. Council candidates Duffie and Grant can be in charge of a divided New Milford. Ann Subrizi, Mayor New Milford ---------------------------------------------------------- Fight over UW site is far from over Dear Editor: I have to agree with Hedy Grant and Randi Duffie concerning their complete surprise with Mayor Subrizis stunning about face concerning development of the United Water Property. I was at that Planning Board meeting and was equally amazed. For almost three years, since April 2011, Subrizi touted all of the benefits of developing that property in a commercial capacity. She tried on more than one occasion to bypass the zoning board by having the council vote to rezone the property in exactly the way that Hekemian desired. I am grateful that the majority on the council decided against that action and voted down the rezoning efforts. In the last election, both Colucci and Robalino continued to express their support for relocating the ShopRite to that location. The zoning board was the proper venue for that decision and they did an exemplary job of reviewing all of the evidence before denying the application. If this is a true awakening on the part of the mayor, then I am very pleased. But, we in New Milford have to remain very vigilant to make sure that there are no further efforts to try to rezone that property at the council level to avoid the costs of litigation. We have already learned that the costs of widening the area roads to accommodate development would easily exceed the costs of litigation. Stay tuned. We were victorious in Round One, but this fight is far from over. Lori Barton New Milford ---------------------------------------------------------- Development could totally change town Dear Editor, Many families in Dumont are trying to fight the possible development of the former D’Angelo Farms property into multi-dwelling housing which, if successful, will totally change our town. Not only will our taxes skyrocket, our taxes are already among the highest in the county, but our schools may face expansion and possible busing of students. The traffic on Washington Avenue will be more congested than it already is, and a traffic light may have to be installed. Every resident of Dumont should attend the town council meetings to voice their opinion about this project. It doesn’t matter if you don’t live near the property. Your taxes will still be affected and your hometown will change forever. Please get involved before it’s too late. Please join FARM’D to voice your opinion. Nancy J. Papa Dumont ---------------------------------------------------------- D’Angelo sadness turns to anger Dear Editor: I am the third of four generations that have called Dumont home. I was raised here, and started dating my wife while we attended Dumont High School together. I’ve traveled, living as far away as Sydney, Australia, only to end up six blocks from where I was raised to start my own family. The night my wife and I decided to put a bid on the house we own today, we went for a slice of pizza, discussing whether or not we wanted to build our own roots here. As we mulled our decision, we noticed a group of five boys about 10 years-old sharing a pizza while talking about sports and school. We quickly noticed that every person who walked in knew at least a couple of the boys, saying hello, asking about family, etc. As we watched, we knew this town, this community, was where we wanted to be. Until D’Angelo’s closed, every plant, bag of seed, and lawn ornament we purchased came from there. As a fellow member of our community, it was important to support their family. My family was saddened after hearing the farm had closed. As more news emerged, the town was not allowed to make an offer to purchase it; the sale was to a developer with no connection to or knowledge of Dumont. And now the developer (Landmark) the D’Angelo family chose to contract with is suing to build up to 280 apartments on this seven-acre land, our sadness has turned to disappointment and anger. What happened to that sense of community? How could a family that was such an integral part of Dumont for generations suddenly turn their back on the town’s people? I didn’t expect it to stay a farm forever, but a reasonable residential development that fit the area. An apartment complex would forever change Dumont, Demarest and Haworth. If these apartments do happen, I will reside in Dumont long enough for the next elections, and then it will be time to go. I am sure an apartment complex is not what Jack D’Angelo would have wanted. Thomas Grassi Dumont ---------------------------------------------------------- Christie unveils faux budget again Dear Editor: Absolutely outrageous! Chris He Who Would Be President Christie introduces another faux state budget and lays the blame for omissions on government employees. There will be no money for road work and a host of other critical public needs. Whose fault is it? Not Christie’s; not any more than he was responsible for the mess in Fort Lee or culpability in the astronomical rise in Port Authority tolls. He is coming off like Sgt. Schultz in Hogan’s Heroes — I know nothing. He notes that public employee pensions are short by some $52 billion, and he dumps the need to repay that money on the employees. He refers to those pensions as entitlements. They are no more entitlements than the salary he receives for his job. Public employees aid into those funds. Why is there a shortfall? Simply because Christie Whitman, Jim McGreevey, Jon Corzine and now Chris Christie decided there was too much money in the pension fund to …just sit there… and they dipped into it to balance their budgets. While his predecessors never hesitated to blame the employees for the rape of those funds, Christie has made an art form of it. The money was not there for general purpose use. It was there to fund the pensions of tens of thousands of retired public employees. But why be honest when you can create a straw man to hang the blame on. Christie’s presidential campaign has taken on the aspect of the maiden voyage of the Titanic, and he is bound and determined to take everyone down with him. It’s time to fess up and do the right thing. Repay the money stolen from the pension fund, put together an honest budget and act like a governor and not a schoolyard bully. Bob Nesoff New Milford ---------------------------------------------------------- Use D’Angelo site for ‘green’ energy Dear Editor: I’m writing in regard to the $6 million, seven-acre D’Angelo Farms property. I agree with the group FARM’D that the property should not be made into affordable housing. Dumont is a bedroom community and its inhabitants’ main investment is their home. Anything that might lower home value is a valid concern. To fulfill the borough’s COAH mandate, the zoning easements should go to all sufficiently large enough homes that seen to become multi-family. In this way, older residents could stay in their homes and offset property tax bills. The town could effortlessly create lower-cost Section 8-acceptable efficiency studio apartments within the existing housing stock. The housing would not tax the school system if emphasis was put on renting to only single individuals. The former D’Angelo property should be purchased by the borough with loans from the federal government for green energy. The site could have passive solar panels and wind turbines placed on it, and energy sold back to Public Service Electric and Gas Co. PSE&G could place a substation there under the panels, or Verizon could place a cell tower there. In 20 years, the property will have paid for its original $6 million purchase. Future generations can then decide its final use, perhaps a dog park or skateboard rink, jogging track or all three. Respectfully, Michael Albert Bowes Dumont
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 00:06:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015