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PAGE 12 — THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2011 LOCALSOURCE.COM UNION COUNTY LOCALSOURCE
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(Continued from Page 11)be yours in abundance on this Father's Day.
May your warm smile be as big as your heart.May all the love you have given us throughout the
years come back to you as thousand times over onyour special day. I could not think of a more appropri-ate time for us to look into our hearts and express todad on Father's Day our deepest feelings by saying "Ilove you dad." Have a wonderful Father's Day. MayGod bless all our fathers.
fid MillerKenilworth
Push the vote on S741To the Editor:
This past week the Star-Ledger had two more arti-cles where two government workers were indicted fortheft or bribes. This prompted me to determine the sta-tus of Sen. Jennifer Becks' bill, S741 calling for prisonand forfeiture of pensions and benefits for public offi-cials and workers convicted of crimes.
Sen. Becks bill was dated January of 2010, 18months ago. I was told it was held up by Sen. NicholasScutari's committee.
When I called his office to inquire why the bill wasnot submitted for a vote I was told that it did not havea high priority because of Gov. Christie's agenda forappointments. I should think that the vote for this billis a "no brainer" and would be voted on without muchdebate.
I suggest that all concerned citizens of UnionCounty contact their state Sen. Scutari, Sen. Ray Les-niak or Sen. Tom Kean and request that they expeditevoting on bill S741.
Bob BarrettClark
Something more practicalTo the Editor:
Once again, Union County has come under scruti-ny. The county collected $10 for each car that chose topark on the back nine of Oak Ridge Golf Course dur-ing Musicfest last year. Now, there is no record ofwhat happened to those funds and the state is investi-gating. Until the county can account for those funds,MusicFest 2011 should not be allowed to take place.
I propose an alternative for the fest. Anyone who hasvisited the three Union County golf facilities this springcan attest to the crowds utilizing them. This includes thebeautiful learning facility at Galloping Hill. Now that agolf boom is in full swing in Union County, considera-tion must be made for reopening Oak Ridge. The coun-ty can work out a deal with Kemper Golf to run thefacility, and it won't interrupt the archery range either.Please consider utilizing the park for something morepractical than a two-day music event.
Reopening the golf course has the potential to be365-day-a-year money-maker for the county. MusicFestis nothing but an excuse for the county freeholders tohold a big party for themselves and their cohorts.
Andrew RuoppUnion
Traffic camera neededTo the Editor:
For all those Linden residents who live in the shad-ow of Linden's School 2, for the plethora of anxiousLinden parents who daily hug and kiss their irreplace-able kids goodbye as they amble off to school, onecertifies a petition endorsed by 370 Linden residents,who seek to affirm their collective safety and securityconcerns of the School 2 student body, through theimplementation of a traffic camera light at that school.
School 2 currently educates a student body ofapproximately 298 kindergarten through fifth gradestudents with a scheduled 2012 completion date of apre-kindergarten annex consisting of 21 classrooms,in conjunction with the main School 2 student body.
To counter the viewpoint, that Linden's traffic
camera lights are designed as a vast Linden ATMmechanism, to enhance the city's treasury, it is pro-posed a revenue neutral policy regarding traffic finesshould be embraced; with a stringent policy of dou-bling the traffic points for those who commit movingtraffic violations within a city of Linden School Zone.
For if but one treasured child suffers as a unforgiv-able traffic casualty, for lack of a School 2 traffic lightcamera, perhaps the following quote may mercifullyconsole that devastated, impacted family: "A thousandwords won't bring you back, I know because I tried,neither will a million tears, I know, because 1 cried."
Michael SmithLinden
End the 'unfair' SID taxTo the Editor:
Seventeen years ago. Union adopted a SpecialImprovement District. The program was well-intend-ed, designed to revitalize the downtown area by mak-ing substantial improvements to the center whichwould attract new, major businesses. Increasing foottraffic would increase sales for all Union businesses.
To accomplish this, the SID instituted a system ofselective taxation on property owners who are part ofthe SID. The taxes are $1,025 for every $100 of thetax bill — in addition to regular property taxes. Howthis money is being spent is surrounded in secrecy.
The SID relies on Union's Department of PublicWorks to complete some, if not all, of the SID func-tions. This is redundancy, with the SID work alreadycaptured in the base property tax. While both proper-ty and the SID tax continue to rise, property values aregoing the other way.
The secrecy, even some redundancy might not matterif the SID had lived up to its promise. But it has not. TheSID program has failed. It has failed the Center propertyowners and the residents of Union. It is, quite simply, anexcuse to squeeze another $159,000 in taxes from SIDowners without delivering any benefits, save a healthysalary of $55,000 per year for its executive director — anexecutive director who also is paid an additional $68,000per year as Union's director of Economic Development.Both jobs really are one in the same.
The time has come for action. A message needs tobe sent to Union officials that enough is enough.Together, we can reduce the tax burden of$ 1.025/$ 100 for those who are taxed.
A petition is being circulated as a first step in free-ing SID owners from this useless, expensive, selectivetaxation. When completed, the results of the petitionwill be provided to the Township Committee forreview and, hopefully, action.
The redundancy, ineffectiveness and unfairness ofthis tax must end.
Philip GeronUnion
Policy on letters, columnsUnion County LocalSource welcomes submissions
from its readers. Letters to the editor or opinion pieceson any subject will be considered for publication onthe opinion pages.
Union County LocalSource reserves the right toedit all submissions for length, content and style.Writers must include their name, address and daytimetelephone number for verification. Letters must be nomore than 500 words long. Longer pieces must bearranged in advance with the editor. Union CountyLocalSource accepts letters to the editor and guestcolumns via e-mail. The address is [email protected].
For publication, all letters and guest columns mustbe received by 9 a.m. on Mondays to be considered forpublication in Thursday's edition.
Letters received via e-mail must be on topics ofinterest, preferably in response to content thatappeared in the newspaper. For purposes of verifica-tion, all letters must include a name, address and day-time telephone number.
