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Health & Fitness

Thank You Middletown Township Voters

Thank you Middletown Township and SAVE MIDDLETOWN voters.

 

I would like to extend a heart-felt thanks to my family, friends, and the residents of Middletown Township for the support they showed in the Primary Election held May 17.  Anyone who has run for office knows it’s no easy feat. It takes a lot of time and effort and some long days to even compete. And when you’re not the endorsed candidate, it’s 10 times harder. So when an unknown, unendorsed, greenhorn like me runs for the Council-At-Large office, and manages to take 420 votes from the MRP incumbents that are backed by the county GOP machine, you can’t help but smile. That’s around 18 percent of the total votes cast in that race in an election that had a dismal turn-out on a rainy day. So what does that say?

Well to me it says that you have some people in the party that would prefer to see someone else in office. They’re willing to take a chance on a virtual unknown, unendorsed candidate. It says they don’t have faith that the incumbents will, or are willing, to do the right thing in their best interest. It says they want a change.

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My reasons for running were clear. I am firmly against the proposed ordinance for development on the Franklin Mint and surrounding historic properties as it stands today. I, and many others, believe it does not serve the best interest of the residents of our township.  A vocal majority have asked our council, from the beginning, to reject the proposed ordinance. After four-plus years, many meetings, many rehearsed and well choreographed presentations, and the open and closing of several public hearings on the matter, Middletown Council chose not to vote yea or nay on the ordinance. And no one is sure why? Some of the council members stated that if they "had to vote…they would vote no on the density." But they didn’t vote. They wouldn’t vote! Repeated requests to the township for an explanation as to "why no vote" have gone unanswered. Requests to the township’s special solicitor have gone unanswered. Not a peep since the last hearing. This certainly provides fodder for the conspiracy theorists to resurrect the claims of inside political shenanigans driving the process; top-down politics at its best. I’m not sure what the reason is for the no vote. I’m not an insider privy to the business-as-usual rhetoric that takes place. So my feeling is if you want to affect change, you have to get involved. You have to get inside.

People have asked "if you don’t want this plan, what do you want?" And that’s a good question. I think the first question is "what can Middletown handle?" Collectively, the township and residents should look to see what the infrastructure can reasonably support (or rebuilt to support) and work backwards. We know the traffic studies are flawed. We know that the build-out of this property will take 10 plus years. We know that we won’t see the supposed tax realization until fully occupied. We should not let the developers drive the process with arcane ordinances and demands for density. And we should not surmise that "half would be good" or "something has to go there" so let them build.

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What we should do is reject the ordinance since it is vague and filled with complexities that are detrimental to the township. What we should do is insist on a plan that we can see and touch and discern what is good and what parts are bad. We should build for sustainability and not build in the hopes it can be sustained. To that end, I think it would be advantageous to have a few residents provide this input (an honest effort not the charade presented by the developers) while working through the process. I think people like my counterpart and charter member of SAVE MIDDLETOWN Mary Jo Grove, who also ran and won a spot in the General Election on the Democratic ticket, could provide valuable input.

The developer’s front-man Mark Dambly has stated that he will be back. He was quoted as saying "We learned a lot through this process. It is worth spending additional time and effort to try and do what’s right and will ultimately benefit the entire township as well as ourselves." What’s surprising is the residents who spoke out in opposition during the public hearings  have been trying to tell them "what’s right" for four years. The message has always been the same but the developers and people who can make a difference don’t seem to be listening.

Thanks again for your support and see I’ll you over the summer, if not in November.

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