Dear Editor: The Princeton Packet editorial entitled “Wanted: Candidates for Mayor” (Feb. 3, 2012) lamented the lack of candidates for mayor and expressed the hope that the only declared candidate “…won’t be the last” as if asking – why aren’t there more candidates? A little hard reflection reveals why there aren’t more candidates. First, the new mayor of the consolidated Princetons will have a full time job. When I was mayor of the Township the position averaged 5.5 hour per day. If that is added on top of responsibilities for the Borough and throw in the extra problems inherent in the transition period it is clear that the new mayor will have to average 9 – 10 hours a day on the job. It isn’t humanly possible to hold a job, even a part time job, and perform the new mayor’s duties properly. Second, the new mayor will have to preside over a difficult form of government. It is no secret that the old fashioned Mayor / Council form of government is less efficient than the Township Committee form. The Borough always takes 50% more time and effort to do the same tasks as the Township Committee. As a former Borough Council President I know we went further into the night than the Township Committee dealing with exactly the same issues. It has nothing to do with the individuals elected, who were all smart, hard-working people. It had, instead, everything to do with the fact that the Borough Council is seven people and the Township Committee is five people. A group of five dedicated people can always get more done than a group of seven dedicated people. The fact that the Borough form of government is a “Weak Mayor / Strong Council “ means that the Borough Mayor isn’t always in sync with the Council – that hurts effectiveness too. Third, the pool of potential candidates is relatively small. Neither the Borough nor the Township has elected a Republican or Independent (or a Green Party or a Tea Party) candidate for a full generation. As the editorial pointed out “We think that a community the size of Princeton should have a non-partisan election...” The Consolidation Study Commission missed the boat when it didn’t follow the lead of Trenton and West Windsor in moving to non-partisan elections. Trenton and West Windsor may have their issues but at least they are politically diverse. The last line of the editorial stated that “… we hope to hear where other potential mayors would lead too.” I have been asked by several friends on both sides of the political isle to consider running again for mayor. To get the ball rolling, I would be willing to run for the transition term as mayor. If you think it is a good idea (or a bad idea) please share your thoughts at rcwoodbridge@yahoo.com. Regardless, I hope that more candidates jump into the race for Mayor and Council and give Princeton some meaningful choices – and maybe even a fun and interesting campaign- this fall. Richard C. Woodbridge 681 Prospect Ave., Princeton, NJ

With the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, I find myself contemplating the improvements in hospital emergency preparedness over this past decade. Prior to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, acute-care hospitals maintained generic disaster plans, typically based on scenarios such as a fire in the building, or perhaps a loss of utility power in an operating room.

Today, nearly all hospitals in the United States have developed comprehensive emergency operations plans. These plans include strategies such as "Hazard Vulnerability Analysis," where a multidiscipline team of subject-matter experts consider incidents that are likely to occur, impact to the hospital given an occurrence, and the preparedness capabilities of the hospital to respond to such occurrences.

Following the analysis, plans are designed which focus on preventing or mitigating the impact from likely events. Then, response plans are developed that directly address the anticipated effects. Finally, training programs are put in place to ensure employees are familiar with emergency plans and can implement them if needed.

Modern disaster exercises incorporate extensive collaboration with law enforcement agencies, fire departments, Hazmat teams, and EMS crews. Each year hospitals conduct exercises to evaluate preparedness for catastrophic events. One of the greatest lessons learned in the wake of 9/11 was that information delivery must be coordinated, and redundant communications systems are necessary. Today, hospitals employ Internet-based communications systems that can aid the rapid sharing of critical information among multiple partner agencies with the click of a mouse.

Even in a worst-case scenario, such as a protracted regional phone system outage or wide-spread utility power failure, we now have battery-operated satellite telephones and amateur (HAM) radios. These options provide us a means of communication even if the regional infrastructure is compromised and traditional paths of communication like phone lines are unavailable.

Most hospitals throughout the country have adopted the National Incident Management System. This system provides a proactive approach to incident response and event management. Adoption of a standard methodology leads to better communication among responding agencies during a disaster.

This integration has fostered improved relationships between hospitals and Municipal, County, and State government Offices of Emergency Management. Now, when various agencies are called upon to respond to a disaster, stakeholders may draw from established partnerships rather than meet for the first time at the incident scene.

In 2002, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration established the National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program. The program's priorities included improving hospital surge capacity, decontamination capability, and isolation capacity, as well as supplementing pharmaceutical supplies. Today, hospitals have staff trained in decontamination procedures and have access to pharmaceutical stockpiles in the event that mass-prophylaxis is required. Through Federal grant opportunities, hospitals have been able to augment their cache of emergency supplies and in many cases have been able to pursue purchases that might not have been economically feasible without assistance from HRSA.

In the 10 years following the worst attack on U.S. soil, hospitals have made impressive strides to ensure that they are prepared to face adversity. Unfortunately, we cannot predict when the next critical incident will occur, or what it might be. Even though we may not see what lies ahead of the curve, I am confident that the all-hazards approach adopted by hospitals over the past decade has better positioned them to respond to future emergencies.

Mark Lambdin is director of Emergency Management at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton.

I do not know if writing this letter will do anything, but I just got back from Banchoff Park with my kids and it is an absolute disgrace.

How the township even allows children to play in that park is beyond me. Weeds six inches high, ticks, other bugs, and just overall poor conditions for anyone let alone a child to play in.

Does Ewing township wonder why people are willing to lose 10s of thousands of dollars on their houses just to get out of this town? Between the High School ,which unless your child is in AP classes is Trenton High Jr, the trash now being cut back, all recreational parks looking like they are abandoned there is little reason to quess why.

Does Ewing township really wonder why they lose students to private/catholic schools? I mean is that a mystery to everyone? Keep going the path that you are going with the "cutbacks" for your overall budget and get ready for this town to become a haven for filth and negligence in all aspects.

I'm just very disappointed and where does it end? Hopefully not with a total collapse of what used to be a nice town to grow up in. You can only use the excuse for your "budget" so many times. Maybe Mayor Steinman should discuss it with Govenor Christie at Cafe 72 sometime, before it's too late.

Thank You, Hopewell Valley!

Christine’s Hope for Kids Foundation would like to thank the residents, merchants and schools of the Hopewell Valley Community and surrounding area. With your kindness, love and support we have been able to see our mission of helping underprivileged children and kids with differences grow exponentially over the last seventeen months. It takes the strength and compassion of a good neighbor to see a foundation like ours become firmly established.

Every dollar we raise goes to help children in our local area, allowing so many kids that couldn’t do so before the opportunity to enjoy the simple things in life, things that are sometimes taken for granted. Simple things like going to summer camps, taking swim lessons, attending leadership conferences and even playing organized baseball for the first time have all been made possible through the sheer good will of people just like you. Now these children can experience something that doesn’t come as regularly as it should, the chance to just be a kid.

We wanted to take a moment to specifically thank members of the Hopewell Boro Block Party for their recent donation of $1,000.00. That will let quite a few young people know there are people out there who truly care. At the end of the day, few things are more important than that.

Thank you as well to congregants of the Calvary Baptist Church and the Hopewell Presbyterian Church for your generosity and genuine warmth in adopting Christine’s Hope for Kids Foundation as one of your local charities. The support goes a long way in helping us carry out Christine’s mission.

And once again we want to thank each and every one of you in the Hopewell Valley Community. Your hearts were open to us and arms steadied us as we laid the foundation for Christine’s Hope for Kids Foundation. In 18 months we have been able help nearly 2,000 children…and that’s just the beginning!

Over 3,000 local residents in and around the Jacob's Creek Bridge on Bear Tavern Road oppose Mercer County’s Plan to rebuild a 79 foot bridge and adjacent roadway at a cost to taxpayers of $5+ million. Residents prefer a less costly $2 million solution which will meet our local traffic needs, preserve the historic trail where George Washington led the troops to fight in the Battle of Trenton and maintain our bucolic landscape.

Could this $2 million solution allow the extra $3+ million to be used in your area? Only if the more costly $5+ million dollar project is not approved. You and your neighbors need to tell your Mayor that when it comes to the Jacob’s Creek Bridge, you want the less expensive, more historic route because your bridge needs this money more. E-mail County Executive Brian Hughes, (bhughes@mercercounty.org) and Mercer County Freeholder Chair Pat Colavita, (pcolavita@mercercounty.org) to spend your taxpayer dollars more efficiently.

Local deficient bridges that could benefit from the less expensive more historic fix at Jacob’s Creek:

Princeton: Great Rd./Stony Brook, Province Line Rd. Lawrence:Carter Rd., Carnegie Rd. Hopewell: Old Mill Road/Stonybrook Creek, Mine Road/Stony Brook, Pleasant Valley-Harbourton Rd/Moores Creek Ewing: Carlton Avenue/Shabakunk Creek West Windsor: Old Trenton Road, Rabbit Hill Rd/Bear Brook, Princeton-Hightstown Rd/Big Bear Brook Robbinsville: Windsor Rd/Assunpink Hamilton: Nottingham Way/Assunpink Creek, Sweet Briar/Miry Run, Carnegie Rd., Yardville-Hamilton Square Rd./Pond Rd Trenton: Route 206/Assunpink Creek, Nottingham Way/Assunpink Creek, Lincoln Avenue/Assunpink Creek, Montgomery Street/Assunpink Creek, S. Broad St./Doctors Creek

I read with interest the article regarding the dropping off of kids who attend Antheil Elementary School. I often wondered if the residents on Beth Ann way ever complained to the Township. Surely, there must be something that can be done to keep out people using the street in such a fashion. The nuisance goes beyond just Beth Ann Way. I live on Tyson Drive. Every morning when I leave for work, and approach Beth Ann Way, I encounter the large amount of cars that enter and exit our development.

On more than one occasion, I have had to dodge parents driving and/or rushing to get to Beth Ann Way to drop off their children. I even had a parent yell at me for not allowing him to speed past me with his kids in the car. Just imagine! This was a parent coming across Ewingville Road from directly across Colleen Circle - which is walking distance to the school.

I suspect some of these parents are too lazy to get up to get their kids on school buses or walk them to school, so instead they sleep in along with the kids, then race to drop them off at school via Beth Ann Way. I bet the school does not allow this nonsense, so they are circumventing the system by using Beth Ann Way.

There are mornings where the cars are parked and parents are standing around talking and socializing, which causes a traffic jam in and around Beth Ann Way as well as double parking, etc. The additional cars cause all residents to wait to get out of the development as cars are flowing in and out in addition to the normal traffic on Ewingville Road. For the life of me, I do not understand why these parents do not take their kids directly to the school. What is so difficult about doing so? Is there an area at the school for the dropping off of kids?

This has been going on for some time now. I shutter to think what would happen if emergency vehicles had to service anyone on Beth Ann Way or for that matter, the development itself since there is only one way in and out of the development.

It really is becoming a safety issue more than a nuisance.

Dear Editor:

My husband and I purchased our home in 1996. One of the great perks of living in Hamilton is the Recyle Center off of Kuser Road. Being an avid gardener, I thought the coolest thing about the recycle center was that you could drop off your garden refuse and pickup compost and mulch FOR FREE! How nice is that? You are helping the environment by recycling and getting something free in return. It makes paying higher property taxes a "little less" painful (just a little).

Well, what I would like to know is WHAT is going on at the recycle center this year? My husband got some mulch very early in the season but now there has been nothing available for the last 2 weeks. He has been told that it is not "ready to use" yet. The irony of that statement is that he has seen private contractors at the site getting loaded with mulch from the huge number of mulch/compost piles over there. Some of these private contractors had tractor trailers.

I would like to know what has changed that now the private tax-paying home-owner cannot get mulch/compost but private industry can. Are they now reaping our rewards? Are they paying taxes or are they paying for the mulch? And, if they are paying for the mulch - where is that money going?

Is anyone else out there getting a little bit annoyed? Something "rots" and I am not sure it is the compost.

Thank you!

The Board of Mercer County Chosen Freeholders passed a resolution on March 25, 2010 opposing the 25% fare increase and reduction in services by NJ Transit. In sponsoring this resolution and testifying at the hearing, I served as your representative to underscore the negative impact these decisions are making on the lifestyle of Mercer County residents. I am pleased to report that NJ Transit Executive Director Weinstein is looking at some adjustments to the original proposals. All Mercer County residents need to continue to make their voices heard; a final vote will take place on April 14. Call, e-mail and write the Governor, Legislature, and NJ Transit. Let them know how this decision impacts your life.

Beyond the economic impact, the environmental setbacks will be devastating. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, New Jersey residents breathe air that is 1,600 times dirtier than allowed by federal safety guidelines equating to more asthma attacks, cancer risk, and heart disease. Asthma alone costs NJ residents over $300 million annually. Cars and trucks account for approximately 80% of airborne carcinogens and 40% of the chemicals that form smog or ozone pollution. NJ Transit’s typical weekday ridership averages 271,000 riders, which removes approximately 239,000 cars from our roads. We cannot afford to place more cars back on our roads.

Mercer County’s residents’ health, economics, and quality of life, is of utmost importance to the Mercer County Freeholder Board, join us in opposing these regressive changes to our transit system.

In our neighborhood, in Mercerville, we are fighting a Popeye’s trying to renovate and add a drive-thru window to their business. We do not wish this to become part of our neighborhood; it offers nothing for us. It will create more traffic that we do not need. We are a walking community and the extra traffic would only make our streets dangerous for our children and the rest of us. It will cause more air pollution, which will cause us to close our windows and use more electricity to keep the air in our homes so that we can breathe more easily.

There are many laws in place to protect us from this, but the board in Hamilton seems much more interested in listening to Popeye’s than to its citizens. I am not sure why we should be made to hire professional people for the board to hear us. But we do not have the same rights as the professionals from Popeye’s so we have had to put our monies together to pay professionals to speak for us (to the tune of thousands of dollars), when there are many of us ready to state our case ourselves in a professional manner. We have not been allowed the same time to give our defense of our needs and desires to see our community grow and prosper in the way we see it should. Popeye’s is always given the floor first, the right to rebuttal and ask us questions and we are not given the same rights or courtesies. It seems that we are second class citizens and Popeye’s is the townships first consideration.

So it seems to me, that the township is telling us to put our homes up for sale and move on. They do not seem to care what we have said, in our short time allotment. They seem to think that Popeye’s is the best thing since sliced bread and we are not intelligent enough to know it, a board member said that to us!! As Popeye professionals have said to us, our information and reasons why we do not want the drive thru does not count because we are not professionals. Are we living in a professional area OR is this area residential/commercial? Who says because we are only residents that we are not professionals? Who says that professionals are the ones to run our neighborhood? Is Hamilton Township telling us they want us to move and the only ones allowed in this township are professionals? Sorry to remind you that this is OUR neighborhood and you gave us the laws to protect it. So now it is your civic duty to make sure our voices are heard and the laws that you have put in place to protect us are upheld.

I think that the township should put its citizens first and hear what we have to say. If they wish to hear only from professionals, then they should have lawyers available for us at the cost of the township.

We are the citizens, Popeye’s is a business, who should have a say as to what will be in our neighborhood? I think it should be the citizens.

To the family and friends of the Wargo Family;

Dennis Wargo is a lifelong member of the Hopewell Valley community. He's a Vietnam Veteran who was recently inducted into the Hopewell Valley Central High School Athletic Hall of Fame. He's worked hard his whole like to take care of his family.

Dennis was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He's endured months of chemotherapy and radiation, and recently underwent surgery. The surgeons removed his pancreas, part of his stomach, part of his intestine, and his gall bladder. Due to the extensive surgery, his respiratory system was compromised, and he has a big struggle ahead for full recovery. They do feel they got all the cancer and his prognosis is good.

The problem is he and his wife, Marilyn, have some overwhelming medical expenses resulting from his illness.

Dennis and Marilyn live in Hopewell. Over the years, he has primarily worked for Shop-Rite, most recently as Dairy Clerk for the Rocky Hill Shop Rite. Marilyn works part time. Dennis had health insurance through his work, but because he is now unable to work, he has the added cost of paying his own monthly insurance.

Due to his serious condition, he had to go "out of network" for an oncologist with the expertise to handle his case. With combined "out of network" costs, deductibles and co-pays, the family is facing insurmountable expenses. And with Dennis not working he has other expenses adding up. He intends to work again when he heals, but in the meantime medical expenses are increasing with no end in sight, and a long healing process ahead.

As a friend or family member, if you'd like to help Dennis and Marilyn get through their struggle with cancer, donations are being collected. Let's help Dennis concentrate on a full recovery by helping with the financial side of his illness. Checks should be made payable to "Friends of the Wargo Family" and mailed to: Friends of the Wargo Family c/o Jim Morrison (HVCHS Class of '66) 118 W. Welling Ave., Pennington, NJ 08534.

An account for the fund drive has been established at Hopewell Valley Community Bank. The bank will keep a record of all contributions. The family will be notified of all those who contribute, but not the amounts. Even the smallest contributions will add up to help Dennis and Marilyn through this difficult time. Let's come together as a community to help this wonderful family.

Sincerely,

Terry R. Silvester, Colonel, US Air Force (retired); HVCHS Class of '66