Residents’ involvement can bring balance

Frank Cotter

Guest Column

Millstone has been ridiculed by many outsiders for the circus atmosphere at public meetings. The bottom line people involved take their own opinion far too seriously. The claim of “I want what’s best ‘For the People’ ” is usually the battle cry and, in truth, usually turns out to be true, but often left out is “just so it’s in line with my opinion.” That is where the fun starts. The “I’s” become “we” and you have a group.

Now you have people taking sides and want control of the government to foster the outlook of the group “For the People.” Some folks are concerned more about the environment, some about development, some about taxes, etc. — usually to a fault. The fault is, they seem to forget that too much of a good thing is bad.

Our splinter groups go too far; they are well intentioned, good people for the most part, who have no concept of the other groups’ good side, only the potential negative of an extreme. Our most active groups fight for control of government; now personal opinion becomes the best to do “For the People,” always the premise, never the case.

I think talking and (real) listening are in order and may be the best “For the People.” If we are to benefit from the best ideas from each group opinion, someone unbiased must execute that best.

Sounds simple. Just hire professionals to execute who have no bias. Sounds good.

Picture this: the professionals always do things professionally, always on the up and up. The silent and treasured truth is, they take marching orders from elected officials who were elected by who?

You. (now it’s your fault). You, who at election time were sold on the environment, development, taxes, etc., pro or con to the particular issue. Keep in mind, we buy the perceived positives or negative, and not the balance of issues in campaign rhetoric.

I’ll tell you what I am sure of: Millstone Township will always need balance on the issues “For the People.”

Do we have environmentally sensitive lands in our town that need protection? Absolutely we do, and it does.

Are the headwaters under our town crucial to downstream communities (who overbuilt without regard for us) that need the water, and should we sacrifice tax ratables in our town to be good neighbors? Yes, but why not ask the state and county to compensate us for our sacrifice? We need tax relief, but are restricted. Downstream water quality has a devastating effect on our ability to get that relief.

For the People. We suffer for being good neighbors. Not a balance “For the People,” in my opinion.

And, what about our development? Former Mayor Cory Wingerter said, “Our best tax ratable is a residential home.” True, but, and he concurred, it has a huge impact on the cost of education. Nevertheless, we have had a spurt of development over the past 10 years. That has slowed to a crawl thanks to a well-crafted compromise to the recent master plan — mostly a result of hard work by former Mayors [Evan] Maltz and [William] Nurko working through tough issues and hard decisions that would provide balanced benefit “For the People.”

Farmers and landowners have been impacted considerably. It has, in fact, brought balance, for now, to the development issue. I say for now, because if we are not vigilant about our land use policy, we could tip the scales to overcompensation and subject ourselves to a spurt of unwanted development resulting from builder remedy lawsuits and a COAH [Council on Affordable Housing] backlash none of us want. I think we have local builders who have done a superb job of dealing with our sensitive issues.

The locals have respected the community, not abused it. Just drive around town and tell me if you see anything you don’t like. In short: balance.

Contrary to popular opinion, I believe all the elected officials, currently and over the past 10 years, have done their level best within their view of what the community needs. Each of these folks has donated a massive amount of personal time, and I’m sure will continue to do so.

We may not always like their opinions, but they deserve our gratitude and respect. Help them; get involved. If you have an opinion on my remarks, please call me, (732) 616-5009.

We need balance on all the issues we face. Contrary views are welcome; they create balance.

Frank Cotter is a resident of Millstone