wa123

(1). We don't challenge any effort for qualitative improvements within the   community. Your speculation about 'tossing a bone to keep the pesky Arts people  happy' is misguided.  My family was instrumental in efforts to 'save and  restore' a 1908 Opera House/Community Center/Firehouse by getting the building  listed on the NYS and National Historic Register... only to have the building  torched by a volunteer fireman. (2). But where is your QUANTITATIVE support for your alternatives?  Most of the township's quality of life issues have been ignored resulting  in what you currently see in Downtown Princeton Junction: it is a bona  fide Plywood Junction.  The township can't seem to  get the owners of the new Chase Bank (Dey property) to even have the  same colored (mercury vapor) bulbs in its street lights... or get PNC  Bank's inner city high pressure sodium vapor lamps (Lucar/Lick-It site) to  change for a degree of conformity.  How simple or complicated is this? Who  sees this? Who cares? (3). Many of our township professionals - those who benefit from   administrative largesse - don't LIVE within the community.  Check the   (township/state) residency of those who administer and teach  within our $165,000,000 schools.  Most of the $165,000,000+ per year,  and growing,  goes OUT of WW and Plainsboro. How many WW municipal  officials reside here to oversee a $36,000,000 budget, excluding another $4  million in bonding? And don't respond our officials and employees cannot  afford to live here. (I am guessing you have offered living accommodations at  the Old Censoni House and the Grover Farm property like the Township does on its  North Mill Road property?) (4). How many of you have ventured out to Hopewell to see the  incredible Firedance Studio (_www.firedancestudio.com_ (http://www.firedancestudio.com) ) owned by West  Windsor resident and renowned artist Francois Guillemin's genius?  Francois' enterprise could have been in the Old Firehouse building. (5). Twenty-five years ago, PJ was a far more vibrant community. It  did more... with less. The American Cyanmid/ Wyeth/ General Growth  Properties site sits vacant despite inquiries to the township on how many  corporate companies have been contacted by the township? WW reports it has no  such document.  Many years ago, Cyanamid paid $2 million in property taxes  but didn't think pursuit of FMC Research (site of the Plainsboro Hospital) was  worth the effort.  FMC moved to... Ewing. (6). Suggestion: Why doesn't the WW Arts Council START its wildly   successful programs at HS-South (or the newly expanded WW Senior  Center)  then morph to another venue? For what are you waiting?   And what if the WWAC isn't a whopping success, which I hope is not the case? Why  do taxpayers have to fund the WWAC vision when it seems to be in a perpetual   can't-do-much-of-anything-because-we- don't- have-our-own-building mindset?  What are the duties of the Executive Director if not to raise funds?   What is the primary role of headmasters of private schools? Raise  money. (7). Why doesn't the Arts Council capture the $10,000 contract to restore   the Lions Club donated gazebo which lapsed into decay?  WW officials can't   even maintain free gifts! Why maintain... when you can do 'new'? (8). Community band? _http://www.princetonol.com/groups/blawenburgband/_ (http://www.princetonol.com/groups/blawenburgband/)  Living the Community Band  Tradition   Founded in Blawenburg, New Jersey, in  1890, the Blawenburg Band is a community band—part of a great tradition   that began when towns depended on their own people to provide live music. We are  one  of the oldest community bands in the state, and among the most active.  We play about 30 concerts a year at holiday parades, community celebrations,  church socials, and many of the nursing homes and retirement centers in our  area.   My mother was a member of the band for many years.  I have attended   countless concerts which even features musicians from beyond the   Princeton/Blawenburg environs. My Cornell band director from Ithaca was  even a guest trumpeter. Which of you would like to INVITE the band for a  fundraising concert at HS-South? (9). I submit that the residents of WW stop looking to the municipal   building and our local elected officials as the elixir. The local government is   engaged in juvenile bickering about pure nonsense.  But don't worry. The   Township's no-bid professional service contracts for the lawyers are running...  and running... and running. (10). From most of what I have observed and experienced and hear  from others,  the local government actions and inactions are the problem...  not the solution. So many topics. So many solutions. So little action. Pete Weale  14 Oct 2009   This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it _ (mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )   In a message dated 10/14/2009 11:44:47 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,   This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it writes: I agree with Meg that using performance space  at South or anyplace else that is already in some amount of use for other  purposes or that can be pre-empted is a bad idea. Besides, there is more to   art than what can be done on a stage. Not only are there people like  painters, sculptors and poets who need a separate kind of space, there are  chamber and jazz musicians who need a smaller venue. The term arts  encompasses a lot of things. But the problem is deeper. What I read is what  kind of bone can we throw to those pesky arts people just to get them out of  our hair. The question that I am raising and for which I have no answer is  what kind of town do we want to be when it comes to more than schools, autos  and parking at the train station? I am in a community band in Lawrenceville.  Why do I have to go to Lawrenceville to get into a community band (yes, I know  about the Mercer County band but they are full up on people who play what I  play)? Why is the Lawrenceville band supported by the government of the town  of Lawrenceville while the only support the arts gets from the government in  West Windsor is only when there is a photo op? Maybe that is all the people of  West Windsor want. Don't know, but neither does anyone else since no one is  asking the question. Arnold Sirota - Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -