Letter to the Editor, by Jeff shore of West Windsor: Thoughts on this Important Election, Nov 7th

Dear Editor, neighbors and friends,

We residents of West Windsor are at a crossroads and what we do now will determine the future of WW and the surrounding townships forever. Our current mayor, town council and planning board have all made it plain that industrializing and bringing in big business to West Windsor is their number one priority with anything else taking a distant second.

This November Dan Weiss, Stacey Fox and Ben Finkelstein are running for the West Windsor Town Council, a body of lawmakers. Their goal is to protect West Windsor from over-development and large scale industrialization that will depress our property values, raise safety concerns and damage our environment. As climate change affects us more and more, they want to take actions to improve our infrastructure so as to prevent flooding, loss of life and property. Dan, Stacey and Ben want to prevent our roads from being over run by massive 18 wheel trucks. They also vow to listen to the concerns of the residents and be more transparent in communicating, something which our current  leadership has not always done effectively. 

The Penns Neck Redevelopment Project, which would have demolished ten residential lots along Route 1 between Washington Road and Mather Avenue in order to put up a convenience store, a huge gas station and some fast food restaurants, was thankfully voted down at the July 17 West Windsor Town Council meeting due in large part to Ben Finkelstein and Stacey Fox speaking up against it, echoing the sentiments of many West Windsor residents.

For the last few years one of the current administration’s pet projects is Bridge Point 8. It is a huge (5 1/2 times the size of Quakerbridge Mall) distribution warehouse complex proposed for the 653 acre parcel  of undeveloped land, including 64 acres of precious wetlands, at the intersection of Quakerbridge Road and Clarksville Road. Despite the fact that this project would be a logistical and environmental nightmare in so many ways, having been designed using long outdated stormwater data, the powers that be in West Windsor at the time, with only two dissenting voices, were all for it.

Stacey Fox organized and rallied the community to stop this project, even going so far as to found a nonprofit organization to address the potential disasters of bad planning in Mercer County. It is now going through channels on the county level and Dan, Stacey and Ben are at the forefront in trying to protect West Windsor from the catastrophic impacts of this project.

This November we have a clear choice - we can either vote for the incumbents and let West Windsor lose much of its bucolic charm to warehouses, fast food drive-throughs and gas stations with all of the environmental and safety hazards they will cause or we can vote for Dan Weiss, Stacey Fox and Ben Finkelstein, who have a more realistic view of what is best for West Windsor going forward. I encourage everyone to visit https://www.yournewtowncouncil.com to learn more about them and to vote Column E this November. Protect our way of life. 

Sincerely, 

Jeff Shore