A Union Township resident is questioning how a house came to be declared derelict, and what steps were taken to taken before it happened.
To the editor:
I have two things that I would like add to the discussion about the proposed PennEast Pipeline.
First, a question that I have been thinking about for a while and haven't seen addressed. How is the natural gas being produced in Pennsylvania currently getting to New Jersey?
When I went to research this, I discovered that there are already pipeline terminals very close to where the PennEast Pipeline is slated to begin.
Now I know that the gas isn't being stored out in central Pennsylvania, so I suspect that it is being transported via an existing pipeline.
PennEast fails to show pipeline needed: counsel says
If this is the case, why does the PennEast line need to be constructed? Perhaps, the entities involved don't want to share their profits with the owners of the existing pipeline any longer. That leads me to wonder how much of a savings New Jersey consumers will see, if any.
Second, I think it is time to call the PennEast folks bluff. They have been telling us that New Jersey needs this pipeline. How about, if as part of the approval, the state puts in a provision that none of the gas traveling through the PennEast line can be sold overseas for a set period of say 20 years.
My suspicious mind tells me that suddenly, the pipeline won't be needed for another 20 years.
Hope Meaker
Holland Township
To the editor:
In reading the August Union Township Committee meeting minutes, I was saddened to read about a derelict house in the township and the decision to have the issue addressed by way of a letter to the homeowners from the township's attorney.
While I do not know all of the details, I was dismayed to read nary a remark about attempts to understand how the home came to be in such a condition. I also did not read of any more neighborly ways of trying to intercede.
I am not assuming these things did not happen, but no such attempts were documented. Instead, there was discussion about instituting a code to which homeowners must adhere.
When I was a teenager, my family was the recipient of a letter from the Strawberry Hill Beautification Committee. No such official committee existed in my Strawberry Hill neighborhood.
N.J. rescuers help man lost in Hunterdon woods
The letter suggested that our family home was in need of a paint job and that we needed to consider our neighbors and the adverse effect that not painting the house could have on property values.
While that was over 35 years ago, I still remember how that impacted my mother. I remember her first comment was, "They don't even know our situation."
Her second comment was something to the effect of, "No one even cared enough to check in."
A house in disrepair can mean any number of things. It can mean laziness or a lack of consideration for others. It can also mean a financial, health, medical, mental or other crisis.
We live in communities, and our responsibility to one another is to be a good neighbor. I hope, I truly hope, that this letter from the township attorney came after many attempts by both neighbors and township officials to work through the situation as neighbors, not as people only worried about how this situation impacts them.
I would be happy to volunteer my time to be one of those neighbors who, when such issues arise, look to check in as opposed to call out.
Patty Kowalchuk
Union Township