Give some potential ratables a chance in Old Bridge
From the day I moved to Madison Township in 1975, the local government was determined to bring ratables to the town in order to reduce real-estate taxes for its citizens. The first election I participated in included a proposal for changing the name from Madison Township to Old Bridge with its ZIP code, so that a business considering locating here could have its location, the name and address on its letterhead or shipping documents, agree with its ZIP code. Madison Township became Old Bridge.

Over the years, various township administrations and zoning boards fought with Olympia and York and other developers over planned housing and business developments, over wetlands, and, more recently, the need for open space.

Now, open space is nice - playgrounds, ball fields and parks for youngsters and adults. A YMCA is great. But do we need the Crossroads tract just sitting there for no better purpose than to preserve open space when we still need ratables?

There is no perfect ratable. Whatever business the township can draw to Old Bridge will have some drawback. I like the data center. True, it has some drawbacks. It may be a security issue, although most data problems seem to involve computer-information theft rather than physical attacks on a data-storage building. There is no guarantee that some of the workers at the data center won't move to Old Bridge and demand the use of our schools for their children. A data center may require our police to keep an eye on it. So be it. The township administration says we are at full strength.

Open space? You will find it in Montana and Wyoming because not a lot of people live there. A lot of people take up space in New Jersey and in Old Bridge. I believe one candidate for local office in the recent election proposed a botanical garden with a fish pond for part of the Crossroads tract. Old Bridge has a fish pond; it's called the South River.

Let's give some of these potential ratables a chance and see if we can get the Old Bridge realestate taxes down so that seniors like me can retire and still afford to live here.

Sharon Mancin

Old Bridge