Your Turn

Guest Column
Barbara Thorpe
‘Speedway’ resident feels town isn’t ‘equalitarian’
(Open letter to the Middle-town Township Committee)

uality of life is an issue everywhere these days, but never more than it is today where I reside.

My mailing address is 53 Swimming River speedway, otherwise known as 53 Monmouth County truck Route 50, otherwise known as 53 Swimming River Road, Lincroft, if I want to get my mail.

I live on a street that was a country road when my husband and I began to build our home in 1965.

Today, many of the residents on the streets off Swimming River Road seem to think they should have the right to close off to traffic ingress from Swimming River Road.

I want them to know there are no private, gated communities here in Lincroft.

If they are not happy living in Lincroft without gated communities, Hovnanian builds private, gated communities for those old enough to qualify to live in them, and there may be communities in New Jersey or elsewhere if they are not old enough for Four Seasons or its like.

These people best understand that all of the residents of Middletown, with all of its resources, support the upkeep of these streets, including the paving, the plowing and the policing.

Speaking of police, I understand the deputy chief of police of Middletown, who lives on Lindy Lane, has written a memo, dated April 16, to the chief of police of Middletown, recommending the dead-ending of Pine, Lindy and Oak streets.

I wonder if the deputy chief of police fails to realize he wears the uniform of the township police and not the "tree street" police and he is sworn to protect all the residents of Middletown and not just the residents of his "tree street" neighborhood. We all pay his salary.

Now, speaking of neighborhoods, Monmouth County elected the most prejudicial sign I have ever seen because of vocal pressures from the residents from the "tree streets," Pine, Lindy and Oak.

I question the legality of the sign. It is posted on Swimming River Road and reads, "Residential cut-through traffic is illegal — fines $70 and 2 points."

What about the residents of Swimming River Road?

Who are we? Are we not residents in the neighborhood?

We help pay for municipal services.

We help pay for the schools, and we live in this neighborhood and deserve protection also.

We are not expected to be invisible when property taxes are to be paid.

I and my neighbors on Swimming River Road and High Point Road, and its tributaries, no longer want to be treated as though we are invisible when any policy is recommended or instituted that directly affects us or the community at large.

Last time I checked I thought I still lived in a free society.

That’s what President George W. Bush keeps on telling me, but he doesn’t live on Swimming River Road in Lincroft.

I pray there are fair-minded, elected officials, both at the municipal and county levels of government, who can see the problems here are regional in nature, caused by the growth of the area, the growth of Brookdale Community College, and the failure of Monmouth County to address the need for infrastructure to support this growth.

No one is immune to its impact.

It should not impact on a small segment of the population.

This is not democracy at work.

It is elitism at best and fascism at worst.

Polarization is the end result so far of the endeavor of the "tree street society."

Let it be known this is an equalitarian society guaranteed by the Constitution of these United States.

Barbara Thorpe is a resident of the Lincroft section of Middletown