Mr. Ritter and Mr. Cody- Tell us your view

[Guest]

I favor a town hall type meeting that allows the candidates to express their views. I'd opt for a moderated format that allows questions to be posed to the candidates as well.

Anonymous board postings are not always the most civil form of debate.

[Guest]

The Women's club for years has sponsored an open forum debate that few people ever attend. The event is held in October and will be posted here and in the Press. I encourage everyone to attend.

However, the candidates should choose every option available to voice a platform including here.

[Guest]

[voter]

I am reviving this thread for three reasons.

1) I've seen Mr. Ritter walking around talking to people so I am sure this site has come up in conversation, which to me means he should be looking at it now.

2) Win has posted his response, so I think we need to keep this active for Mr. Ritter to respond as well and to know the thread exists. Most people won't look through the archives.

3) All the Pro-Obama support recently shows this site has Democrat readers. So no reason Mr. Ritter should not feel comfortable (as some, not Mr. Ritter) have said.

[Cranbury Press]

Cranbury candidates discuss plans for the library
Thursday, September 25, 2008 4:47 PM EDT
By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer

CRANBURY — Both candidates for Township Committee say residents should get their say regarding whether Cranbury should build a free-standing library.

Democrat John Ritter and Republican Win Cody are vying for one, three- year seat on the Township Committee.

The Cranbury Public Library shares space with the Cranbury School Library, and as a result, is under the school district’s jurisdiction. This week, the district decided the library would be closed to the public Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. as early as mid- October for the duration and an evaluation period of one year.

School officials made the request after discussing some recent security issues and in an effort to help their standings with state evaluators, who look at how the library is used to help with core content standards.

Li brary representatives say they will not be able to fully serve the public operating under these limited hours and will have to cut a number of its programs.
M r. Ritter said the development has been a wake-up call for Cranbury.

”T he Cranbury School and the Cranbury Public Library both make strong cases,” he said. “We have reached the point where they cannot both meet their missions at the same time in the small space that they share. It is time for the library board, the school board and the Township Committee to carefully plan a transition of the Cranbury Public Library to its own space in a way that creates the minimum loss of vital services for both the students and the public.”

Mr. Ritter said he encourages the public library and Township Committee to formalize an agreement for using the space on the Wright South property, which has been designated by the township Master Plan as the site for a future library.

”The library will then be in a position to develop a design for a library with expanded programs and capabilities and meeting spaces that can be shared by other community groups that it can present to the community for approval,” Mr. Ritter said. “The library will also have to aggressively pursue public and private grants and contributions to reduce the cost of a public library to taxpayers as much as possible. Cost is a major consideration for all of us.

”We are going to have to decide as a community where we are headed in the future and the place of a public library in our community is a critical decision about our future,” he said. “It’s a lot of lead time to plan this so the sooner we start the better.”

Mr. Cody said that although the public library’s dilemma is an important, the Township Committee’s major concern should be recent third- round housing obligations that have been set by the Council on Affordable Housing.

Until that is addressed, Mr. Cody said, he thinks that after 40 years of partnership, the public library and school should be able to come together to find a temporary solution.

”The timing is bad because of COAH,” Mr. Cody said. “Until we resolve COAH (obligations) the committee itself should not be distracted by this, but individuals could be.”

Mr. Cody said he would like to call on the township’s residents to investigate the possible cost and the implications that building a new stand-alone library or purchasing a building to renovate would have on Cranbury taxpayers.

”I don’t want to spend a lot of Cranbury’s money to do this, there’s enough talented individuals in this town to do it,” he said. “Whatever we do we need a plan and to have a full understanding of the acquisition costs, or renovation costs, or ongoing costs to run and support (a library).”

Although Mr. Cody said he would prefer to see a standalone and energy efficient library built on the Wright South property, ultimately he said that decision should be left to the voters.

”I think a plan can be developed,” he said. “But I’d let the people decide this because there is a lot of debate.”

Mr. Cody said he would also like to see a library building fund established, that way the township could begin fundraising to build a possible new facility.

Both candidates agreed that if the township does intend to build a new library the plans should incorporate a space for a community and senior center.

In June, the Township Committee said it would not consider the PNC Bank building on Main Street for use as a library after receiving despite 52 signatures presented by residents for it to do so. The approximately 8,700-square-foot building at 32 N. Main St. sits on a little more than an acre and has been on the market as of April.
During an informal poll of the Township Committee on May 19, Tom Panconi and Wayne Wittman said they would not support further exploration of the purchase. Since four of the six council members would need to support a bond ordinance that would allow the committee to borrow money for a purchase, the committee decided to end discussions on the topic that night. A group of residents began circulating a petition in late June and presented it to the committee, hoping it would change township official’s opinions.

Mr. Ritter, who publicly spoke in favor of further exploration of the PNC bank purchase, said that he supported the idea if it triggered discussion on the future of the library.

”I think the outcome of the study would have probably concluded that it wasn’t the best solution for a library,” he said. “But it would have allowed us to understand how fast we were going to need a facility.”

Mr. Cody, on the other hand, has been adamantly opposed to further exploration of the purchase, because he said the township officials did present the community with enough information to really know what they were approaching.

;”The way the PNC bank acquisition was presented was let’s buy it now and figure out its use later,” he said. “The PNC bank did not seem as ideal as the Master Plan.”

http://www.packetonline.com/articles/2008/09/25/cranbury_press/news/doc48dbf6e62c88f527625435.txt