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Download the petition: Saving Farmland Is Homeland Security! Circulate the petition to Governor Jon Corzine calling for a moratorium on new houses on farmland--until a plan to save our farms is in place! OR, sign the petition online!

WARREN COUNTY SHOULD HELP BOLSTER BELVIDERE DOWNTOWN

Letter to the editor, The Express-Times, Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Let's face it. Further departure of the county from Belvidere will further diminish downtown Belvidere and instead expand a sprawl strip along Route 519.

To justify leaving Belvidere, they argue that the town's not even part of the county library system. Perhaps free membership for town residents in the county system and other incentives would provide the town with compensation for putting up with so much county government? The county pays no taxes and creates inconveniences and problems for the town that it generally takes no hand in solving, so the town has good reasons to grumble about the county. Support for the downtown via this chance to provide the economic engine of a government building should motivate the town officials.

That the town is not opposed to the county's departure is only understood when we confront the sad fact that the town already abandoned the downtown by building its new municipal building a distance away.

They owned the land, just as the county owns land on Route 519. It sure is easier building on a vacant lot off a road or a highway. And anyway it floods in the downtown. But is it rational or honest to speak of Belvidere's entire Water Street area as if it has been condemned from any use? It has not been condemned except de facto as justification by those advocating for relocating out of town. It floods on Water Street, so we should stay a safe distance away or build to a higher level. That's the kind of reasoning that library thinkers should be embracing because it brings other viable options into consideration.

On the sprawl highway, they simply pave around the building and cater only to library patrons. But sprawl growth is expensive for the government. Overall the county would not save money by advancing the strip mall culture. In a downtown, library visitors could become pedestrians and have lunch near the Pequest River and browse in a store or two, as part of their visit.

In fact, if set up with some cafe/lounge features of the large book retailers, the county library could become an even larger attraction and a solid anchor for downtown Belvidere.

For the greater good, some basic assumptions must be re-examined, but I ask for the forgiveness of library advocates for not writing down these ideas sooner. Citizen decision-makers have to realize that simply not dealing with the complications of Belvidere is the same thing as to make a decision in favor of sprawl growth. But the highway choice, plunking a building on a farm field, is relatively an empty one compared with this opportunity of a revived cultural center in downtown Belvidere. Keeping the county library/offices in downtown Belvidere will accomplish the goals of access to learning while bolstering the downtown and stopping sprawl.

Mike King is coordinator of REALsmart, the league for real smart growth. REALsmart is an effort of the Phillipsburg Riverview Organization.

PRESERVING FARMS IMPORTANT TO SECURITY

Letter to the editor, The Express-Times, Tuesday, July 31, 2007

"Saving Farms is Homeland Security" is the message that the REALsmart Committee of the Phillipsburg Riverview Organization will be promoting at its booth at the Warren County Farmers' Fair (July 29 to Aug. 4). We are encouraging New Jersey citizens to support and sign our petition.

President Bush says that job No. 1 is protecting American citizens. Homeland Security is also preserving the farms and forests which produce our food and hold our precious water resources. This is as critical to our welfare as is investigating al-Qaida.

"Mexican food shipments are causing U.S. concern" was the headline of a story which appeared in The Express-Times on July 21. China is not the only source of contaminated food coming into our country. And, "the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors only have the money and resources to check about 1 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments a year."

New Jersey has reached the point where every acre of farmland must be protected from housing developers. In Warren County, only 13 percent of the county's farmland-assessed property has been preserved. New Jersey is the most densely populated state and over the past 50 years has lost more than half of its farmland to development.

New Jersey citizens must take action. We urge you to visit us at the fair. Sign our petition to Gov. Jon Corzine. Call us at 908-454-4141, and visit our Web site at proriverview.org.

Reggie Regrut, Executive Director
Phillipsburg Riverview Organization

GROUP PETITIONS TO SAVE FARMLAND

The Warren Reporter, Friday, August 03, 2007

The League for Real Smart Growth is looking for volunteers to collect signatures for a petition they want to send to Governor Jon Corzine to ask for a moratorium on building houses on farmland until a plan is in place to preserve them.

The group will be circulating the petition at the Warren County Farmers' Fair, which runs from Sunday, July 29 through Saturday, Aug. 4. They will also be passing out bumper stickers and erecting billboards that say "No More Houses on Farmland."

The groups mission, to "form a league of like-minded individuals and organizations that agree new growth should occur only on previously developed lands, not on farmland," is posted on a link on the Phillipsburg Riverview Organizations website.

"Many people have heard of global warming and overpopulation but not enough about the ever worsening environmental challenges of the loss of top soil, often due to unwise land use practices," said information posted on the Real Smart Growth link. "Too often agricultural lands are not being managed to sustain an ever growing population of humans in New Jersey and around the world that must be fed or threatened with starvation."

The group is looking for two volunteers to gathering signatures each night of the fair. They are also looking for people to join the organization. For further information or to volunteer, contact The League for Real Smart Growth at (908) 454-4141 or via the Phillipsburg Riverview Organization website at www.proriverview.org.