George Anderson writes that the newly opened Cumberland County Technical Education Center was unnecessary.
To the Editor:
Could someone please explain to me why Cumberland County needed a new technical school built in Vineland when we had a perfectly good one in Bridgeton?
The new school opened last month. What exactly was wrong with the old Cumberland County Technical Education Center that couldn't have been improved with a simple, cost-effective upgrade? Why must we always tear down or abandon a school and spend millions to build an entirely new one?
What was wrong with busing area students from their local high schools to CCTEC for half-day classes, as they had done for years? I was such a student there myself 30 years ago. (Students at the new CCTEC attend full time.)
It's absolute wasteful spending as far as I'm concerned. There is no way this new building will benefit the community. It will only raise residents' taxes and force out businesses, like Progresso, which is closing its Vineland plant. The new school will mainly accommodate kids from prison inmates' families who have moved into our county and overcrowded our schools.
Any adult wishing to attend classes at the new CCTEC to learn new job skills cannot unless do so unless they register through Cumberland County College, which is ridiculous.
It is for this reason that I as a cannot vote Nov. 8 for the Democratic county freeholder ticket, incumbent Darlene Barber and candidate Jack Surrency, who spearheaded the effort to get the new CCTEC built. We need freeholders with their minds in reality, not in the stars. The current board has turned the county where I've lived my entire life into the poorest one in New Jersey with unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky ideas and wasteful spending.
George I. Anderson
Millville
GOP pair can balance Woodbury Heights
To the Editor:
Woodbury Heights voted for change last year with the election of my husband, Robert Yerka, to the borough council. He is the first Republican to sit on the council in many years in a borough that also has a Democratic mayor.
This year, two additional passionate and motivated Republican council candidates are ready to serve.
Mary Ortner is a 25-year resident with a bachelor's degree in education. Gary Logan is a 10-year resident and Army veteran who currently works as a senior corrections officer at New Jersey State Prison. Voting for both of them would balance the power on the six-member council. This would create a voice for all of our citizens, which means better representation.
We need new perspectives and problem solving at the council table. Raise us to new heights and vote for Logan and Ortner.
Rose Yerka
Republican Chairwoman
Woodbury Heights
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