What will a $19.5 million grant buy you? It will buy you a half of a harbor without a single, legitimate public hearing. What is next? Probably a large bond election about equal to the school bond so the ugly blight can be finished.

I don’t know how many times I have heard that if we take the time to have a public hearing, we will lose the $19.5 million grant, but if the current plan is done there will only be an ugly empty, eight-acre basin.

The so-called public hearings have been nothing more than rubber stamps for the Mayor and administration pushing this project.

Every time having a public hearing about the harbor expansion is brought up, the administration figures a way to keep it from happening, as does the Mayor and assembly and even the planning commission, always citing borough code as the reason. And then they say we want the public involved. Does that pass the smell test?

Is it possible we will live to regret getting this $19.5 million grant? Beware of what you wish for.

At this time, Tom Morphet’s call for a public vote would be the only true public hearing. If you want a say, get on board with Tom.

Leonard Dubber

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