The infamous 'Muhlenberg letter'

Residents and workers turned out in droves to show their support
for Muhlenberg when its closure was proposed.

Interestingly, the small talk among the Plainfield set at last night's 22nd District Dem rally in Scotch Plains was the so-called 'Muhlenberg letter' brought up by Dr. Gerald Lamont Thomas of Shiloh Baptist Church at Monday's Council meeting. A copy of the letter, complete with all attachments, has been posted online (see embedded document below).

Several questions about the letter and its delivery puzzled inquisitive observers --

• Why was it from JFK's attorneys and not JFK itself?
  
  
• Has JFK previously reached out to Mayor Robinson-Briggs and been rebuffed?
  
  
• Why was the letter hand-delivered on the day of a Council meeting?
  
  
• Why did Dr. Thomas speak on behalf of JFK; was he asked to?
  
  
• Why didn't JFK follow the routine procedure of approaching the matter through the Planning Division?
  
  
• Why did JFK decide not to wait until a new administration is in place in January?

One person who is a close observer of the Muhlenberg situation wondered whether sidestepping the normal procedure was a matter of ignorance, or by conscious intent.

Another, who had been present at the most recent CAG (Community Advisory Group) meeting, said that JFK's Adam Beder had taken up the whole meeting with a PowerPoint presentation on the  propose development but took no questions from attendees.

And yet another remarked that if JFK had consulted with 'hundreds' of residents as Beder asserted in his written answers to Bernice Paglia's questions, how come no one has heard of such meetings or knows anyone who attended them -- noting specifically that the City Council seems to have been overlooked.

As I said in my previous post on the 'letter' (see here), I think JFK has overplayed its hand and has gotten people's backs up rather than pursuing a true dialog to resolve the concerns between the parties.

Where do we go from here?

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Letter re: Muhlenberg Campus from Wilent et al to Mayor & Council

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-- Dan Damon [follow]

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