The master plan has been in the process now for approximately 18 months, and on May 21 it will reach its most critical milestone. That milestone is its adoption as a crucial piece of legislation intended to control runaway growth, mitigate township residents’ growing tax burden and infrastructure needs, address the overcrowding issues facing our schools, and preserve the rural and environmentally sensitive nature of our community (as designated by the state master plan).

As well, May 21 happens to be approximately seven months since the township Planning Board (of which Mayor William Nurko was then and is now a participating member) presented the master plan to the Township Committee for approval and ordinance adoption.

The Planning Board, along with highly qualified professional township planners and engineers (who continue to be employed and entrusted by the Township Committee), over a yearlong period, held numerous public meetings, spent in excess of $100,000, and in the end presented the Township Committee with a plan supported by science, best practices, court precedent and law.

On March 31, the Township Committee held a public presentation and workshop forum for all residents to come out and present their views on the master plan. A majority of residents came out in support of the master plan as formulated and presented, and voiced their opinions accordingly in the forum dictated by the Township Committee.

On the side opposing the master plan is a group of "15 concerned citizens" (formerly known as Millstone Landowners) who offered up no substantive alternatives or fresh ideas regarding the master plan. The Millstone Landowners came prepared with, and only with, two hired attorneys and a planner armed with the threat of future litigation and "unsubstantiated rhetoric" about the severe diminution of land values. Where were these landowners when the master plan process was taking place? It needs to be said that similar master plans have recently been adopted in other New Jersey towns (East Amwell, for example) similar to ours with none of the negative connotations, as set forth by those opposed, coming to fruition. Their allegations are baseless and just not true.

After the Township Committee (most notably Planning Board member Mayor Nurko) voted 3-2 against moving the master plan forward, citing "minor revisions and wording corrections," they subsequently at the April 2 committee meeting agreed that Committeemen Chet Halka and John Pfefferkorn would meet with the township’s planners and engineers to clean up these minor issues so that a new vote can be taken at the April 16 Township Committee meeting.

Stay with me ... this is where it starts to get interesting.

The next day, April 3, it appears Committeemen Nurko, Charles Abate and Halka apparently authorized (at the taxpayers’ expense) the Millstone Landowners and their hired guns to meet with the township’s planners and engineers in a private closed-door session (which liberty the taxpayers of this community were not given) to privately offer their suggestions to the master plan. This meeting subsequently and coincidentally took place just hours before Committeemen Halka and Pfefferkorn met with the township’s planner and engineers. Go figure.

Hey ... special favors for special interests. Is the picture getting clearer yet?

I bet you’re wondering what their bigger and better suggestions and alternatives are. Ready for this? Sewers. That’s right, sewer lines and package treatment facilities for Millstone.

Wow! What a precedent-setting idea. No wonder they didn’t want to display their self-serving overt greed in a public forum like the rest of the concerned community was relegated to doing; the cafetorium would have exploded on March 31 at their suggestion of sewer lines.

It is painfully clear for the average resident to now see who these "concerned citizens" really are — land speculators and developers. Their suggestions have nothing to do with the rural and environmental preservation of our community. Their suggestions are reckless, dangerous, self-serving propositions that we cannot afford, or even pretend, to entertain.

Enough already. It’s time for this Township Committee to do what’s right for Millstone and the majority of Millstone’s residents and put the special interests aside. It’s time for the committee to vote yes, yes, yes, yes, yes (that’s right, 5-0) in support of the master plan as presented on May 21. Unanimous support is crucial for the long-term survival of the master plan.

Please come out on May 19 at 8 p.m. at the Millstone Elementary School for a special meeting hosted by the Township Committee and voice your support of the master plan — the largest, single-most important determinant of the quality of life for all concerned citizens of Millstone.

Write, e-mail or call your elected township committeemen and demand they unanimously adopt and support what is clearly in the best interest of all the residents of our community. Talk with your friends and neighbors and let your voice be heard. It’s your community ... own it.

Robert Kinsey is a resident of Millstone