I was rather amused by Mr. [Elias] Abilheira's recent letter and his feeble attempt at distorting my efforts in serving the residents of Millstone. His letter only confirms the immediate need for change and why I am running as an independent in November.

Repeatedly he refers to a $600,000 grant that the township applied for relative to the Waters property. But his political amnesia resurfaces when he states that I "opposed his efforts to recover grant money" - another in the continuing pattern of lies. So, now the facts.

Most residents remember a few years ago how the Board of Education invited them to a series of meetings to discuss the future of our schools. I enthusiastically participated, as did many of you. The community consensus from those meetings directed the Board of Education to purchase 100 acres of land that would accommodate a middle school while allowing for expansion to an eventual high school complex. And during an extensive land search, the Township Committee (pre-Abilheira/Grbelja) made important decisions partnering with the board to expedite the purchase process.

At one meeting, I presented a funding analysis with various payback options, after which the Township Committee agreed to fund the property purchase. By the committee funding the money up front, our actions saved the taxpayers millions in inflationary construction costs.

The board selected the Waters property, which was in contract with a developer, the Orleans Corp. The committee's option was to negotiate or enact eminent domain proceedings. The committee by 4-1 chose eminent domain. I objected to eminent domain proceedings and preferred the negotiation approach.

Through the conclusion of my term (with Grbelja/Abilheira joining the 2004 committee), eminent domain proceedings were still ongoing. Never during my term did the committee ever communicate to the board that we would not honor the community's commitment to provide them with the full 100 acres. In fact, to settle the Orleans dispute over eminent domain, we provided the judge with a settlement offer to buy approximately 100 acres for the school, with Orleans keeping the balance.

I was shocked that after I left office in 2005, the political influence swayed by the new Township Committee members changed the pledge to the community with significantly less than 100 acres provided to the board for school construction. The portion retained by the township was then used to apply for a grant.

A committeeman is supposed to be a steward of the public's position. I did what the public expected and honored their request for providing the board with the full 100 acres for the new school. The residents did not ask for lesser acreage. If they had, there were other parcels that could have been purchased.

But it's election time, and Abilheira/Grbelja can't change the fact that they failed to honor the public's request. Like you, when I first heard of the less-than-agreed-to-acreage transfer, I wondered who orchestrated the deal to deny the board the entire 100 acres.

Could the politics of claiming a small grant outweigh the huge costs of having to purchase additional property someday for a high school complex, given our tenuous relationship with Allentown? It's now interesting that Abilheira wants to claim credit for his opposition to the community's consensus request, which was the need for 100 acres for the school.

I guess it will only be a matter of time before a Department of Public Works truck wash and other eyesore structures get placed on the town's portion there. This could not have occurred under the Board of Education's ownership and restrictions.

Now we read how their "Save Millstone" campaign promises of stabilizing taxes won't happen. Who's going to pay for the impending police department or costly centralized recreation?

Can the Abilheira/Grbelja campaign's lies avoid next year's $4 million projected school budget increase or will cutting the budget make school recreation the victim? Abilheira's claims that a Route 33 development will bring in $350,000 in school revenue will take years to achieve. Who covers the huge spending increases until then? We do.

And the nonsense of how Abilheira obtained $300,000 in Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) money that will stabilize your taxes is another falsehood. State law imposes a mandated fee that the developers pay. Politicians didn't earn this. That's a separate fund, which will not reduce your taxes - it's only used for low-income-housing options. It just adds to our community more transients who get subsidized housing.

Can you afford to be innocent bystanders to additional tax increases, insider deals and lies? Save Millstone - vote out Abilheira and Grbelja and their tax increase plans.

John Pfefferkorn

candidate for Millstone Township Committee