I attended last week's township committee meeting and was impressed with the open space presentation. The change in this program over the last three years is enormous, thanks to the importance placed on this task by our current leadership Nancy Grbelja, Elias Abilheira and the rest of the current township committee, and the dedication of the volunteers who work so hard to make it a success.

The current administration has preserved over 1,900 acres during their administration. Even more impressive is the fact that we pay only $160,000 for every $1 million of preserved land. This is a result of the timeless work and energy by Nancy and Elias partnering with both the state and county on land acquisition. Millstone has been recognized for the work it has done on land preservation.

Under past administrations (under Mr. [William] Nurko and Mr. [John] Pfefferkorn's watch) the town paid 100 percent of the purchase price of land, forcing the town to take out loans (resulting in interest payments) to cover the cost of the acquisitions. To make matters worse the town leadership did not ensure that appropriate paperwork was filed to receive reimbursement for these acquisitions. Millstone Township has only recently received reimbursements for lands purchased between 1999 and 2003 as a result of the combined leadership of Nancy and Elias, Pat Butch and the members of the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Council.

There is a November ballot question requesting an increase in the Open Space tax from five cents to six cents. Taxes are a big issue in this town. I encourage every resident to watch channel 77 for the full presentation and the resulting positive impact this program has on taxes and quality of life.

Nancy and Elias are committed to Millstone and spending our money wisely and efficiently. We need more people like them who work hard to save our tax dollars and introduce new ideas to reduce the cost we pay to run our town and schools, like the solar initiative that will save us money without incurring any new costs.

Brenda Tannenbaum

Millstone