Letters and Commentary

266

Dance Performance to Help Students, Fire Dept. Impacted by Sandy
To the Editor:
During this holiday season the Brookdale Dance Ensemble will be having their bi-annual dance recital on Saturday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center (PAC) Lincroft main campus.
This is a free event for the community to enjoy as we showcase our talented students.  Come and see the students perform in all different styles of dance including modern, hip-hop, jazz, lyrical and ballroom. Bring your family and friends for an evening of entertainment with a reception to follow.
This year, because of the devastation from Hurricane Sandy, the Brookdale Dance Club event is assisting the Brookdale Foundation helping our students who need financial assistance due to the storms and the Branchport Hose Company in Long Branch to help renovate their building. Whatever goodwill monetary donations are received will be divided between these worthwhile local causes.
Doreen Laperdon Addison
Dance Instructor
Brookdale Community College
 
It Doesn’t Take a Storm to Put Raw Sewage in Our Waters
To the Editor:
Many sewage plants were damaged by Sandy and millions of gallons of raw sewage mixed with flood waters and contaminated houses and local rivers and bays.
But it doesn’t take a severe storm to cause sewage contamination. The EPA estimates that every year more than 23 billion gallons of sewage overflows into our local rivers and bays from up to 200 New Jersey municipal sewage treatment plants.
How can this happen? Because these municipalities are operating older plants with Combined Sewage Outflows (CSOs) that allow raw sewage into our local waters every time it rains hard.
What is a CSO? Years ago, combined sewer systems were designed to channel surface water, industrial runoff and sewage through the same pipes (instead of separate pipes which is modern practice). When it rains hard or lots of snow melts, these single pipe systems are designed so that this toxic mix flows directly into our local waters.
These old systems have been illegal under current regulations for a long time, but the state and municipalities have consistently failed to find the money to update these old systems. Instead, Jersey’s general permit shields permitees from liability.
What can you do about this? Say “How awful” and forget about it? Or, you can make your displeasure known in several ways:
1. Sign NY/NJ Baykeeper’s ‘Change.org’ petition.
2. Join ‘I Use New Jersey’s Waters’ on Facebook
3. Ask Gov. Christie to spend some of the reconstruction funds on elimination of these CFOs.
We deserve uncontaminated waters.
Michael Humphreys
Fair Haven
Replenished Beaches, Engineered Dunes ‘Worth their Weight in Gold’
To the Editor:
It is clear from the ongoing assessment of Sandy’s damage that recently replenished beaches and maintained engineered beaches and dune systems provided significantly better protection and minimized inland damage to homes and coastal infrastructures than adjacent un-replenished, non-engineered systems.
The cost savings to taxpayers, businesses, insurers, municipalities, the state and federal government is accurately described as worth its weight in gold. Bradley Beach Mayor Julie Schreck reports that “the dunes cultivated several years ago by the department of public works protected not only private property, but public property and infrastructure, including the sanitary sewer system, roads, and sidewalks.”
Over the past 20 years, the Jersey Shore Partnership has been New Jersey’s voice in raising awareness of state and federal officials and the general public to the need for safeguarding the shoreline through beach restoration and other shore protection methods. New Jersey’s unique geography places the state in the potential path of tropical storms, nor’easters and hurricanes that are destined to be more frequent. Beach restoration and nourishment projects act as a buffer between the pounding surf and towns, businesses, and infrastructure along the shoreline.
Professor and Researcher Jon Miller at the Center for Maritime Systems, Stevens Institute of Technology, states that “the goal moving forward should be a comprehensive system which includes engineered beaches and dunes, along with structural and non-structural alternatives including the adoption of hazard resilient planning and building practices.”
The partnership is dedicated to helping the Jersey Shore restore its reputation as a year-round destination of choice for visitors, businesses and residents.
Recovery from Sandy will be an arduous task but we will come back. History has proven it so.
Margot Walsh
Executive Director
Jersey Shore Partnership
Red Bank
 
Janet’s Law: Lifesaving Legislation supported by Heart Association
To the Editor:
As a cardiologist and on behalf of the American Heart Association, I want to thank the New Jersey Legislature and the governor for the recent passage of Janet’s Law, lifesaving legislation supported by the American Heart Association that will make the Garden State’s schools safer for all who enter the facilities and grounds.
Sudden cardiac arrest can strike anyone at any time, often without warning. In fact, the American Heart Association reports about 295,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (treated by emergency medical services) occur in the United States each year. The quicker a victim of cardiac arrest receives CPR and defibrillation, the chances of survival increase. Therefore, it is important that bystanders know how to react quickly and appropriately.
In recent years, there have been many cases of students and others suffering from cardiac arrest on school property, during the school day and after school hours. Ensuring school personnel are appropriately trained to effectively respond with the necessary tools will save countless lives of students, teachers, parents and others who spend time in our schools. Janet’s Law, named for 11-year-old Janet Zilinski of New Jersey who died of a sudden cardiac arrest in 2006 during cheerleading practice, enables schools to be prepared for cardiac emergencies.
Thanks to the work of the New Jersey Legislature and the governor, all schools will have automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in place by Sept. 1, 2014, trained personnel and an action plan to respond if the unthinkable should happen to students, teachers or others on school property. Janet’s Law not only honors the memory of Janet Zilinski but makes our schools safer for all residents and communities throughout the Garden State.
I am pleased there was overwhelming support by the legislature and I applaud Gov. Christie for recently signing this important legislation that makes New Jersey more prepared to save lives from inevitable sudden cardiac arrest.
Marcus Williams, M.D.
Immediate Past President,
Regional Board of Directors
American Heart Association, New Jersey
Cardiologist, Cardiac Associates of North Jersey
 
Two River Moment

 

Ho, ho, ho! Remember the days of stiff holiday dresses with white anklets and Mary Jane patent leather shoes? These three girls wore their holiday best in 1955 during a visit to see Santa at the Walter Reade Carlton Theater in Red Bank. The theater is now the Count Basie Theatre.