SOD!

They're scared of the town truly uniting. Last time I checked we still had the freedom of expression and freedom to assemble. To quote Ulises, SOD!

What sour grapes. Goliath crybabying about David. We want to know if any of their experts, developers &/or attorneys actually live in New Milford where houses are being Blue Acred & abandoned due to the already chronic flooding? UW's Rich Henning said it best "OVERDEVELOPMENT HAS CONTRIBUTED TO FLOODING. WE NEED TO RESTORE OUR FLOOD PLAINS".

I would like to know then if the developer or any of his associates have had any private communication with any zoning board member, mayor or council member via telephone, email or private meeting as this should be considered a conflict of interest as well.

And any political contributions that might have created conflicts of interest as well.

What difference does it make if they attend a meeting? They still have free will and are entitled to exercise their Constitutional rights.

As for the Mayor and Council attending a meeting, is it different if I see one of my democratically ELECTED representatives on the street and speak to them about it. After all, I elected them to REPRESENT ME, a taxpaying resident. Not UW/Suez (a foreign owned company). Not Inserra. Not Hekemeian. But ME.

What are they afraid of?

To find out more about SOD, click on the PDF file above.
SOD!

This is all about FLOOD MITIGATION. We have suffered enough without anything or anyone else contributing to our primary & existing problem. United Water should be in favor of FLOOD MITIGATION but their greed transcends everything & this development project clearly undermines efforts to mitigate the flooding problem. Our elected officials are obligated to do what's best for its citizens & community whether UW/Suez or Hekemian like it or not. Put your ShopRite next to Home Depot in the vacant Pathmark store. We don't want you here.

This validates SOD and everything that the group is doing is working. It will get worse with Hekemian before it gets better. SOD is proof that when people come together for a common purpose amazing things can happen!

Rick, your comments are dead-on but this overdevelopment is more than the additional flooding it would cause. It's also about our schools, our roads, our police force, our environment, our health, our fire department, our taxes and our future.

Last night's meeting proves that we are a force to be reckoned with. Keep being vigilant. Keep attending meetings. Keep writing letters. Talk to your neighbors. Like SOD on Facebook. We can't be initimidated! We are SOD!!!

This is going to be a long endevor, we do have to remain vigilant for the duration. The questions that everyone asked last night were excellent. We need to consider other measures to keep SOD in the public's eye and start implementing them.

This is a plea to all parents who have children in the NM school district or children who will be entering-please understand the ramifications that a 221 unit rental complex will have on our school system. Most of our buildings are already at or over capacity; I can not imagine where there will be room for the amount of children this complex will bring. We certainly do not have the facilities or personnel to educate them now. I hope that the new planner thoroughly includes the impact on the school system in the rezoning report. I'd like to suggest to parents that you try to work out a schedule with a few families you know and have 1 or 2 parents attend meetings on a rotating basis. We probably had less than 10 parents in the audience last night; if you really care about the direction of education in NM, please work with other families & come up with a schedule that allows a few of you to get out to meetings. Speaking isn't even necessary, but a strong stance is crucial. Personally, I'd like Shoprite to stay in town and rebuild at their current location- they've been approved for it, we need the business in town & a nice supermarket is overdue. When they decide to make the right decision and pull out of this debacle then I'll start shopping there again. Until then, my $$ is being spent elsewhere. One gentleman summed it up perfectly last night when he said this development was the equivalent of "carpet bombing" the North side of town. That couldn't be more true.

Part of the problem is that a private water company's sole interest is their bottom line. They suggest that they care about the environment, but they just can't pass up adding 221 families and a large grocery market to their customer list.

Mary, we're with you. We decided at home to boycott this Shop Rite until they do the right thing and build at their current location.

I'd like to point out that there are business owners on the Zoning Board and if they vote in favor of this development, I will boycott them too (one of them a successful realestate agent in town and Lou, I love your Garden Cafe and I don't want to boycott it - do the right thing).

SOD!

The real question is, who's interest is this a conflict of? The developers? Last I checked Americans had the freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Members of the zoning board and other areas of the government are Americans. Additionally, whether they went to the meetings or not, being a "judicial" body, they are required to see and understand both sides of the argument. I encourage EVERY member to go to the meetings!

SOD will soon begin circulating petitions on line and the old fashion way going door to door. We hope to show the Zoning Board of Adjustments and the Mayor and Council a community joined in solidarity to prevent this atrocious development from occuring. I urge you all to join SOD, to sign the petitions. If you can, help circulate the petitions and to urge your families and freinds to do the same. If folks are willing to stand together, we can beat this thing.