“Laughable”, “Ludicrous”, “Fabricated”, “Devoid of truth and fact” and a “poor attempt at revisionist history” those were our thoughts as we read the complaint filed in Federal Court by Christ Church against Rockaway Twp. 

From the very beginning of this matter residents have stated concerns about the environment, traffic, impact on our infrastructure and loss of taxes.  In 2003, few people had heard of the Highlands Act, thankfully now it is law.  This property is in the CORE of the Highlands and protected for the benefit of all NJ residents.  Our fears for a deterioration of traffic were made real by the testimony of the Christ Church traffic expert, who under sworn testimony stated that nearly all intersections on Green Pond Rd would suffer significant delays and are already at “F levels of service”, which is the lowest grade possible.  Demands on the infrastructure have been demonstrated to be far more then we can handle and with a decrease in our tax base of $630,000 the only way to pay for their project is on the backs of Rockaway Twp tax payers, none of whom are members of this church.

In the suit Christ Church has claimed, “the Mayor spearheaded a propaganda campaign against Christ Church.”  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Is it so hard for Christ Church to believe that residents of Rockaway Twp have banned together in opposition to this mammoth building project?  We have chosen to take this allegation as a backhanded compliment. It is an outright lie that the mayor “spearheaded” the work of Voices of Rockaway Twp.  We are residents, we asked OUR mayor to attend a meeting to tell residents what he knew about the project, he did, he answered a few questions, he left, the meeting continued.  Further over the next year plus we did speak to the mayor to keep him abreast of our concerns.  He is OUR Mayor; he works for the people of Rockaway Twp.  If Christ Church were to have their way, they would ban communication between an elected official and his constituents, unless of course, we would presume, it were in their best interest.  We wonder if Christ Church cares to disclose what elected officials they have been speaking to regarding this project, as we have heard tell of some questionable conversations with high-ranking State and Federal politicians. 

Sincerely,

Lisa and Adam Salberg

Kim and John Jenkins