It appears that the Daily Record will be running an article in Sundays paper about the Agilent property.
Adam and I got a call yesterday from Rob Jennings - I was unavailable but he spoke to Adam. Rob was asking for a comment because he heard (yet did not name the source) that the Rockaway Twp Board of Education "asked some people to leave the committee, because they were against the church". Adams responce to Robs question was "that statement is patently false" Adam explained that we (He, I Kim and John) had many obligations including family, jobs, VORT and other activities and we did not have the time to give this committee the attention that it needed. (which we have previously stated in public)
I am posting this in advance of the publishing of the article for the simple reason that in the last few articles I or members of VORT were misquoted OR only half of a sentence was used, twisting the meaning of what was said. In the last article the Daily Record contacted us about they were given a written statment to aviod the problem from happening. This time the information was given verbally.
Interstingly, Rob Jennings also called me on Thursday asking about the "public meeting" VORT was having this weekend....This was in responce to a post on THIS board where I said that "VORT was having a meeting this weekend to discuss several issues including the school". This is NOT a public meeting - simply a few people getting together to discuss business.
I am holding out some hope that the Daily Record will excersise fair and balanced reporting and NOT repeat the errors of their past. Regardless of your postion on a matter it hard to set opinions when the information printed in the media is not accurate. I know how often I have been misquoted in the Daily Record, in all fairness, I wounder how often they have misquoted those from Christ Church.
In todays paper there is a quote taken from a man named Bernard McGovern claiming "There were people on the committee at the start who were "anti" church application" "They all left the committee...." We can agree with this portion.
The quote goes on to say "...In fact, people encouraged them to get off." There is no fact in this statment whatsoever.
He is further quoted as saying,"What we wanted were people who did not have a bias against the church." I am not sure what Mr. McGovern is refering to as "we", the school board would have been fine if we choose to stay on the committee, it was our choice to leave. If "we" refers to other residents of Rockaway Twp. - I do not know. However, the BOE did not offer a survey prior to participation on the committee to detirmine each persons opinion on the CC application, it was simply not an issue. Our opinion has been clear. During all of our meeting in the fall we encouraged residents to participate on this committee, regardless of their opinion on CC.
At the first "Facilities Study" meeting I had been assigned to the "needs'" portion of the committee, not the "sight selection". I do not know Mr. McGovern nor does my husband. Mr. McGovern has no personal knowledge of our interactions with the committee nor the board of education.
I think he was an inappropriate person to quote as to what the BOE's position on the opposition to the CC application was or is.
The quotes in the paper may or may not be Mr. McGoverns thoughts and words, however they are not accurate "in fact" they may however be his "opinion".
In regards to the quotes of Michael Patrick Carroll (R-State Assemblyman Morris Township). I can not belive that a State official is so interested in destroying our land, roadways and community. This man actually wanted to represent CC. I think he is forgetting that he "respresents" US. I think we should all remind him of this fact, if not by letters by VOTES. Regardless of where a school ends up, if anywhere, the Agilent site has been talked about for many years as a possible location for a school. Yes, the timing is poor for this evaluation of its usefulness to the town, however the need may well be there.
A review of Mr. Carrolls history rings clearly that his support is with the "religious right", not the average NJ resident. I for one do not believe we live in a religious state, but a free and equal one.
