SONIC Member Questions Why Promised Letter To Board of Ed Was Not Sent

The following letter was presented to the Mayor and the Township committee at Monday nights Workshop meeting. The letter was written by SONIC (Save Our Neighborhood's Integrity & Character) member Jeff Blumengold. It questions why a letter to the Middletown Board of Education was not written expressing a desire to reopen negotiations between the Township and the Board of Ed. concerning the use of turf fields by the Pop warner program.

The Mayor promissed Mr. Blumengold that he would receive a copy of the correspondence once it was to be sent, two weeks ago.

From what I understand that letter to the BOE was not sent until this past Monday afternoon at 5pm.

Mayor Scharfenberger and members of the Middletown Township Committee --

Unfortunately, I am unable to appear before you this evening. Nevertheless, as one of the founding members of "SONIC", I believe it is important to receive a definitive update on the actions that have been taken since the last meeting with respect to the West Front Street Field issue, especially since there have been on-going and repeated rumors and some public statements made that run counter to the direction set by the MTC as a matter of Public Record.

Specifically, there was a directive by Mayor Scharfenberger to Mr. Mercancante to immediately prepare, for review and release, a letter to the BOE, which was to request a reopening of the discussions concerning careful consideration of all available assets of the Community in seeking to address the quality of our fields issue, as well as alternative fields suitable for consideration for the Pop Warner league to utilize.

As the Mayor knows, I spoke with him since the meeting two weeks ago and as late as this past Thursday, and was assured on Thursday that the letter had been drafted and was being edited by the Mayor for immediate release -- and that I would receive both confirmation and a courtesy copy, once released.

As of this writing, I still have not received confirmation or a copy, which is troubling, to say the least. I am not sure, nor can understand why this letter could not be turned around in one or two days, at the most!

Let me now remind you and the other members of the MTC that SONIC had been assured in a meeting with the Mayor during his Saturday office hours, as well as the last MTC meeting on the record, that the project was now "On Hold", pending this joint effort with BOE to seek a solution to this dilemma.

What is clear and most troubling at this time is that there has been both statements made in other public forums by Township representatives, sp ecifically at a recent Pop Warner meeting by Greg Silva, that as I understand it, completely contradict this project status as being "On Hold". This, coupled with other actions and discussions that I have only heard about, also contradict the status you indicated to us.

Accordingly, and for the benefit of those in attendance and the community at large, I am requesting on behalf of the members of SONIC that you enlighten those in attendance as to the specific actions taken over the two weeks since the last MTC meeting, and also planned efforts contemplated or underway in the near term, as it relates to the WFS site.

This will be put to bed the speculation that continues to plague the outcome with respect to this issue.

Thank you.

Jeffrey Blumengold
Member of SONIC