Middletown Department of Recreation Relocated To Poricy Park

The Middletown Recreation Department is moving once again. It was moved from the Croydon Hall complex a couple of years ago to make room for Trinity Hall all girls school. It was relocated to old Port Monmouth Library on Main St. after the satellite branch of closed.  It is now moving to Poricy Park. 

I wonder what will need to be relocated from Poricy Park to accommodate the arrival of the Recreation Department.

Here's the public notice that was posted Friday on the township's website:

The Recreation Department office has been relocated to the Poricy Park Nature Center.

Poricy Park is located 345 Oak Hill Road, Middletown – just west of Route 35 South. There are directional signs posted on Route 35 and at the Parkway exits. Please pardon our appearance while we finish settling in.

Also please note the street address for GPS navigation is 345 Oak Hill Road, Red Bank.

Letter: An Autistic Man’s Perspective on the Moral/Ethical Drawbacks of the Trinity Hall School Project

The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:


This essay is intended for those opposed to the Trinity Hall project. It is for those who can just feel “in their guts” that there is something ethically fishy about this whole thing, but who might have difficulty putting an articulate finger on it. Because I live on Sleepy Hollow road and would be drastically affected by the traffic nightmare that would be unleashed by Trinity Hall, I feel that this warrants me the right to comment on the overall issue of this impending fiasco. Since many others have already commented on the traffic and the blatant destruction of one of the few remaining gems of rural land in this area I will, instead, give my opinion on the moral and ethical foundations of the Trinity Hall project. If there is any one word that would sum up this` moral/ethical premise it would be “disingenuous.”

This disingenuousness has played out a number of times in the newspapers where, sometimes even in the same paper, there are articles about the terrible financial state of Catholic education found alongside puff pieces about Trinity Hall. One after another, Catholic schools ... REAL Catholic schools ... are closing because of inadequate funding. Parents and students are forced into do-or-die fund raising scenarios, practically becoming beggars to the general public. Because of Trinity Hall, the real Catholic Church, already trying hard to pay its bills, must now face the reality that a group of religious fakers could even make matters worse by siphoning off that much more money. The real Catholic Church is now sitting on acres of idyll school property, which could be pulled out of mothballs and made ready for true parochial education, for a fraction of the cost that would be required to deface one of the few remaining tracts of farmland in this whole area. The word that explains this paradox is the word “disingenuous”.

If those behind Trinity Hall were not disingenuous, they would come clean and just admit it that Trinity Hall does not really need the sanction of the real church because Trinity Hall is not intended for a real Catholic education. Trinity Hall is a country club finishing school for unsuspecting girls whose wealthy parents feel their daughters’ education must not be marred by the presents of kids of lower economic classes. Their educations must not be impeded by having to look at such ugly sights as highways and lower class neighborhoods, all of which they would be looking at if they accepted a school location provided by the real church. As well, a Trinity Hall girl’s education should not be impeded by the real Catholic Church’s pesky and obnoxious preoccupation with the poor and underprivileged. Of course, Trinity Hall will have to offer at least some scholarships to lower class girls, which means the campus will still have to tolerate the occasional Toyota wedged in between the Lexuses and Beemers.

So, how do disingenuous people latch on to the esteem of the Catholic Church? If you are a flim- flammer, you create a totally disingenuous marketing catch phrase such as... “in the Catholic tradition”. What “in the Catholic tradition” means is that it’s not really Catholic. It just looks Catholic for marketing purposes. If the Trinity Hall founders showed you a knock-off handbag that they got from Canal St., they would still expect you to swoon over it because, after all, it was made in the “Louis Vuitton tradition”.

Even though Bishop David O’Connell would not sanctioned Trinity Hall as a true Catholic institution, its origin certainly can be found in the Bible. It is the follow-up to the story of how Jesus purged the money changers from Herod’s temple. If you open the New Testament to John 2:13-16 you will see the following:

“And making a whip of cords, he [Jesus] drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade”.

It is important to note that both money changing and bird selling were legal practices, but they were considered disreputable. So, if you are a disreputable money-changer or bird seller and you want to deal inside the temple without having Jesus throw you out, what do you do? You do what the Trinity Hall people are trying to do right now. You build your own temple.

It is when fakers like these show themselves for what they are that the reality of their fakeness instills anger in those being manipulated. In the case of Trinity Hall it is the disparity between the lofty character and integrity building propaganda and the reality of their actual promotional technique. In the process of expediting its approval, the promoters of Trinity Hall have lied, manipulated, obfuscated, deceived, curried suspicious favor and otherwise produced a veritable cornucopia of soft-core fraudulence. The integrity of their technique now serves as the best testimony to their true character.

Trinity Hall, as I understand it, is mostly the creation of two families, whose mission is to create “designer education” for young girls, leaving no conscience obligation to consider anyone or anything. The Navesink/Chapel Hill area will be chronically gridlocked. Not their problem. The sewage system will be driven to over capacity. Not their problem. The environment will be permanently thrown out of kilter by this monstrosity. Not their problem. The quality of life in the entire area will be vastly diminished. Not their problem. Driving will increase on a road known to be deadly, thereby playing Russian roulette with the lives of citizens and students alike, but it’s not their problem.

By now the parents of Trinity Hall must be asking themselves, why is this particular piece of property so important? Why is this so important when, as cited by one of the school’s founders, there were twenty other locations (and all better suited) on which the school could be built? Why is this so important when the school’s construction could have been well under way by now, at one of these other locations? Why is this so important that it is being fervently and obsessively pursued in spite of a litany of dramatic drawbacks — dangerous and otherwise? As the founders have often replied, “we are committed to the address” and most importantly, “it was most convenient”.

The mothers and fathers of Trinity Hall need to have faith in their own daughters. They need to realize that in the end, their promising young women will flourish because of who they are, not because of where they are. This is something that has become horribly lost on the founders of Trinity Hall as their main goal now is to win a piece of property at all costs- even if that cost is the educational and spiritual well-being their own daughters. The school will be built by following a path of convenience and want, in lieu of walking in the footsteps of Christ.

If you want to know how a school should be established, you have to go no farther than the actions taken by Mater Dei High School. When they were notified that they were being closed due to lack of funds, within hours the students themselves organized the funding process to keep Mater Dei established. They then went to anyone who would listen ... friends, family, church officials, alumni and even total strangers to pitched their project. When whoever it was coined the expression “grass roots movement”, they could not possibly have been thinking of a situation better than this.

The Mater Dei students did everything from fundraisers, to “friend raisers”, to prayer meetings, and to anyone with half a chunk of faith, it looked as though God himself looked benevolently on their undertaking. Their success came from endless hours of hard work and the good will of legions of small people. Their combined efforts conveyed the unmistakable belief that the result was universally desired and their cause was undisputedly righteous.

Trinity Hall’s motto is probably what gives me the most reservations. On a large sign, fastened to the front of their current building, are the words... LEADERSHIP, RESPECT, PERSERVERENCE, FAITH. These are noble attributes to be sure, but we live every day with proof that there is no need whatsoever to destroy a neighborhood and the environment to get them. It is this proof that brings us right back to Mater Dei.

When Mater Dei students found that their school was going to be closed, it touched off a veritable explosion of leadership, respect, absolute perseverance and undisputable faith. I am sure that there is no sign on the front of Mater Dei that flaunts those words because none is needed. These words reverberate in the hearts and minds of every student at that school.

Trinity Hall’s motto simply highlights the impossible moral paradox it has created for itself: How do you build a school whose only real purpose is to flaunt how superior you are to everyone else, without losing the support that you must have from the same people who you just implied as inferior? You can’t. You can be as pushy and aggressive and sneaky and filthy rich as you want, and the peasants will still not support you. There is something else that you cannot do. Trinity Hall’s motto has the word “leadership” and the word “respect” and the word “perseverance” and the word “faith,” but the one word that is missing from this motto is the word “HONESTY”. You are not allowed to use this word. You do not deserve it.

Tony Sloan: peasant in revolt
Sleepy Hollow Rd., Middletown

3-30-13 Middletown Township Committee Meeting - FY 2015 Budget Intro

Middletown Township introduced its FY-2015 budget Monday afternoon with a brief presentation by CFO Colleen Lapp. The Committee also adopted a resolution to amend the lease agreement with Trinity Hall at the Croydon Hall property.

I haven't had time to watch all of the video as of yet, I intend to do so shorty. I also intend to post the documents from the meeting as an update as soon as they are available.



Here is a link to Middletown's press release announcing the budget introduction




 UPDATE  ************

Here are the links to the proposed FY 2015 Municipal Budget, Solid Waste Budget and the revised Trinity Hall lease agreement documents present at last night's township meeting:

https://archive.org/details/151292015MunicipalBudgetIntroduced

https://archive.org/details/151302015SolidWasteBudgetIntroduced

https://archive.org/details/15131TrinityHallLeaseAmendment

Letter: Trinity Hall and the Township of Middletown

Dear Editor:

I have one simple question. What is the Township of Middletown's position on the proposed Trinity Hall development in Chapel Hill? When questioned on the issue in the past, the Township Committee told residents that the approval or denial of the proposed development’s application is solely the Township Planning Board’s decision.

On June 11, 2014, the Township Planning Board voted 6-3 to deny Trinity Hall's application. Shortly after the application was denied, Trinity Hall filed a law suit against Middletown Township seeking relief of the Planning Board’s decision. One would think that based on the previous statements made by the Township Committee, Middletown and the Township Attorney would vehemently defend the Township Planning Board’s decision. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. This past Friday upon the Superior Court of New Jersey’s ruling on Trinity Hall’s lawsuit, a letter that Middletown Township Attorney, Brian Nelson, wrote to the presiding judge was made public. Based on this letter it appears Mr. Nelson contradicts the position of the Township Planning Board’s decision to deny the Trinity Hall application and it appears that he and the Township Committee side with Trinity Hall by recommending that the Court grant the school’s request to reverse the Planning Board’s decision and approve the application without remand to the Planning Board.

Is it not the responsibility of the township’s governing body to protect the interests of its residents above all else? After reading Mr. Nelson’s letter, all Middletown residents should be asking themselves who is our Township Attorney really working for and what is the Township Committee’s position on the proposed Trinity Hall development in Chapel Hill?

Sincerely,

Jeffrey P. Yachmetz
Concerned Resident of Middletown

And So It Begins: Trinity Hall lawsuit seeks immediate action

Yesterday's article in the Asbury Park Press concerning a lawsuit filed by the all girls school Trinity Hall, against the Middletown Township Planning Board's June 11th decision to deny Trinity Hall's application to build a school over on Chapel Hill came as no surprise. It was expected by everyone.

Now however, it isn't just the local residents known as the Chapel Hill Neighboorhood Group, that have to foot the bill for rightfully  fighting Trinity Hall's application, it's all the taxpayer of Middletown.

Here is a snippet of what the APP has reported:

MIDDLETOWN – A lawsuit has been filed against the township Planning Board after it denied an application to build a campus on Chapel Hills Road.

Officials of Trinity Hall girls high school asked a judge for a prompt review of the suit because the lease on the school's current building expires in August 2015.

The suit asks a judge to overturn the board's decision and approve the plans for a multi-building campus, which the planning board rejected after a six-hour hearing on June 11.

A lease extension also would require approval from state Green Acres officials because the building is located in a park, said Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante, who added there is an option to renew the lease on the township-owned Croydon Hall school building for six additional months.

Board rejects school's proposal

Trinity Hall proposed a campus to ultimately house 500 girls and 60 staff on 37 acres on Chapel Hill Road, which previously was approved for 19 homes. It is the only all-girls high school in Monmouth and Ocean counties and is conducting classes in a rented school building in the Leonardo section of the township.

School officials didn't wait for the board's August vote to finalize the June 11 decision to reject the plans, announcing their intent to sue five days after the planning board meeting and vote.

The school filed the lawsuit in Monmouth County Superior Court on July 3....

Continue reading

Planning Board Votes 6-3 To Turn Down Trinity Hall Application

I spent several long hours last night at the Middletown Planning Board meeting listen to public comments made by both Trinity Hall supporters and residents from the Chapel Hill area who opposed the construction of the all-girls high school in their neighborhood off of Chapel Hill Rd. and Kings Highway East.

I didn't get home until nearly 1:30 am and was too tired to write anything about it until now. Seeing how both the Middletown Patch and The Asbury Park Press reporters were both in attendance I won't get into a lot of details, you can read about the proceedings in greater detail from them.

At times, those that commented were passionate in their opposition or support of the proposal but in the end the Middletown Planning Board turned down Trinity Hall's application by a vote of 6-3 in favor of the residents concerns over safety and traffic issues. Needless to say, members of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group, many of which were in attendance and spoke during the public comments before the Planning Board voted, were ecstatic over the outcome. Trinity Hall supporters... not so much.

As a matter of fact, after the proceedings, a rather heated argument erupted outside the court room, in the lobby of Town Hall were the meeting took place. It was broken up quickly however before anything serious happened between the two parties.

As I said, I would recap further but after 7 hours of testimony the Middletown-Patch and reporter Christina Johnson has a good summary of the nights proceedings. Also the Asbury Park Press's reporter Larry Higgs was there for the whole 7 hour proceeding and I'm sure that he will have a much more to say about meeting in his article. I'm interested in hearing what the people he interviewed afterwards had to say about the evening.

The past 6 months have been a long and grueling process on both the residents of Chapel Hill and the proponents of Trinity Hall school but it showed what can happen when residents ban together and speak with one, united voice against well funded special interests. David can overcome Goliath.    

This past 6 months also shows you how not to present your case in front of the Planning Board. Trinity Hall did a terrible job justifying the need for the school to be located in Middletown and presented flawed site drawings and relied on various reports that were several years old and turned  not to reflect the current conditions of the proposed site today.

Trinity Hall was lazy and evidently felt that this application was a slam dunk. They didn't do the proper homework needed to ensure that their proposal would succeed. They wasted a lot of time, money and effort and if that is the way that they would run their school, I think it's best that their application was turned down. They can go build their school elsewhere.

Write-In Candidates Beat Incumbent GOP County Committee Representatives From Middletown's District 28

For the most part yesterday's primary election in Middletown went as planned, both Democrats and Republicans had uncontested races for Middletown Township Committee. Democrats George Mardinly and Patrick Short won their party's nomination as did Republicans Tony Fiore and Stephanie Murray.

Interestingly however, was that while the election went as planned for those on the top of the Republican ticket, it didn't fair well for a couple of longtime GOP County Committee people further down the line. District 28 incumbent Middletown Republican County Committee members Andrew M. Zapcic, Sr. and his wife Kathleen Zapcic, were beaten rather unexpectedly by two write-in candidates, Rudolf Wobito and Jennifer Valencia. Wobito and Valencia are members of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group, who oppose the building of the all-girls high school, Trinity Hall.

What messages have been sent or what impact those message will have in regards to the outcome of the Trinity Hall application that is nearing a final vote in front of the Middletown Planning Board later this month, is any one's guess. I suspect however it won't have much, even though Wobito, Valencia and other members of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group are hoping otherwise.

An Open Letter to Trinity Hall Mothers

Trinity Hall Mothers:

Your pursuit of this school development in Middletown is an immoral one.

Every parent wants to give their children the best possible education and opportunities. But, knowingly putting other children at dramatically increased risk of death and injury for your children’s benefit is repugnant.

Trinity Hall will bring with it a significant increase in death and injuries to our community due to the increase in commercial traffic, which includes heavy commercial vehicles, buses, as well as a never before seen volume of teen-aged drivers.

This is a fact. If this project were to come to fruition, our children will be put in significantly increased risk of death and injury from bus and automobile accidents, both during and post construction.

Trinity Hall Mothers, how do you rationalize that what you are attempting has any moral underpinnings?

You know of the exponential increased risks to our children, and yet you continue to engage in biased and blind group-think, trying, but failing, to project that you are simply and innocently trying to improve your children’s station in life.

How can you look a Middletown mother in the face, and project the facade that what you are doing is just? If you told your children the truth, they would have the moral sense to tell you to stop pursuing this project.

Of course this is not just or moral.

You are strangers and interlopers with money. This is coupled with a myopic zeal to get what you want at all costs. These costs include the very fabric of our community, and the lives of our children.

There is still time. I have spoken to some of the Trinity Mothers privately and their private views are very different than those they express when under the heavy cloak of pressure in their larger group.

If you are a Trinity Mother, take some time reflect on the reality of what you are pursuing.

You will realize that you have not considered the human toll to our community for years to come.
You will realize that you can have what you want for your children, without sacrificing our children.

You have other properties to buy, which will satisfy your children’s educational needs.

To be pursuing this project in the name of being good mothers, knowing full well that our children will be paying a physical price, and our community will lose so much, is one of the greatest self-justifications I have ever encountered.


Sincerely,

Christopher R. Whalen
Concerned Parent and Chapel Hill Resident

An Open Letter To The Board of Trustees of Trinity Hall

We applaud your support of education in the Catholic tradition. We oppose your desire to establish a permanent campus in the Chapel Hill neighborhood of Middletown.

You believe that you are being exceptionally generous in endowing a new school. You are not. This is not philanthropy. This is ego.

Your ego demands that you create something new, something that will be your legacy, something that you can brag about at cocktail parties. You are well educated, presumably intelligent people. Yet, you have allowed your ego to overcome your business sense. This is not a good investment and you know it. Your own feasibility study made it clear that the demographics are not in your favor. "The potential pool of female students in the general population of Monmouth County is projected to decline for the next decade and possibly two decades." Apart from the feasibility study is the undeniable fact that Catholic schools have been closing across Monmouth County at an alarming rate.

Despite all this, you insist on destroying a quiet, peaceful neighborhood. We don't want the increased traffic, weekend track meets or drama club performances. Please take your ego and your money and renovate an existing, abandoned Catholic school. It will not destroy our neighborhood. It will cost less and you can divert the savings into more spending on teachers and programs for the students. Isn't that what education is all about? Your legacy should be the quality of the education the Trinity Hall students receive, not the building you leave behind.


Jim Mulvaney
Member of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group

APP Letter: (Trinity Hall) School would worsen traffic in neighborhood

I saw the following letter in the Asbury Park Press the other day and haven't gotten around to posting it until this afternoon. The letter was written by a Middletown resident and member of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group, Kira Nelson, who is opposed to the all-girls school,Trinity Hall being built off of Chapel Hill road in Middletown.

I am printing this letter because it is of interest to some of those that live and work in Middletown, not as one commenter suggested in the comments section of another post, because I am a political opportunist. If supporters of Trinity Hall wish to submit a letter to this blog that they would like posted they are free to do so. So far only one person has done so and I haven't come across any that have been published elsewhere as of yet ( which doesn't mean that there hasn't been, it just means that I haven't seen one or had a letter pointed out to me)

From the APP:

I am a lifelong resident of Middletown and I do not support Trinity Hall and its desire to build in my neighborhood.

First of all, this historic, rural area is not capable of handling the traffic that the supposed 500 students will bring. These streets are narrow, and road widening in the area of the entrance to the school will not help.

The areas surrounding Chapel Hill are not designed for the school, as well. The intersection of Monmouth Avenue, Portland Road, Whippoorwill Valley Road and Kings Highway East is already filled with speeding cars, along with sharp curves. More cars will only add to the frustration.

Take a look at the light at Chapel Hill Road and Route 35. Can you imagine more cars there? It easily gets backed up to the cemetery.

There are plenty of empty buildings that can house this all-girls school that is apparently so needed in Monmouth County. I did not need it.

I proudly went to a co-educational Catholic school. Along with my mother, they taught me to do anything I set my mind to and the fact that I am a woman should never hold me back.

Kira Nelsen

Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group

MIDDLETOWN

NJ.Com: Middletown residents scrutinize controversial plans for all-girls school

This past Wednesday night there was a meeting of the Middletown Planning Board that I was unable to attend, I was interested in attending because the main focus of the meeting was the Trinity Hall application. The meeting was the first opportunity that The Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group (a group of residents who are opposing the construction of the all-girls school) had to cross examine the Trinity Hall experts on the application. I've spent the past two days looking for information on the meeting but hadn't seen anything on it until I stumble upon an article on NJ.com which I have reprinted a portion of below.

From what I can gather from reading the article, the meeting was an event to been seen. Middletown's courtroom was filled to capacity and overflowed out into the foyer with both  pro-Trinity supporters and members of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group. And to me after reading the article, it would seem that the people from Chapel Hill came out on top during this round after Trinity Hall's engineer got caught in a little white-lie about an environmental impact report that he authored for the prior developer of the property in question. He first denied being the author of the report then later admitted that he was after being questioned by Ron Gasiorowski, the lawyer representing residents of Chapel Hill. Gasiorowski also pointed out that Trinity's engineer was not an environmental expert who based his report on only things that he had read, not what he investigated.

It will be interesting to see what happens next when the Middletown Planning Board reconvenes in April. I think Trinity Hall's dream of building it's new school over on Chapel Hill Rd. took a hit Wednesday night, we'll have to see if they can recover from it. 

MIDDLETOWN - A standing room only crowd filled the township’s meeting room and lobby on Wednesday night for the continuation of the Planning Board hearing on the proposed construction of an all-girls secondary school.

Trinity Hall, a private all-girls high school that has been operating out of a temporary location on Leonardville Road since opening in September, is proposing to build a campus complete with three buildings, athletic fields, tennis courts and approximately 330 parking spaces on a 64-acre parcel off Chapel Hill Road.

The proposed campus would take up slightly less than 38 of those acres, therefore the applicant is requesting permission to subdivide the property. However, representatives for the applicant claimed Thursday night that there are no plans “at this time” to develop the remaining 26 acres.

Opponents of a proposal by Trinity Hall, a private all-girls high school, to build a campus off Chapel Hill Road in Middletown wore t-shirts calling for the application to be denied.

It was easy to tell who was for the development and who was against it at Thursday night’s meeting, as supporters donned the school color of orange and opponents wore pins displaying an image with Trinity Hall crossed out and/or off-white shirts with “Protect our SAFETY and our ENVIRONMENT” printed on one side and Trinity Hall crossed off on the other.

All of Thursday night’s nearly four-hour meeting was dedicated to the public cross examining the project’s engineer, Brian Decina, of French and Parrello Associates, on everything from traffic and environmental concerns to drainage and intensity of usage fears.

Most of the concerns voiced by opponents of the project Thursday night were of the perceived lack of knowledge, or concerns, the applicant's experts - and officials that have granted them conditional approval thus far - have of existing conditions on the property.

For example, Ron Gasiorowski, an attorney representing opponents of the project, read from township documents that emphasized the environmental and historical sensitivity of the property and McCreery’s Creek, which the document and residents alleged flows by the property.

However, Decina claimed that the state Department of Environmental Protection has determined on more than one occasion that a stream does not flow through the property.

“You can fish there!” someone in the crowd yelled out.

“How can you and the DEP say there isn’t a stream there? It’s there. Even Google knows its there,” another resident asked Decina.

Gasiorowski also took issue with an environmental impact report that Decina submitted for the project, which pulled a lot of information from a report Decina prepared for a previous applicant who was proposing to build 20 residential units on the 64-acre property.

At first Decina said he did not write the report and that he did not know who did. But then, only after Gasiorowski pointed out that he had signed the report as its author, he claimed that he was the author of the report.

“That’s incredulous testimony to me,” said Gasiorowski, who also took issue with Decina’s report because he was admittedly not an environmental expert but rather an engineer who made his determinations based on things he read....

Continue Reading

Letter: Resident Concerned Over What Impact Trinity Hall School Will Have On Chapel Hill Neighborhood

Dear Mike,

I am a concerned citizen who will be directly affected by the proposed development in my neighborhood of the Trinity Hall School.

I am concerned about the affect this will have on my taxes, on the traffic through my street, and the traffic on Chapel Hill Road, which I must travel every day in order to get my Autistic daughter to her special needs program at Navesink School.

If you have ever had the opportunity to see what the traffic is in the older, historic, established neighborhood surrounding Navesink School, as I have, you will surely get a taste of what the development of a full-blown high school will have on Chapel Hill Road. It’s not safe by any stretch on Monmouth Avenue when the parents, buses, and walkers are trying to access the school. You can see it on the faces of the exasperated crossing guards as they desperately try and stop traffic to allow people to cross safely. You can see it on the faces of the parents with their kids who have to cross the school’s driveway in front of cars with drivers who seem oblivious to everything but quickly exiting and getting out of there.

The neighbors in the houses down the side streets have actually put large rocks on their lawns to keep parents from parking there to do drop off and pick up. Doesn’t work. They park there anyway. The traffic moves very fast, and drivers rarely slow down in the vicinity of the school.

I am sure that everyone who lives steps from that school are more than grateful when pick up and drop off are over for the day. Until the next day, when it happens all over again.

Another issue with this proposed development is we don’t even have city sewer lines run in parts of that neighborhood. In order to run the massive lines for the school, Chapel Hill Road will have to be torn open and lines installed. What will that do to the almost capacity pumping station on Sleepy Hollow, which will also be taxed by the building that will very soon commence on the Town Center site.

There is also a planned access road that will be squeezed in between two existing homes on Stavola Road. The construction of it alone will turn this once-quiet neighborhood into a construction vehicle circus. And will it truly be used for only “emergency vehicles” as Trinity claims? Or could it eventually become a cut-through for parents, students, delivery trucks, and garbage haulers? Do we really want to find out?

And how about the adjoining farmland, that belongs to the relative of the person where Trinity is now proposed. It is no secret that Trinity would like to grow to become a boarding school. What’s to stop them from acquiring that farmland and building dorms?

If this were a country, or a culture, where girls were denied a good education, then I could see a need for a single-sex school, but this not true. Our daughters do not risk their lives every day to attend class. I don’t know of one of these girls who has to worry about getting shot on their school bus for speaking out for the rights of the girls of their community to get educated.

Recently, my neighborhood received the Trinity group’s mass mailing propaganda. What I like best about the 'love us, love our school' packet is the cover letter. Paragraph three mentions their "intention" to leave over half the property undeveloped. Well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Then, there's, "We have offered a widening of the Chapel Hill roadway, a turning lane, and perhaps, most importantly, enough roadways, parking, and holding zones on the site to adequately accommodate the busiest anticipated traffic periods each weekday morning and afternoon." Followed by, "We hope that we have your support now...(or will) decrease your concerns to some degree...."

How can you “decrease concerns” about plans to completely decimate our neighborhood, our land, our country road, our sanity, and the serene peace and quiet that have been our lives for many years, never mind infiltrating our lives for months as this goes on, and for years to come?

By contrast, the 19 houses, which the land owner already has permission to build, and which that land is also zoned for, would each require a few feet of driveway, and a single two-way street. There was no need for a traffic or feasibility study, no need to change the complexion of the neighborhood, or add a turning lane or widen Chapel Hill Road. Further, the proposal did not receive opposition from the surrounding neighbors; in fact, he could have broken ground and started to build years ago.

We are by far one of the most affluent of towns, with a better quality public education system, and a higher calibre of teacher than most of the surrounding townships. And didn’t we all just pass a referendum to repair our public schools?

We are sorely lacking in nothing here, except the diminishing, precious open spaces that made Middletown the beautiful place that is was when we moved here and started families. We are all getting older as well. Has anyone consider the impact of at least 200 additional driving teens and what that will do to the locals just trying to get out of their driveways?

In closing, we don’t want this school, and do not plan to send our children to this school.

Perhaps the founders, to be the good neighbors they claim to want to be, can work with the local, established, truly Catholic schools to meet the needs of their students. These same schools have seen a decrease in their enrollments as have all the public schools, Our latest census figures for our town show we have had zero population growth.. Perhaps they can revisit any of their 30 initial search locations again.

And for all they speak of empowering women, their Head Board Chair is a man.

Go figure.

Margie R.
Member of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group

March 3, 2014 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

Here is the video from the March 3rd Middletown Township Committee Workshop meeting. It was pretty standard stuff as recent workshop meetings go, but the highlights of the video are within the Public Comments portion of the video which starts at the 18:25 mark of the video.

A handful of residents from the Chapel Hill area spoke in opposition of the proposed Trinity Hall school, the all girls academy that is planning on building a large school complex on the site of the Stavola property located off of Chapel Hill road. Those that spoke were worried about the traffic that the school would bring to the area and the many rumors that have been circulating around community pertaining to the project.




At this time I don't have a link available to the meeting agenda and bill list for this meeting. It should be a available for downloading in the next few days. When it is available, I'll update this post with the usual closing comment.

Giving Equal Time To Viewpoint Of A Trinity Hall Supporter

I received the following correspondence from Lisa Calandrino, a 40 year Middletown resident who reached out to me via Facebook. She read Jennifer Valencia's "No Vacancy For Trinity Hall! Proposed Development Not A Fit For Historic Chapel Hill Neighborhood" blog post yesterday and wanted to tell her story as to why she supports Trinity Hall. Seeing how I really don't have a "dog in this fight", I have no problem giving a little equal time to an opposing viewpoint :

I write this letter as a nearly life-long resident of Middletown; as a working mom actively involved in my children’s public and private education. I have served as a class mother, as a PTA Treasurer and multiple time director of my children’s school’s annual fundraiser. I am also a fervent supporter of the new Trinity Hall High School for girls here in Middletown, both at their interim location at Croydon Hall and their proposed future permanent campus on Chapel Hill Road. 

I grew up in the Chapel Hill area and I am a graduate of St. Mary’s grammar school, Mater Dei High School and Rosemont College. A Catholic education isn’t for everyone, but in retrospect it was important for me. An all-girls college education was equally important to me and an opportunity I wish was available as a Middletown resident in high school.

When it came time to send my daughter to high school it was her decision where to go. She probably wouldn’t admit it, but she saw first-hand how well a single-sex Catholic high school education was working out for her older brother at CBA and I believe it is why she chose Trinity Hall. It wasn’t without its risks, being part of the inaugural freshmen class of only 30 girls in an entire school, but she was up for the challenge and I am proud of her for it. The thing I’m most proud of is that she’s thriving, as much as her brother, and I can’t imagine what more I can ask for as a parent.

I can’t fathom why something as innocuous and positive as a relatively small faith-based all girls’ high school moving into someone else’s backyard or neighborhood would cause them distress. I live within steps of Thompson Middle School and it doesn’t make me feel any less safe. I also live within steps of Nut Swamp Elementary and I do not believe the new athletic field has had an adverse impact on the environment. I am less than a minute drive to Oak Hill Academy but don’t see where it’s location has had an adverse impact on my taxes or property value and I live less than a two minute drive to Middletown South High School and don’t see where the traffic it generates has had a negative impact on my quality of life.

Fellow residents of Middletown, don’t be fooled by the misinformation the opposition is sharing. Trinity Hall is good for girls, good for parents and good for the community. Even if you will never send your daughter there, it deserves your support. Why shouldn’t girls have the same educational opportunities as boys? I wish you can see it first hand, when you look into the eyes of these eager young women you can see the history they are about to write. Let us join together and give them the ink to make it happen.

Lisa Calandrino
Middletown Resident

No Vacancy For Trinity Hall! Proposed Development Not A Fit For Historic Chapel Hill Neighborhood

The following blog post was submitted by Jennifer Valencia, a resident of Middletown's Chapel Hill area. Jennifer is a member of the Chapel Hill Neighborhood Group opposed to the choice of the Trinity Hall girls academy, to build its new school in their neighborhood, along Chapel Hill Road.  

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On March 19, 2014, the Middletown Township Planning Board will hold a third hearing concerning the application of Trinity Hall, LLC to subdivide a 67 acre tract of land on Chapel Hill Road and construct a high school campus on the lower 37 acres.

Not surprisingly there are two factions: the ones who think this is a bad idea, and the ones who think it is a good idea (namely the Applicant).

The folks who think this is a good idea have offered the following “facts” in support of that view (please note that the quotes below are just for emphasis). Those of us who think this is a bad idea are going to offer what we know as the actualities in response to those facts.

CLAIM: “If we don’t build a school there, 300 townhouses, some designated for low-income housing, will be built instead.”

TRUTH: In a word, no. Phone calls to the Planning Board to inquire as to the legitimacy of this statement were met with incredulity. One member told us that it was as likely the tract would be made “into a second Disneyland.”

CLAIM: “The plan was for a rock quarry first, before we came in and rescued the land with plans for a school.”

TRUTH: Of course, we diligently researched the issue and no, you cannot mine in a residential neighborhood.

CLAIM: “Our school is offering an education in the Catholic tradition.”

TRUTH: Possibly. But at this time, Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., of the Trenton Archdiocese, refuses to support Trinity Hall. He writes, “The school’s founders are using the expression, ‘in the Catholic tradition’ to describe Trinity Hall. That is not the same thing as being a ‘Catholic School’ and I simply want to make clear that this new institution is not affiliated with the Diocese of Trenton or our Office of Catholic Education.”

Yes, you heard right. This is not a Catholic school. It is also not an accredited school. It also has NO TRACK RECORD. What does this mean for the girls who attend the school? Their chances of graduating and being accepted to an upper echelon school is, at this time, an unknown commodity.

CLAIM: “Trinity Hall will preserve most of the open space and will also not develop approximately 30 acres leaving it undisturbed.”

TRUTH: Trinity supporters are claiming that the Applicant will preserve the large tract of land fronting Kings Highway. They circulated this claim wide and far. However, when residents asked them directly, at the first planning hearing, what they planned to do with this tract of land, THEY REFUSED TO ANSWER!

CLAIM: “75% of our student base will be bused in.”

TRUTH: This claim is extremely hard to believe. Half of Trinity’s projected 500 students will be of driving age. These are affluent students, whose parents will be paying more than $16,000 in tuition. You better believe they will have cars. Moreover, every student who is bused in must receive a stipend from the Township to the tune of $884.00 tax dollars a student. And that is this year’s going rate. By the time the school is built and these girls come a rollin’ in, you can bet that will go up. Do the math. 75% of 500 times $884 bucks….yeah, blows my mind too.

CLAIM:“We plan to build an access road from Stavola Road to the back edge of the school. This road will be a limited-use road, and will only be used by emergency vehicles. “

TRUTH: This access road will be squeezed in between two existing homes on Stavola Road. The construction of it alone with turn this once-quiet neighborhood into a construction vehicle circus. And will it truly be used for only “emergency vehicles” ? Or could it eventually become a cut-through for parents and students? Or, worst-case, for all the delivery trucks that might easily exceed the 4-ton limit on Chapel Hill Road and need an alternative route to access the school? Do we really want to find out?

CLAIM: “At the spot where we want to put the entrance to our school, Chapel Hill Road is only 19 feet wide.”

TRUTH: Yes, that is true. And why? Because no one ever intended a school to be built there. The road is narrow, winding…with hairpin turns and blind spots. It was the scene of 15 accidents in just 2012 alone.

So we must ask ourselves? Why is Trinity (the good neighbor that it claims to be) participating in such scare tactics and fear-mongering by spreading ridiculously false information? Answer: Because they are avoiding the truth. The truth is that the residents in the immediate Chapel Hill area, you know, the ones with all the “STOP TRINITY HALL DEVELOPMENT” signs on their lawns, the ones who attended the community meeting, do not want this school.

They vote, they pay taxes and they deserve to be safe in the neighborhood that we all love!

January 23, 2014 Middletown Township Committee Meeting

Here is the video from the last Middletown Township Committee meeting that took place on Thursday, January 23rd 2014.  This meeting should have been held on the previous Monday night but due to the Martin Luther King Day holiday it was scheduled for Tuesday night but had to be moved again due to inclement weather.

Nothing much happened during the meeting, the business portion of the meeting and Committee comments  were over and done with  within the first twenty minutes 20 minutes of the meeting. The remaining time of the meeting was taken up by Public Comments which was dominated by a group of residents that oppose the building of the new Trinity Hall School ( a private all girls school in the "Catholic" tradition) on the old Stavola property off of Chapel Hill Road. The residents cited some valid concerns but the Township Committee refused to comment on those concerns saying that any comments would be inappropriate and it would conflict with the Planning Board.



As always, you can download a copy of the meeting agenda that contains the discussion items and the proposed resolutions and ordinances that were voted on or presented during the meeting. A box around an item is a link, bringing you further into the document to that resolution or ordinance. At the end of the resolution there will be a link bringing you back to the agenda. Attached to this agenda is also the monthly bill list, so that everyone can see how the Township is spending our tax dollars.

For those interested in the fate of the Lincroft Library building.....

At tonight's Special Meeting of the Board of Education taking place at 6:30pm at the August T. Miner (Board of Ed) Administrative building on Leonardville Road, the board plans to enter into a five year lease agreement with the township for use of the Lincroft Library building for administrative offices, leasing the building for just $1 per year to the township.

In reading the lease, it is not clear what administrative offices would be housed in the building, and whether Crossroads drug rehab counseling center is outside of the allowed use, seeing how Crossroads is in the process of vacating Croydon Hall to move there.  Furthermore, the Lincroft community was not given the opportunity to collaborate with the Board of Education on the use of the building, as Dr. George had promised would happen. Members of the community felt strongly that if they were going to lose the library then they would want the future use to be in line with what was lost, i.e., for the building to have an educational use that benefits the children. While the Board of Education may not have an educational purpose for this building now, they may have one later. A shorter term lease should be given and then the use of the property could  re-assessed in a new budget year.

It would seem that the residents and students of Lincroft all lose out on this deal. Educational enrichment, clubs, community center, etc..... are all possibilities that could be of benefit to students and the community. How does leasing the building for the township's administrative offices benefit any students other than those who will be attending the all girl "Catholic" school, Trinity Hall?  Did they even think in a progressive way at all or reach out to non-profits, Brookdale, or other educational entities to see if there would be a better fit for the building or community? Apparently not.

You would think that after constantly being reminded by the Township Committee that 62% of all taxes collected in Middletown goes to the Board of Education and that is why our taxes are sooo high, the Board of Eduction would want to off set those taxes in someway by leasing the building to someone that would pay more than $1 per year. Again, apparently not.

The agenda and property agreement to lease the Lincroft Library to the Township can be found  - HERE

(Thanks to M.E.  for the heads up)

Taking Crossroads to Lincroft

Last week I posted how Trinity Hall, the all girls "catholic" school, demanded that Middletown remove Crossroads, the Middletown substance abuse service from its long time home at Croydon Hall by June 30th as part of Trinity's $285K lease agreement.

Crossroads at Croydon Hall

At the time of the posting it wasn't clear where within the township Crossroads could relocate to. It had been rumored that the program would be moved to the old Bayshore Branch of the Middletown Library located in Port Monmouth, since it was township property and Middletown was relocating the Recreation Department and a couple of other services that were housed at Croydon Hall there. That idea was scrapped however when it was learned that the building has structural issues and is too small to provided private counseling areas for the individuals and families that use Crossroads services. So, where will Crossroads be relocated to? It seems that the Township has approached the Middletown Board of Education (BOE) and has requested that Crossroads be relocated to the former Lincroft Branch of the Middletown Library. The BOE owns this build and it has sat empty since the library closed back in April when the Middletown Library Board of Trustees decided to close its satellite branches due to budget constraints . The BOE has pledged to lease the building to the township for just $1.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy to hear that the township has found a new home for Crossroads and the substance abuse services that it provides, but there are a few issues with moving Crossroads that can affect its moving to Lincroft:


1st off, the building in general, needs a lot of work - work that the libray was gearing up to fix before Tony  Fiore and his cronies put their fingers into the til and swipped the library's surpluses.

2nd, the interior of the building needs to be remodeld to provide private office space for counselors and other social service workers.

3rd, I'm told that the service contracts of the various counselors are very specific due to state and federal grant money need to fund Crossroads. The counselors can not just move to a new location. The new location needs to be approved by the state before a move could be possible and the counselor's service agreements/contracts need to be amended and approved before they can counsel individuals or families. And what happens with those individuals who are currently performing community service at  as a result of drug and alcohol legal offenses, who are currently working at Croydon Hall, helping out at the Senior Center? You just can't change the terms of their court ordered community service

Lincroft Library

4th, the building is located directly across from the Lincroft Elementary School. If Trinity doesn't want Crossroads at Croydon Hall how will Lincroft parents feel when they find out that Crossroads and those it services will be directly across the street from where their kids are going to school? I doubt they'll like it very much.

So the questions I have in my mind are as follows:

Who's paying for the building upgrades? The BOE, the Township or Crossroads? What are the legal ramifications of moving Crossroads from Croydon Hall?  How will the BOE react if/when school parents start bitching about Crossroads moving in across the street? And what's up with the integrity of School Superintendent  Dr. George? He personally assured a number of Library supporters that before anything is done with the Lincroft building the BOE would hold discussions with library advocates and school groups to determine the best possible use of the facility before any decisions about the build were made. Obviously that hasn't happened.

Middletown needs Crossroads and the substance abuse services that the program provides, it should not be moved. It needs to stay where it is. If /when it does move, it has to be done in timely fashion, it can't be rushed to meet Trinity's unrealistic June 30th time frame.

At a Crossroads; Middletown Substance Abuse Services told to hit the road

Anyone who thinks Middletown doesn’t have a widespread drug problem either has their head in the sand, waiting for the train to pass, are ignorant, uninformed or in total denial. All they need to do is read the weekly Middletown Police reports that I post here to know that there is a big, big problem. Every week the report is filled with the names of Middletown residents that have been arrested on various drug possession charges. If reading the police reports aren’t enough to convince you that there is a problem than take a look at the Methadone clinic on the corner of Apple Tree Farm Rd and Hwy 35 – if there isn’t a problem, why is it there? - Or talk to any Middletown high school student that you know and ask them if there is a problem, if they’re honest you’d be astonished. My son and a few of his friends have told me in the past that the hallways of his school are full of all kinds of drugs that can be easily scored at anytime. There are kids that sell drugs out of their lockers between periods and after school.

As a parent of a teenager, I’m concerned when I hear that drugs are as prevalent as they seem to be. It’s easy to dismiss what a handful of teenagers say and chalk it up as teenage angst or hyperbole, knowing what it was like when I was 17 years old and in high school. We all knew who the druggies were and where to get a couple of joints if that was what you were into, but today it’s different, we’re not talking about marijuana anymore, we’re talking heavy duty drugs like Heroine, methamphetamines and prescription drugs such as Oxycodine and Xanax. It’s scary how easy it is for kids to get a hold of this stuff and get hooked. That’s why it concerns me when I hear that Crossroads, the township sponsored substance abuse counseling center located at Middletown’s Croydon Hall complex, has been told that it must ” hit the road” to make room for the new, all girls “catholic school”, Trinity Hall.


Back in January, the Middletown Township Committee passed ORDINANCE # 2013-3076, leasing the former Parks & Recreation Administration Building on the Croydon Hall property, to Trinity Hall. Trinity Hall describes itself as an “independent all-girls high school in Monmouth County……. (Whose) mission purposely honors the values of Roman Catholicism – an objective valued by the school’s founders from the start.” The township ordinance refers to this temporary lease as “expanding educational opportunities in the community while also providing much needed funding for open space and recreational purposes, and resulting in certain capital improvements being made to the building.”, which is all well and good however, the Trinity Hall administrators have expressed concerns regarding the many individuals (both young and old) and families who utilize the services within Crossroads - Crossroads was opened in 1998 and is a short-term, outpatient treatment center which offers services at no charge to Middletown residents. It is a New Jersey State Licensed facility that provides education, consultation, assessment, treatment and referral assistance to all who need it. Crossroads provides several types of counseling services which includes individual adolescent and adult counseling, family counseling, and group counseling. Crossroads is also home to the Middletown Municipal Alliance for the Prevention of Substance Abuse.

Trinity Hall administrators don’t want any part of Crossroads or the many individuals that they provide services to at Croydon Hall, mingling among their student population and have told the township as much. Back in March, on the day before a parent meeting held in the Croydon Hall Gymnasium, Trinity Hall administrators had the township remove two identifying signs from the complex; One was removed from the main office building (the White House) and another from the entry sign leading into the Croydon Hall grounds so as not to raise concerns from the parents of potential students.

More recently, in order to accommodate Trinity Hall‘s administrators, staff, parents, and students and save the $285K the township will receive in lease payments along with a promise to upgrade the former Parks & Recreation building that will be used for the school over the next year and which is not currently necessary for any public purpose, township administrators have told Crossroads it must relocated to a new, as of yet, unnamed mystery location somewhere within Middletown.

Drug and alcohol abuse does not differentiate based on color, religion, political affiliation, social status, sex, age or for any reason, moving Crossroads - a program that has helped so many, is wrong.

This action by Middletown administrators demonstrate that for a few shekels of silver, the needs of many citizens of the township doesn’t matter when compared to the special interests and demands of Trinity Hall and the 30 or so soon to be enrolled students, few of which will be Middletown residents themselves.