the debate may be a turkey of an idea. especially if we have all 9 candidates up there, we barely will hear from all nine.. heck, when was the last town council canididates debate? was it 8 -10 years ago? On a broad scale basis especially during a presidential, senatorial, congressional, freeholder election year, and throw in now the BOE race, a town council debate may not be that necessary or far from the center of attention. the sparce attendance may not get what they were looking for. Best bet, met them at a town gathering, go to one of their campaign events, etc.

Sorry Greg....

Steve's response is why people hate politicians. Every answer doesn't have to include a position statement...."Yes, we look forward to sharing our views with the voters" is all it takes.

C'mon Thanksgiving......

Townie I am right there with you. What I find strikingly odd is the GOP ticket says they support spending money on a new town hall for government employees that everyone knows will raise taxes but then they make statements that rail against the Democrats for being the tax and spenders.

Flame alert! Flame alert!

Amen!

please bare with him, he has only gotten to page 2 of the play book that L & L left him when they got booted from the party. once he gets to page 3 he will find out that he needs to post under a fake name and never be interviewed. page 4 will tell him how to change his position on a issue several times until he finds one that makes sense.

I disagree.

The real questions are:

1. Will you raise taxes in Mooestown?

2. What will you do about the increase of daily crime and break-in's in Moorestown?

3. What are your ideas and plans for town hall?

4. Where do you stand on the pay to play formula for private clubs playing on public lands?

5. Where do you stand on the plastic field issue?

6. Where do you stand on the booze war?

7. How will you lower taxes in Moorestown?

8. How will you deal with the poor traffic in Moorestown? Another study Mr. Mayor?

9. How to improve the recreation department and the mismanagement of our public playing fields, there maintenance and upkeep, and future financial management.

10. How to reduce the cost of Moorestown services and town government expenses?

Herbert - what are your answers to these questions? How about we ask MFS to start paying for the services the town provides them for free? If MFS would do something about traffic flow, main street would be improved.

Dylan, are any of the candidates family go to MFS? If so, maybe they can talk to MFS about the school traffic issue?

I'm sure they'll pay town for services... once you pay them for the 250+ kids from town that you're not educating. Hell, get some ratable's out of the churches on Main Street while you're at it.

Not an issue that can be resolved.

That makes no sense since the schools have zero to do with town services. Why don't all people without kids look for their tax handouts too. MFS creates traffic problems daily and gets free taxpayer services. Solve that

what services, and how much do they cost?

Are there options of what Friends School can do with the traffic mess they create? Does MFS border any other roads whereas the could enter/exit another way? Could they hook up with Route 38? Is there any access to Mt. Laurel Road? Would any of the neighbooring developments mind if they hooked a road, to cut through?
what are the possibilities?

When I was a kid the road before the main entrance (headed east) was a straight shot all the way to 38 (dirt road). Then MFS built an addition, and the road went away. There's a development down there now, and I have no idea who owns what.

Listen to the complaining on this little site, and tell me what neighborhood would want to sign up for the traffic (even if they could)?

I appreciate it's a problem (i'm usually gone before and home after, so it doesn't effect me), but assume the only real way to improve the traffic is to avoid it if possible.

...and the continual upkeep of a new town hall will be spending tax dollars that currently, are not being spent.

I do not think this is true... with three parties you will have the entire town out.

In a town slightly over 20,000...how many would attend the debate? While I agree it's important for the long term impacts to town, the reality is that the personal impact (for most) of local decisions are much le$$ important per$onally than national i$$ues.

Times were good 5 years ago and people said "lets keep town as is" and vote down alcohol. Money gets tight, they say "at the mall...OK...it can't hurt". The vast majority don't care about the library, or town hall, or the OS funds...or booze. The people on Patch are the radical fringe whose minds are made up regardless of what's said during the 2 hours of debating. Others just don't have the time to be bothered. A debate doesn't change that.

A debate is a chance to see how potential leaders manage questions and articulate positions. The skills to be mayor are much different than Governor (or President). Mayors govern and Governors lead.

Local debates are much less valuable than if they answered 20 well defined questions simultaneously in the media (hint).

I think a debate would be GREAT. No time limits Mr. Mayor or crowd control techniques. Hint.

We need a good open honest debate full throttle. Let it all hang out!

Maybe this is when Mayor Button will explain how $2,500,000.00 was spent on the town hall project without a brick put in place.

Dylan...you obviously have no clue what you're talking about, but don't like the traffic so let's blame it on the assumptions that must be true because they don't pay taxes.

How much extra did the town spend on police to manage the traffic problems last year? Do you have a single fact you can share with the class. What other services? Trash....don't think so. Water / sewer....oops, they pay that? Those wild Quaker parties probably exhaust police resources on the big football weekends like homecoming? Damn...no football team.

What's so amusing on this site are the statements about making the Friends do something.....sell the ACME, fix the traffic, pay for improvements to their land they don't want... That they appear to have no interest in doing. It's just noise. There's nothing you can do.

By the way, they were on that piece of land (most likely) long before your family came to this country. If you dont like the traffic, avoid it. Leave earlier. Work later. If there aren't alternatives...move. It's really not one of towns bigger problems.

Townie...you sure are passionate and knowledgeable about MFS. Sorry to have struck a nerve but MFS does in fact create traffic problems that makes traveling Main St a nightmare and hurts local businesses. MFS does also own the blighted little ACME and are doing absolutely nothing to improve it. MFS does use township services for free. Let's ask everyone else who waits at the intersection of Chester and Main for hours if they agree or disagree.

Dylan....MFS just happens to be the center of this discussion, but what I'm passionate about is someone making unfounded, unachievable suggestions based on little or no fact other than they get stuck at a red light during the school year.

You keep saying they use resources....but haven't delivered an example. You're making assumptions.

I completely agree with anyone who wants to see something done with the ACME. I am 100% around fixing the traffic problems. What I find harmful are statements that include terms like "make", which is beyond the authority of anyone here including the mayor. They own the ACME, and can do whatever they want with it. If they would rather have grass and fields without access to Rt. 38, you can't make them build a road.

BTW - when the $1m traffic study suggests things that push traffic away from town onto other streets, please expect a violent response from the recipients of your revised traffic flow. When you live in a place that has good location as a characteristic, traffic and delays are soon to follow. It's not a Moorestown issue...it's a global one.

It is a fact the MFS creates traffic problems and the flow at the intersection is bad and affects businesses. I think what you are now saying is that traffic is a way of life and should just be tolerated. Maybe but we do have a traffic problem so how do we fix it? Does MFS pay anything towards police, fire or trash services? Also, you brought up a traffic study. Can you point us in the direction so all can see it and understand why it got your NIMBY panties in a bunch. The ACME is a blight and I wish they would do something to clean it up or use it but I do agree that they own it and can do what they want as horrible as it is right now.

Please show me the facts of the MFS impact on traffic. I'd be very interested to see your data on the negative impact that the school's traffic has on business. Please be sure to include the offsetting benefits derived from the increased number of visitors from outside of town who visit businesses in town.

The "when" in my statement was an assumption that we'd end up paying for a traffic consultant. I don't have a study, and have no idea if one was done.

I honestly don't think it's worth paying anything to study traffic based on all of the other outstanding issues in town. Unless you live on Chester before the tracks or in between Chester and Mt. Laurel road, there are options to avoid traffic.

My facts remain what I see on a daily basis and that is the bottleneck and congestion and our main street businesses are doing average at best. If you want to claim that traffic isn't the reason why than we can just agree we have differing opinions. What about answering does MFS pay for police, fire and town services? My understanding is that not for profits don't pay but I am willing to admit I don't know.

Finally....

You said at the top of this chain that "MFS gets all the same services we all do except they are free go figure".

I asked you to give examples...you don't.

You finally admit that you don't know....which is fine. My point was you throw something out as fact when it is solely based on your assumptions. That only distorts even further a discussion around whether there should be a debate.

Asking them to pay for services because they cause traffic problems is a bit like saying OLGC should pay for Police and Fire because last Sunday I waited 5 minutes for all of the congregants to cross Main after services. Their tax status and their traffic impact having nothing to do with one another.

BTW - it's entirely possible they make contributions to the Police / Fire. I have no idea.

They are free until someone can prove they pay taxes for them. That is my premise and until corrected, it stands just like the traffic problem is real and just like the Acme is a blight is real.

What I am saying is simple. If you look at anyone who has been a great leader, Ronald Regan, Bill Clinton, or, bite my cheek, Chris Christie, the individuals knew how to draw upon the materials and information that was already complied before setting out to find a new way to screw in a lightbulb. Being a leader has nothing to do with the tile and everything to do with how you draw upon historical information and documents and use that information to problem solve today and for the future. What I am saying is enough studies have been done on all of the ills within the town, someone needs to be an implementor, that is what we should be looking for in the candidates for council.
A Mayor cannot act alone, and in our form of government, the title of Mayor is more a symbolic title than that of leadership.

Just looked it up....$30k/year for the ACME.

Imagine the traffic if they actually did something with the place!

Ok Dienstag who is afraid to debate? Kinda strange that someone who wants to debate like Hines now is quiet on explaining how he was misleading all the OS people about the uses being illegal and trying to get the definition of recreation changed against the state law. Any chance Hines will be at the meeting tonight to apologize to BGT and now J/C who know its all legal. I havent seen anything from the DHreps either so who wants to go first?