Hank Kalet

Jamesburg library woesa sign of larger problems

The Jamesburg Borough Council is considering closing its library.

The reasons, according to borough officials, are a collision between state library funding rules and a new state tax levy cap that limits what towns can spend.

As we’ll be reporting tomorrow, the council is considering placing a referendum on the November ballot that would ask voters whether the library should be closed, the idea being that eliminating the library and its mandated increases will give the borough more flexibility in crafting a budget.

I think Mayor Tony LaMantia and the Borough Council are fooling themselves. The problem is not the library or even the state cap levy law. The problem is the borough’s size and the fact that it is built out, that it tax base is stagnant and that costs in general are rising.

The way to fix it, borough officials constistently say, is for the state to ease of its requirements while also pumping more state money into Jamesburg. That approach, however, would do little more than allow Jamesburg to exist as a shell. Already, borough residents maybe facing life without a library. They have a barebones recreation program run by volunteers that offers a small fraction of the programs offered by their larger neighbors.

The issue, it would seem to me, is one of share services or — perish the thought — full municipal consolidation. While the mayor keeps making excuses to the contrary, Jamesburg residents would benefit from being part of a larger community, from the economies of scale it offers.

Consider this: According to state figures, Jamesburg spends about $22 a person on its library — compared with $78 for Monroe. Monroe and South Brunswick have massive recreation and senior programs; Jamesburg offers what it can.

Failing this, Jamesburg needs to explore either a shared library with Monroe or some kind of contractual arrangement under which the Monroe library would treat Jamesburg residents as if they lived in Monroe.

The library is an important resource — especially when you consider that Jamesburg kids attend Monroe Township High School. Closing the library will leave Jamesburg’s high school kids without the same resources available to their classmates.

There a lot of options out there. Closing the Jamesburg libary should be a last resort and even then I’m not sure it’s worth it.

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An expert on what doesn’t work

Hey, the president says the Democrats’ plan for funding the Iraq War “won’t work” — and perhaps we should take him seriously. After all, as my colleague John Saccenti points out, if anyone knows what won’t work in Iraq it is President Bush. “He’s an expert in what doesn’t work.”

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A dangerous road

Tom Moran explains the dangers inherent in an individual — especially one who is a state trooper — engaging in what can only be described as vigilantism. Boycotts and appeals to sponsors and management — even competing broadcasts, letters to the editor and web attacks — are OK. The use of speech to change behavior is what the First Amendment is about.

But publicizing the address of someone you find obnoxious can’t be defended. It is intimidation.

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Closer to home?

I’d like to believe this will accelerate the return of American troops from Iraq — after all, presidents who lose support from their own party tend to fade ito irrelevency (Nixon resigned when it became clear that Republicans were not going to stand in the way of impeachment). But the this president lives in his own bubble, so no one should expect a change of direction from him.

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Terror alert, II

This post from the Columbia Journalism Review touches on what I wrote earlier about the Fort Dix terror case:

It’s hard for the press not to run with stories of possible domestic terrorism, and for good reason — it’s serious and scary business. That said, not all plots are created equal, and lumping them all together into one grab bag of thwarted domestic terrorism cases is something reporters should avoid, especially given some of the absurd plots that have been uncovered over the last couple years. This is not to say that all leads shouldn’t be investigated — they should — or that anyone discovered in any stage of planning an attack shouldn’t be scooped up — they should– but we’ve seen a couple of cases in the last few years be blown way out of proportion, and that makes us wonder what the Fort Dix story will become.

Those cases, Paul McLeary writes, should have remained in the front-brain of reporters as they entered the vortex of the story.

The Bush administration’s Justice Department has a vested interest in portraying every “plot” it busts as the next 9/11, regardless of how embryonic or feeble. It serves as a distraction from the administration’s failures in Iraq and elsewhere, it perpetuates the state of fear that has served this White House well in recent years, and it justifies the massive Homeland Security bureaucracy. Journalists, meanwhile, are at a decided disadvantage when trying to determine the seriousness — or lack thereof — of the threat, because the government holds all the cards. That’s why a healthy dose of skepticism — given this administration’s track record with truth — is crucial to the press’s handling of stories like Fort Dix. These would-be terrorists in New Jersey should be taken seriously, at least until we have reason to believe they
shouldn’t. We’re only a couple of days into this story, but it’s never too early to watch for the hype, and watch for how the press either runs with it, or turns a skeptical eye.

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