Tag: Cranbury

I usually don’t do this, but I wanted to point our readers’ attention to the Cranbury forum page on Cranbury.net — mostly to respond, but also to raise a question.

First, The Cranbury Press is not anti-Cranbury, nor am I. The notion that my opinions or the paper’s opinions are part of a grand conspiracy designed to fold Cranbury into one of the neighboring communities is preposterous. I have no underlying agenda. I do believe, however, that there are many towns in the state that probably should be merged out of existence, but as I said last week Cranbury is not one of them. The town may have a small population, but it has a sizable tax base that supports a level of services that some larger towns cannot.

Our decision as a paper to encourage the purchase of the bank building for use as a library — or a community center or both — is based on what we know at the moment. We understand that there will be conversion costs and operational costs, but the current library arrangement has problems that cannot be addressed without building a new library. If the community doesn’t want to do that, we are OK with it. At the moment, however, buying the bank seems to make sense.

And let’s be honest. Cranbury’s downtown functions well, but businesses are not clamoring to relocate to Main Street. This is not a knock on Cranbury. Most towns like Cranbury face the same issues. But there are no guarantees that the building will not stay vacant for a while or that the businesses that may be interested will be the kind that draw shoppers.

In any case, the decision will be the community’s and not the paper’s. We’re just offering our two cents and anyone who disagrees is free to write a letter to us and/or make their opposition know to the Township Committee.

As for the question, I’d like to know why this debate about the paper is happening on some anonymous bulletin board and not in the letters section of the paper. If there are criticisms of the paper, I will run them in the paper — as I did when we ended the zoning of the paper and folded the two Presses back into one.

Basically, if you don’t like what the paper is doing, tell me. I want to know. Please e-mail me by clicking here (just let me know if you want your e-mail published as a letter, or if it is intended as a personal note; I promise to respond).

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me clicking here.

The PNC Bank building on North Main Street in Cranbury is for sale and township residents are abuzz, with many in the community hoping the township will buy the building.

Community sentiment is split on the sale, however, with some critical of taking on more debt and others split over its potential use.

The Township Committee has heard significant comment on the sale already — 14 residents spoke at an April 21 committee meeting — and plans to get more feedback at a May 19 meeting.

There are several factors that weigh in favor of buying the 8,700-square-foot bank:

1. It is located at the center of the village;
2. It has made its parking lot available to the township as public parking;
3. It could offer a relatively inexpensive way to address several community desires (the township could turn it into a new, free-standing library, arts center or community center — or some combination of the three), while opening space for the school library to expand;
4. It is being offered at a shockingly low price — $1.395 million, about $400,000 less than its appraised value.

On the other side of the ledger is this question: Should the township take on more debt? In the past, we have cautioned the township against over-extending itself. Plus, there are several unknowns that the committee has to consider, most significantly the potential cost of providing affordable housing, especially given the size of the obligation currently being proposed.

That said, it is important to note that the committee has done a solid job of paying down its debt and it is likely that the affordable housing rules will change and the numbers assigned to Cranbury will fall dramatically. The fear that buying the bank building will bankrupt the community, to my way of thinking, is unfounded.

My sense is that PNC’s decision to sell offers the township a rare opportunity that probably won’t come around again.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.