Letters

On behalf of the board of trustees, volunteers and clients of the Freehold Area Open Door, I would like to thank the community for their generous outpouring of donations for Thanksgiving.

On Nov. 20, many of our regular volunteers were joined by two-dozen students to pack 294 dinners which fed 1,231 individuals.

These were distributed during the three days prior to Thanks-giving. Community members donated enough turkeys and trimmings to feed our families and also provide 50 meals to to other organizations.

The Open Door Lunch Pro-gram served a cooked Thanks-giving dinner to 325 individuals and provided 300 take-home meals as well. Our volunteer cooks and servers gave up much of their holiday to make Thanks-giving a special day for those unable to cook for themselves.

Thanks to the many donations from schools, Scouts, churches, synagogues, businesses and individuals, our freezers are full and our shelves well-stocked. We are sincerely grateful to all who contributed their time, money and food to our pantry and soup kitchen. I assure you that all who received the meals were appreciative of your generosity.

Jeanne Yaecker

director

Freehold Area Open Door

Freehold Borough

Mayor Kleinberg commended for action on affordable housing

Marlboro Mayor Dr. Robert Kleinberg should be commended for his fortitude while fighting Marlboro’s battles against builders and the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing (COAH).

With no support from our “so called” state leaders like Sen. Ellen Karcher, Mayor Kleinberg fought Marlboro’s affordable housing fight alone.

Interestingly, COAH allowed our former mayor, Matthew Scannapieco, to ignore Marl-boro’s affordable housing obligation for years, but right when Mayor Kleinberg comes into office, Marlboro gets a hard deadline. Thanks for nothing COAH.

So what did Mayor Kleinberg do? In less than a year, he formulated a plan to meet Marlboro’s affordable housing obligations mandated by COAH.

In the beginning, I was an objector to this plan, but I feel this updated plan will cause the least damage possible to Marl-boro. There were no good choices, just the best from a bad lot.

Mayor Kleinberg played “hardball” with builders, he opposed greedy high density developments, and he forced builders to include “set asides” (ratio of market rate homes to affordable homes) never seen before by COAH. This will minimize the total amount of homes needed to be built in Marlboro. Hopefully, other towns will follow Marl-boro’s lead and “just say no” to overdevelopment.

John Turi

Marlboro