I read with great interest the Independent’s recent article regarding the current legal dispute between the Town of Edgewood and the Moriarty Edgewood School District.
I was the District Superintendent in 2013 when the difficult decision to close and repurpose 2 elementary schools was made. As with most such decisions, not everyone was pleased.
A quick review of articles in local print media from that period and a number of “ Letters to the Editor “ will clearly illustrate a deep level of support for the District School Board- except for the one member who worked actively against her colleagues then. And now in a different capacity has created this current divisiveness. The Town is attempting a blatant -not thinly disguised – land grab; i.e. to take control of property and structures the District owns outright.
Following the school closures, the District worked very effectively with then-Mayor Bassett to support the plans that created a terrific facility for the Town’s Administrative functions in a campus building still in good condition.
Then, after six years of expressing absolutely no interest in the South building, but under new “leadership,” the Town suddenly declared that decrepit facility a Historic Landmark; using a questionable statute that sneakily avoids any kind of professional review of such a laughable claim.
Please try to find any people at all, who have lived in the area for a while, that would agree that the intersection of Dinkle and 334 is the Historic jewel of the community. Doubtful.
I moved here in 1974 and could have sworn it was Old 66!
“Historical” or “Hysterical” Claim; you decide.
The District had received zero facility use requests for that indoor space in years; it was even deemed unsuitable for elections.
The hue and cry has been manufactured again.
MESD Boards have previously exercised their rights as elected officials and made decisions representing a much broader constituency to take down other unusable and/or unsafe buildings. They still do.
Tom Sullivan, former MESD Superintendent