From the Sidelines

Can politicians kill the volunteer spirit? 

In 1951, when we gave directions to our new house on Two Bridges Road in Towaco, we always said it was the last house on the paved road. The road went on down the hill to Lincoln Park as a dirt road. My father had just graduated from Brown University. He attended under the GI Bill after serving in WWII and bought the house in Towaco for $4,500 at my mothers urging. Her father had moved here in 1917 and she and her six brothers and sisters had grown up in Montville Township.

It wasn't much of a house. Over time my father rebuilt the entire structure. He would come home from his job as a chemical engineer, put his work cloths on and work until late at night. He did that for about three years. He wasn't any different than a lot of people in the growing Township. He was part of a generation that had fought a war and now wanted to advance their families and their communities.

Through it all my mother and father did something else they thought was very important. My father was at various times a Cub Scout Leader, a little league coach,  a deacon in his Church and co-president, of the PTA for what was then Central School. My mother was a founder of the Woman’s Club, a den mother and the other half of my fathers co-presidency of the PTA. She also was active a several levels in our church. They weren’t any different than a whole lot of people in this Township who organized community services because community was important. When you look at the rosters of some of the organizations in the Township you will see a generational aspect to many of them. Particularly in those essential service organizations like fire and first aid.        

The point of this little personal history is simple. We live in a time where cutting pennies off of Township budgets seems to be important. We live in a time where cutting a few pennies off of a tax bill by things like regionalization is the “political” way to go. The question I have is, is that the best way to go? We live in a time when it seems that public employees have become expendable and their work, either as members of the police and civilian support as well as public works department workers, is devalued. Some of these changes can effect volunteer organizations in negative ways you wouldn't expect. I think it is time for the elected officials to stand for the importance of community. The people who work for the Township, be they paid or volunteers have built this Township into what it is today and have done so over generations. Politicians have to be careful not to damage that. The public also has to understand that the Montville Township they moved here for may not be the Montville Township that survives.