Democrats Best to Lead as We Navigate Unprecedented Redevelopment

The Borough is in the process of negotiating two major redevelopments – Post Office Plaza and River Road. These processes, which started years ago, are reaching a critical stage, and with them there seems to be increasing anxiety about how these developments could change the character of our town, and make current struggles – such as traffic and school funding – even worse.

At the Borough Candidate’s Forum, all of the participants
expressed a hope that the developments could relieve the tax burden on single
family homeowners and that improved traffic engineering along with other improvements
paid for by developers could mitigate negative impacts.

However, it was mayoral candidate Thad Kobylarz who said
forcefully that the Borough must be willing to walk away from any deal that is
not a benefit to our community and that we must “keep Chatham Chatham.” Irene Treloar,
with her negotiating experience as an attorney and Karen Koronkiewicz with her
extensive business experience negotiating deals on behalf of multinational
corporations, provide the serious skills we need to face these challenges and
come away with a good outcome – or walk away if we can’t get one.

Almost anyone who looks at the current condition of the South of
Main street area or the run down (and contaminated) River Road lots can see the
potential for something better. I trust this team to make sure we can realize
these developments’ potential while maintaining what we love about our
community.

Curt Alan Dawson

Chatham Borough

Note: The author is a member of the Chatham Borough Planning Board