Birchwood Park resident blames mayor for roundabout

Birchwood Park residents in Brick should be outraged at the recent turn of events surrounding the traffic calming circle that is being installed at Ashwood and Sprucewood drives.

The outrage felt by the residents at not being notified of this major project was recently directed at Mayor Joseph Scarpelli and his administration at a recent council meeting. Is this a simple communication breakdown or a bigger problem with Mayor Scarpelli not caring about our neighborhood?

The buck stops at his desk.

Credit should be given to Township Council President Anthony Matthews and the council members who agreed with my fellow neighbors to halt the work on this project in order to better understand the needs of the residents. Visitors from outside our neighborhood may not safely proceed through the calming circle since most circles have been removed on our state and county roadways. Of course, the residents in my community would become accustomed to the circle, but I fear for the children who play in the area who could be seriously injured from careless drivers who may be visiting.

The intersection in question wasn't prone to numerous accidents to warrant the improvements. Grant money was earmarked to pay for the project and I think the administration wanted to stick a calming circle somewhere to take advantage of the available funds. Unfortunately, we don't need it in Birchwood Park.

Let the mayor put a calming circle in front of his home in the exclusive Thiele Road neighborhood where he lives. Let's see if his neighbors would appreciate the improvement in their neighborhood as much as we have here.

Sharon Campos

Brick