To the editor:
We all love Milford for different reasons. It is a diamond in the rough. Whether you are a native and have seen myriad changes, you have been here for decades, or a newbie - Life in Milford is about to change to an unrecognizable entity - if we do not act now.
The Concrete Jungle of Two Mega Warehouses is being brought to us by our very own misguided leadership. Why? Have they lost their way? Have they forgotten the past heroes and life long legacies that made Milford what it is today?
Have they forgotten the original settlers, the Lenape Indians and their sacred reverence for the land and life giving waters. On her death bed in 1984, Touching Leaves, the last full blooded Lenape Indian, told her close friends to preserve her Lenape culture and ancestral lands.
Then Gifford Pinchot who is pounding on his mausoleum walls crying out to - stop this insanity and especially to protect his beloved Sawkill Creek. That is where he learned to fly fish and passed it down to his son. He discovered nature as a youth wandering this mountain.
People like the Merritt Quinn and the Quinn Family who have been stewards of this precious land for centuries. All the people whose efforts stopped the Tocks Island Dam Boondoggle proposal.
Barbara Yeaman whose efforts brought us the Upper Delaware River Recreational Area and founded the Delaware Highland Conservancy which has protected 18 thousand acres to date. People like Tom Hoff of the MWA, and Dick Snyder who beautified this town with every ounce of his efforts. People presently continue in that tradition like Bill Kiger and Peter and Nancy Pinchot.
Are we about to throw all that effort away? For what? Two Mega Warehouses that are the antithesis to the essence of Milford. Are we just going to fold - without a fight? Are we so jaded and distrustful of each other that we cannot get together with one voice - Independents, Libertarians, Moderate Republicans, responsible Democrats, and the mavericks out there - standing together to say NO to this latest reincarnation of another boondoggle proposal - like the Tocks Island Dam Project.
We have seen these boondoggle proposals before. The Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts, the Pike County Business Park that failed and then was bought by the Rod of Iron Ministries, the Mall on the Aquifer idea of 1989, the Home Depot on the Aquifer of 2000, and now maybe the worst Boondoggle Proposal ever - Two Mega Warehouses on our Town’s Drinking Water Source.
No amount of present design techniques can ever fully protect a natural functioning Exceptional Value - Aquifer, Wetlands, and Sawkill Creek that feed the Milford Springs. For what valid reason should we do this? Just because a few out of control developers and leaders - say so?
We love this town too much to let that happen. Or at least I thought that was the case - because turnout to these important meetings has been disappointing. Deep down I know you out there. You may be busy, tired, burnt out, overleveraged, jaded, angry, and disenchanted with the system.
But it is the best system ever created - when it works properly.
Can’t we set aside labels, pigeonholing, scapegoating,. distrust and all the rest - for just this one time? Can’t we teach ourselves once again that the system does work and it works through people power and voter determination.
This is our town too. Our water and air are vital to our functioning. The roads we drive are shared by all of us. What person needlessly has to die on I84 just because a few fat cats want to put 400-600 extra trucks a day on that dangerous and mountainous stretch of Interstate? Why should our fresh air and quiet nights be interrupted by a monster running 24/7 - 365 days a year through all kinds of weather?
Our leaders are supposed to represent, US - not the powerful few - that think they can just sneak into town, and shove down our throats something so outrageous that it is like something out of a dystopian book plot.
So what do you say? Can we get the team back together to Save our way of life, our health and welfare, our road safety, the water we drink, the air we breathe, the environmental legacy we represent and most of all the beauty that surrounds us. Will you be the voice for the voiceless ecosystem, the plants and animals that we share this space with and bring us such joy.
The people who came before us are looking at us. Are we going to carry the baton on their behalf - or are we just going to stand frozen and watch the craven destroy our rich inherited legacy - to let it just shrivel away to dust.
Vito DiBiasi
Dingmans Ferry