Jackson council members have failed to challenge mayor
Gypsy moths may be part of nature, so they're not going away. Fortunately, the same can't be said for Jackson's mayor, Mark Seda, and his Township Council. They can go away, and when the voters go to the booths in May hopefully they will. (Although we have to live with another two excruciating years of Seda).

I attended (a recent) council meeting and was dumbfounded when I heard Councilman Scott Martin say that he had serious reservations about only spraying one application of Bt after the state notified them that they would not be strategically able to spray two applications.

"Why throw away $500,000 if it wasn't going to be effective?" Martin wondered.

And why wait until now to reach out to our elected state officials for help when this has been a very real and ongoing problem?

Where were any of these people last year whenMayor Seda decided to opt out of the gypsy moth suppression program? Where were they when people called, emailed and came down to their offices to complain about their dead and dying trees?

Where were they when the mayor decided it would be a good idea to spray Dimilin, a known carcinogen, on the trees and potentially harm our children?

Where were they when Mayor Seda went out and purchased a piece of equipment to have the township do its own spraying? The simple answer is that they were "out to lunch" and "out to lunch" is where they remain.

When elected, this group promised to be an open and honest government by and for the people. Not! I sometimes think that if any of them had the courage to say they made mistakes, the public would understand, though not necessarily forgive.

But because everything they do seems to be shrouded in secrecy and in outright defiance of the public, there is a very deep mistrust on the part of residents and for obvious reasons. Once again, as many others have said, we elected a mayor and a council, not a king and his vassals.

Kevin DiGesu

Jackson