Letters to the Editor: Penza for Town Council
To the Editor:
I’m Tony Penza and I’m running for Town Council on the Republican ticket. I’m Republican because I think a good work ethic and doing the “right thing” should be rewarded. I believe your freedoms should not be infringed on, or taken away slowly, a little bit at a time, in the hopes that maybe you don’t notice. New Jersey politicians have done exactly this, turning completely legal individuals one day, into criminals the next day. A vote for me would be a fight against this type of legislation, where the pen from one person wouldn’t infringe on entire groups of people. This affects me since I like to hunt, I like to go off-road, I enjoy life in the outdoors in general, just like my ancestors did, right here, in and around town. My family has been in Hammonton since the 1880s, they came over from Italy by boat and were migrant workers. Guess what, we’re still here nearly 150 years later because we love Hammonton. I love it so much I went to both St. Joe and Hammonton for schooling.
Looking towards the future, and as a mechanical engineer, I’m interested in bringing the town technologically up to speed. Let’s install some EV charging stations for the public so that Hammonton can be a “pit stop” for electric car people traveling from the city to down the shore and back. Let’s go green and maybe our next police vehicle can be a Ford Mustang Mach-E GT, that doesn’t use any gas while idling, or on patrol, or any other time for that matter, yet still does 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds.
Maybe our trash truck could be electric, would have 40 percent less moving parts therefore 40 percent less maintenance costs (same goes for any EV just about). Everyone’s embracing this new technology ... I, myself, drive a plug-in hybrid SUV, and I plan on getting the Ford F150 Lightning, as I’m on the waiting list. In this instance, we can be rewarded for doing so by way of state and federal incentives that are active now, and the incentives we don’t know about yet. I’m not anti-internal combustion engine, but these electric vehicles are capable of so much. Did you know you can power your house for up to three days with your EV if the power goes out? Of course that all depends on which EV you have, and its battery capacity, and so on and so forth. That’s just the tip of the iceberg and I’m sure more innovation will be coming along shortly.
Speaking of driving in town, who thinks the Route 30 and 206 intersection, particularly where 206 comes around and turns into Bellevue Avenue could be improved? I have a conceptual design to help this intersection out immensely and I’d love to get it into the hands of those that can change it.
As a plumbing systems engineer for more than 21 years, I know that traffic design is much like plumbing ... and that Bellevue/Route 30/Route 206 intersection is like four people trying to use the same toilet at once, like it’s musical chairs, or in this case, musical toilets. In musical chairs, it’s usually two people fighting for one chair; at this intersection, it’s four cars fighting to go at once.
So in conclusion, a vote for me would be a vote for the future; a vote for moving forward, for making things better, for helping you live your life easier, for more amenities in town, for easier ways to get around town, for a better town in general. I love it here, if you’re reading this then you probably love it here too. Let me know some of your issues or ideas you have to improve our town. Let’s move forward together.
Tony Penza
Republican Candidate for Council
Hammonton