Rumblings on veterans housing at Earle

The Asbury Park Press reported about Colts Neck "maintaining a hard line on Earle housing," citing the Township Committee's entirely appropriate stance on the matter. This comes despite a plan (admirable, though extremely sketchy) put forth by a group (i.e. "the Accettola Plan," named after its chief proponent) that recommends using the 300 existing Laurelwood units to house senior and disabled vets, subsidized thru Section 8 vouchers and overseen by Neptune Housing Authority.

NOPE is steadfastly opposed to any civilian ever residing on Earle. Although no one would argue with the notion of providing for our veterans in need, the Accettola Plan (which the public and NOPE have yet to officially see in writing despite several requests) appeared riddled with holes and fallacies when discussed by the NHA earlier this year in Tinton Falls. We would encourage the group that attended the CN Township Committee meeting the other night to review all of the documentation put forth by the Navy and then issue the full text of the Accettola Plan for consumption by the public.

Fort Monmouth (set for closure in 2012 and with some existing housing units and a fully functional medical facility and infractructure in place) would seem a far better venue to address the housing needs of retired and disabled veterans, rather than dumping them in the middle of a fully functional and massive 11,000-acre weapons depot because its the best of many extremely poor options for what to do with the Laurelwood houses.