To the editor:

Being from New Jersey, I am adjusted to reading of strange occurrences in town hall finances. That said, this paper, on Jan. 4, tells us the town fathers have given preliminary approval to 10 payments of $28,000 each as an “incentive” to the developers of the seven-story building at Ninth and New Hampshire.

As the  “$10 million” building is up, and looks ready for occupancy, I do not see where the incentive applies. Will they demolish it if they do not receive the money? By the developers’ admission, they did not even ask for the money until AFTER the beginning of construction!

To claim that this is for “everything from street lights to sidewalks” is insulting to the taxpayers’ intelligence. Do they really expect us to believe that the developers would not put things like new lights and sidewalks in their plans? If the construction was estimated at that $10 million, would you like us to believe that this $280K over 10 years would have changed their minds?

Development is good, but times are tough, and giving away taxpayer money after the fact is certainly not businesslike