The lake is privately owned; taxation unfair

Lake Neepaulin and its dam have been privately owned for over 50 years. The private individual who purchased Lake Neepaulin and its dam from Neepaulin Community Inc. in the mid-1980s knew full well the condition of it. The small group of unnamed individuals, as well as the not-for-profit corporation — Friends of Lake Neepaulin — that they formed, knew full well the condition of Lake Neepaulin and its dam when they acquired it from that private individual approximately a decade ago. The public outcry in response to Wantage Township Ordinance #2008-16 has been and still is the unalienable right of each resident, property owner and taxpayer of Wantage Township to express their opposition to an unfair assessment that the Ordinance would impose upon a targeted group of property owners to re-pay a debt incurred by a private entity for repair of their privately owned property. The lack of foresight of the current and previous private owners of Lake Neepaulin and its dam in no way merits or warrants our properties to be used as collateral or our pocketbooks to be used to re-pay a debt incurred by a private entity for repair of their privately owned property. Karen Merritt Wantage