In the controversy surrounding the Highlands law, it is important that residents of Morris Township know where their local elected officials stood on this issue. At the Morris Township Committee meeting of May 5, all five committee members voiced opposition to the Highlands proposal.

As the Highlands law serves to protect our drinking water and many of our environmentally-sensitive lands, the committee's unanimous opposition to this law is truly curious. After all, environmental preservation has been a major movement for many years by Republican- held Morris County.

The committee's opposition to the Highlands law seems to lie in Committeeman Jan Wotowicz's lasting distress that the Southgate Corporate Park on South Street was unable to expand due to the existence of those pesky wetlands. His current distress is the likely doom of the CCRC due to the existence of that pesky Great Swamp. The township committee's resoluteness to build the CCRC retirement village shows its willingness to destroy whatever environmental inconveniences stand in the committee's way, including the New Jersey Highlands.

- Edward Benoit, Morristown