Dottie Speaks on Muhlenberg

If anyone is qualified to talk about Muhlenberg, it is Dottie Gutenkauf, who has persevered through illness and loss to stand up for Plainfield. Dottie has given me permission to share her letter on the subject.

Don’t rush JFK plan for Muhlenberg
When I read Rev. Gary Kirkwood’s letter about Muhlenberg published in the Courier News on Dec. 12 (“Plainfield should unite behind Muhlenberg plans”), I was, I must confess, shocked.

I have no doubts about his good intentions or those of Rev. Thomas, but I can’t help wondering why they are now trying to circumvent the actions of the City Council and the wishes of the Plainfield community, and w here have they been for so long.

For the record, I have not made any “unfounded untruthful online attacks,” nor do I know anyone who has “slandered” Rev. Thomas. And I reject the notion that no one has the right to “criticize” a local p astor.

I have been a member of the Muhlenberg Community Adv isory Group (CAG) throughout its existence, and I’m sorry to say that to the best of my recoll ection neither Rev. Kirkwood nor Rev. Thomas has ever attended any of its meetings.

If they had, they would know that since its inception, the CAG has pressured JFK about an additional ambulance, and has praised JFK for its initiative in working with Plainfield High School.

I should point out, however, that JFK has never invited the CAG to join in any of its visits to health care organizations in other cities, as I believe it should have done. After all, the CAG was established by the state Health Department as one of its conditions for allowing the closure of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center — in my opinion and experience, one of the best hospitals in the state.

Rev. Kirkwood speaks of “community meetings.” In fact, there were many meetings, led by Plainfield citizens, before and after Muhlenberg’s closure. There were demonstrations, marches, rallies, and testimony before the state Health Department — all of which received substantial coverage from the Courier News — and I do not recall either Rev. Kirkwood or Rev. Thomas having participated in any of them, although many other local pastors did.

A few years after Muhlenberg’s closure, JFK held a number of community meetings which I attended, and at every single one, their proposal for a 600-plus apartment project was resoundingly rejected.

One of those meetings was the City Council’s Third Ward community meeting in May of last year, where a gentleman introduced as JFK’s “planner,” made a presentation complete with slide show. His main point was essentially that since Plainfield and New Brunswick have approximately the same population (about 50,000), what would work in New Brunswick should work in Plainfield.

But let’s look at the facts. New Brunswick has Johnson & Johnson, which has in large part provided the impetus for the city’s downtown renewal. New B runswick is the Middlesex County seat — which in addition to housing the county office buildings and courthouse, also has a plethora of attorneys and other business offices.

New Brunswick has one-seat train service to Newark and New York, and direct train service to Trenton and parts south. New Brunswick has easy access to Route 18, Route 27, Route 1, and the New Jersey Turnpike. Let’s not forget that New Brunswick has Rutgers University and its several campuses. Oh, and by the way, New Brunswick has two full-service, acute-care hospitals.

Just how is that like Plainfield? Sensible people will draw their own conclusions about that comparison, but that’s the analysis on which JFK’s plans for the Muhlenberg campus are based.

Now that the Plainfield City Council has approved hiring a planner to look at the property, get community input, work with the city and its planners, and come up with recommendations for the Planning Board and the council to consider, a few local pastors are urging immediate approval of JFK’s proposed project.

And while for many months the JFK representative at CAG meetings has stated that JFK “has no plans” to close the emergency room, when asked directly at the Dec. 5 CAG meeting if JFK was going to close the ER after Jan. 1, when Plainfield’s new mayor takes office, he said he “didn’t know.”

It’s time for JFK and its supporters to sit back, take a deep breath, and wait for the legal process to take its course. Anyt hing else would be a disservice to all of Plainfield’s citizens, who have since 2008 been deprived of the high-quality medical services our community had for so many years.

JFK waited for a number of years to submit its proposal to the city — if indeed they really have — and now they can and should wait for the city to do its job. Hopefully the process will produce outcomes that will benefit us all, JFK included. As a long-term colleague of mine used to quip, “There’s never time to do it right, but there’s always time to do it over.”

Let’s do this right the first time. Plainfield can’t afford to do it wrong and have to do it over.

Dottie Gutenkauf

PLAINFIELD