Kent Island Defense League

Letters

Four Seasons

K. Hovnanian is a billion-dollar company working to develop a property on Kent Island that it seems the majority of the residents do not want.

At the recent Four Seasons hearing, K. Hovnanian supporters appeared after being treated to food and drink at the Chester River Inn. Despite this effort to pack the hearing with supporters -- some of whom had toured K. Hovnanian developments in New Jersey, compliments of the developer -- over two-thirds of those who testified at the commissioners' hearing spoke out in opposition to the Four Seasons development.

It is also important to know that K. Hovnanian has made its presence known in New Jersey not only through its real-estate developments but through its political contributions. K. Hovnanian has given $460,000 to New Jersey political campaigns over the last 15 years. Its funds were also included in the $360,000 spent by the New Jersey Builders Association last year to lobby state lawmakers on 75 pieces of legislation.

K. Hovnanian made a $225,000 payment to the acting governor of New Jersey, Donald DiFrancesco, so he could pay off an outstanding legal judgment. The payment was made five years ago, when the acting governor was president of the state Senate, and has not been repaid. He does not believe that it is his responsibility.

Kent Island residents exercised their rights demonstrating the power of the legislative system, which gives private citizens the opportunity to be heard and even to prevail against billion-dollar corporations.

JEAN DEARDEN
Chester, MD