Art auction to benefit Buena Historical Society

Local and famous artists' work will be up for auction today to benefit renovations for the Buena Historical Society's new location.

Paintings by Rockwell, Neiman and Delacroix provided by Marlin Art in Deer Park, N.Y., will be discounted 30 to 50 percent during the event.

Local artist Jody Rivera, who recently won a commission to paint the Delaware duck hunting stamp, will also feature her paintings. Sports memorabilia, autographed celebrity photographs and home decor items will also be available.

A preview of the work begins at 6 p.m. and the auction begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Buena Camping Park Fountain View Banquet Hall, said Buena Historical Society trustee Debra Casazza.

Nearby restaurants will provide a buffet and refreshments. Tickets are $10.
 

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Township urges ATV drivers --be safer  9/27/05

Buena Vista Township officials are concerned about the growing menace of ATV's on local roads. 

For complete details go to:  www.thedailyjournal.com 

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Grant helps Buena Vista build train station 9/23/05

A $500,000 grant from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority will help the township keep its railroad-themed redevelopment of its Richland Village section on track, Mayor Chuck Chiarello said.

Township officials have been lobbying for funds for more than a year to redevelop the several-mile-long section along Route 40 between Mizpah and Buena that once served as one of the area's commercial centers.

The $3 million project, also funded by the township and other state agencies, aims to spark commercial development with a railroad-themed makeover and restore tourist passenger train service in the area.

About 90 percent of the township is covered by Pinelands development restrictions to protect environmentally sensitive woodlands and aquifers, Chiarello said.

The Richland Village project, which will eventually include a train station, the area's largest model railroad, shops and restaurants, offers a unique opportunity to stimulate growth, he said.

"We are in an area that is protected and you're not going to have a lot of extensive development," Chiarello said. "That's why the Richland Village project offers us some hope of a rare chance that could help the township out financially."

About $225,000 of the CRDA grant, which was approved Tuesday, will go toward the construction of a 250- to 350-foot passenger platform and development of the Richland Village train station with new lighting, benches, nearby sidewalks and parking, Chiarello said.

Another $175,000 of the grant will go toward laying tracks known as siding, Chiarello said. These tracks allow trains to pass while others are stopped at the station.

The remainder of the money will finance improvements to a new home for the Patcong Valley Society of Model Railroaders, reputed to be Atlantic County's largest HO-scale model railroad.

The township is working to convert a 3,000-square-foot former clothing factory into a new facility for the model railroad, which was located in Egg Harbor Township, Chiarello said.

"We're trying to bring some life back to Richland," Chiarello said.

On Oct. 15, passenger train service is slated to return to Richland Village for the first time in decades.

Vintage circa-1940s trains from the Cape May Seashore Lines railroad will provide three Saturday round trips between Richland Village and Tuckahoe, about 15 miles away.

"It's nostalgia," said Cape May Seashore Lines President Tony Macrie. "We're bringing back what once was."

Macrie said it will be the first time since Sept. 28, 1935, when the Pennsylvania Seashore Line discontinued local service, that passengers will be able to board a train in Richland.

Cape May Seashore Lines already operates a more-than-12-mile stretch between Cape May Court House and Cape May.

"This is an opportunity not just for the railroad from an expansion point of view, I think it's a great opportunity for the township," said Macrie, who believes Richland may become a tourist destination in its own right.

Chiarello said he hopes to eventually see rail service from Richland Village all the way to Cape May. But he said that would require a $3 million to $7 million retrofit of the aging tracks between Cape May Court House and Woodbine to make them suitable for passenger service.

"Even tourists don't want to travel 5 miles per hour," Chiarello said.

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Vote 'yes' on Buena school referendum 9/23/05

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Galloway Teen Abduction - Jolt of reality 9/22/05

Galloway Township was the first Atlantic County town to pass an ordinance limiting where sex offenders can live. Residents who felt more secure may have gotten a bracing jolt of reality last weekend, when police made an arrest in connection with an attempted abduction of a Galloway teenager.

The reality: Predators are more likely to lurk on a home's computer than in the house next door.

Police arrested a New Hampshire man who allegedly had an online relationship with the 15-year-old. George Nugent allegedly lured the boy to a Galloway location where he attempted to chain him by the neck to the inside of his Jeep. The teenager fought off his attacker.

The frightening incident underscores an important point that gets lost in the rush to ban sex offenders from living in a community: Predators are mobile. And they are very computer-literate. They lurk in chat rooms. They often pretend to be teenagers. They build a relationship before setting up a meeting.

That's one of the dangers of local laws limiting where sex offenders can live. They can create a false sense of security. Compulsive, repeat sex offenders are a real threat and are a parent's worst nightmare. But parents would be far better off monitoring their children's computer use than lobbying City Hall to ban offenders from living in their community.

And the sad truth is that the majority of sex-abuse cases involve someone the child knows  a family member or friend. Parents should be vigilant to spot signs of abuse.

Meanwhile, the wisdom of recent laws limiting where offenders can live is increasingly being questioned. Experts say such laws could be counterproductive that they may socially isolate offenders and make them more likely to commit another crime. And some municipal officials legitimately worry about the cost of defending such ordinances if they are sued. Some legal experts say the laws won't hold up in court.

At the very least, parents ought to see these laws for what they are: Little protection against a very real problem.

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CRDA OKs $5M. for A.C.'s All Wars Memorial Building 9/21/05

The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority will give $5 million to the city to help renovate a community center that once housed black veterans in the 1920s.

The agency's board gave final approval Tuesday to a $5 million grant to go toward expansion and renovation of the Westside All Wars Memorial Building on Adriatic Avenue. City officials plan to add almost 10,000 square feet to the building, adding extra ballroom and office space as well as new parking and landscaping.

While it still hosts a veterans' group, it's primarily used for community events, such as weddings and funerals. The renovated building also will contain historical exhibits of the city's black heritage. In all, the project will cost $19.4 million, and the rest of the money will come from Atlantic City bond issues, according to the CRDA.

Initial CRDA paperwork, including that at a public hearing on Monday, referred to the $5 million as a loan. However, what was approved Tuesday was a grant, not a loan, said Susan Ney, the agency's assistant deputy director of project development. The word loan only appeared because of an error in the city's initial filing, she said.

The grant was one of several awarded by the CRDA as part of a full agenda Tuesday. Other projects approved include:

 

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Richland Village receives $500K in state funds 9/21/05

The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority is giving Buena Vista Township a $500,000 grant for the ongoing efforts to redevelop the Richland Village.  On Tuesday, the CRDA's board unanimously voted grant $500,000.

For complete details go to:  www.thedailyjournal.com 

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REVITALIZATION PLAN COMING FULL CIRCLE: Richland Village banks on casinos to bring train 9/20/05
 

The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority held a public hearing about a grant on Monday at the municipal building.  The township could receive a $750,000 grant from the CRDA.

For complete details go to:  www.thedailyjournal.com 

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Sex offender ordinances may backfire, experts say 9/19/05

They may make people feel safer, but do the sex offender ordinances that are sweeping across New Jersey actually protect children?

Probably not, experts say.

In fact, they may have the opposite effect, cutting sex offenders off from family and friends, leaving them socially isolated, angry and, some experts say, more likely to commit another crime.

Plus, experts say, the laws draw attention away from the real danger - children's family members and close family friends - and lull communities into a false sense of security.

Yet New Jersey is crazy about its sex offender ordinances. And as more communities prohibit registered offenders from living within 2,500 feet of schools, playgrounds, day cares, and, in some cases, school bus stops, experts say an interesting social phenomenon is playing out - a hysteria-rooted wave of law-passing despite a lack of scientific evidence that the laws do any good.

"There is really no evidence that these ordinances make communities safer," said Thomas Castellano, chairman of the department of criminal justice at Rochester Institute in New York, and an expert on sex offenders, recidivism and public perception. "They're based on fear, based on assumption, based on beliefs that are not supported by research."

He blames "political entrepreneurs, moral entrepreneurs and media" for freaking out an easily spooked public.

"The public doesn't feel protected. They're terrified of sex offenders," agreed Jon'a Meyer, who directs Rutgers University's criminal justice program.

Still, she said, "The laws won't really protect people as much as they think. They only apply to the people who are identified by the system and labeled by the system. Most of our pedophiles are people who are known to the children and, in many cases, unfortunately, they're relatives."

Yet, New Jersey towns, and communities throughout the United States are rushing to pass laws that sometimes go as far as completely banishing sex offenders.

"... People are fed up, and lawmakers are racing to catch up to where their constituents already are on the issue," said Mike Paranzino, president of Throw Away the Key, a Kensington, Md.-based organization pushing for longer prison sentences for sexual offenders. "This is not just happening in South Jersey."

Experts liken the sudden popularity of sex offender ordinances to prohibition, drunk-driving laws and a new trend of communities using domestic violence restraining orders to keep known drug dealers off their streets.

"It's sort of like a domino effect. One town does it, another town does it," said Donna Gould, a councilwoman in the borough of Matawan in Monmouth County, which recently passed a restrictive sex offender ordinance.. "There isn't any way you can not know, hear or see what other towns are doing."

Stephen Henderson, who teaches criminal law at Widener University in Delaware, says the phenomenon is a result of "the NIMBY effect," not the domino effect.

"If we say 'Not in our back yard,' we can feel good about ourselves," he said. "It's not a new phenomenon."

When communities pass sex offender ordinances, supporters often say that sex crimes against children are becoming more common. That's not true, experts say. Rather, the instantaneous nature of communication today - from television and the internet to amber alerts - makes crimes seem more immediate.

"I think it gives us the idea that there are more sexual predators," said John H. White, an associate professor of criminal justice at Stockton College. "The community feels that they must do something to stop sex predators and (an ordinance) makes the community feel a little bit more secure - not so much because they are secure, but because they feel like they're doing something about it."

Gould, like many supporters of the ordinances, says she believes sexual abuse of children is on the rise.

"When I grew up ... you could leave your door open; you wouldn't lock your car," she said. "We're in a different world now."

In addition to fear, there's a sense of frustration, experts say. Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, who has called on all Atlantic County municipalities to pass sex offender ordinances, often rages at a justice system that lets pedophiles out of jail, knowing a large percentage will reoffend.

"My serious suggestion is to keep these serious rapists and serious pedophiles out of society, but I don't have the power to do that," he said.

Levinson said it's only common sense that keeping pedophiles away from places where children hang out will cut down their risk of molesting them. "Where temptation meets opportunity, that's where we have our problems," he says, likening pedophilia to a cocaine addiction.

Experts, however, say ordinances that cut pedophiles off from their family and friends can make them more likely to reoffend.

"(They'll think) 'I'm feeling powerless, I'm feeling out of control. What makes me feel good? Molesting children,'" said Pamela Schultz, a professor at Alfred University in New York. "We're saying, 'There's nothing that can help you, you can't be redeemed, you can't be rehabilitated.' If society has no hope for them, how can they have any hope for themselves?"

Schultz is the author of "Not Monsters: Analyzing the Stories of Child Molesters" and herself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by a neighbor, a close friend of her parents.

Like other experts, she said the ordinances target people who, realistically, are not as much as threat to children as their own family members and friends.

"It's really only child molesters who aren't good at what they do, who get caught," she said. "I think that we need to recognize that it's not the strangers who move in down the street. It's who has access to your children."

The possibility of a lawsuit made Township Committee balk Monday for a second time on an ordinance that would restrict living areas for convicted sex offenders.

"Make no mistake, I wouldn't want a convicted sex offender living next door to me," said Committeeman Peter Bylone. "But I'm not sure if we're within our constitutional rights to do this."

The proposed ordinance would restrict convicted offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a playground, church, school or any other place children congregate, similar to the proposed policy in Vineland.

Every committee member, including Mayor Chuck Chiarello, said they want to protect residents as much as possible. But the township isn't insured in the event of a legal suit, Chiarello said.

Solicitor Joe Gindhart cited the case of Steven Elwell, a Middle Township resident and former teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with a student. He's now hired a high-powered attorney to determine whether the ordinances in his area violate the Constitution.

In Buena Vista Township's case, the taxpayers would receive the financial burden of a similar lawsuit.

Both Chiarello and Committeewoman Sue Barber said local residents were wondering why the township hasn't taken action on the ordinance when other nearby municipalities, including Buena Borough, have.

Most committee members said they would be comfortable waiting to hear legal advice from the New Jersey attorney general and the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, a body that deals with legal issues for every town in the state.

"At this point, we've explored a number of legal opinions and I'd like to err on the side of public concern for the issue," Chiarello said. He added that the current proposed ordinance wasn't as extreme as some nearby townships, which count every bus stop as an area where a convicted offender can't live.

Bylone suggested drawing circles around the restricted sites to see how much inhabitable land is left for a convicted offender that may want to move into the area. "We may be surprised how little room there is," he said.