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LOCAL NEWS CLIPS - FEBRUARY 2006
Newtonville cherishes its rich black history 2/27/06 During the Black History month celebration at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Newtonville on Sunday Evelyn Jones Whiting Hunter was honored with numerous plaques for being the oldest black citizen in Newtonville. Mayor Chuck Chiarello noted she will be honored tonight at the televised Township Meeting. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Former signalman excited about train's return 2/25/06 Benjamin "Allen" Johnson was a railroad signalman in Richland in 1946-1947. Johnson is a living part of the heritage the project is building on. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Longtime coach and educator of the Buena Regional School District Steve Kordos suffered an aneurysm last summer. Supporters have organized a fundraising breakfast to benefit the Steve Kordos Fund. The proceeds will be used for his mounting medical and personal expenses. The breakfast will be held on February 26, 2006 at the Tuckahoe Railroad Station Hall from 7 am to 12 noon. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Car's driver hurt in crash with school bus 2/24/06 — An 80-year-old Hammonton man had to be airlifted to the hospital after he
ran his car into the back of a stopped school bus Thursday afternoon on Route
54, but the 13 children on the bus were unhurt, officials said.
Driver critical as police investigate (The Daily Journal, by staff reports, 2/24/06) Michael Benedetto Jr. of Hammonton was listed in critical condition after rear-ending a bus carrying 17 elementary school children on Thursday. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Rahmel Spann's is taking a new course on black history and museum archiving offered through a partnership between Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and the African American Heritage Museum in Newtonville. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Township's medical van ready to serve residents 2/16/06 A mobile van sponsored by the Southern New Jersey Family Medical Centers Inc. of Hammonton is scheduled to make the first of its weekly visits this Friday from 9 am to 5 pm at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Family of eight loses home in blaze; all are unhurt 2/10/06 A family of eight suffered smoke inhalation when fire destroyed their home on Ron Road Thursday morning. HOW TO HELP: The family lost most of their belongings in the fire. Anyone wishing to donate clothing or furniture to the family may contact the American Red Cross at 856-691-2265. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
One of the last hurdles cleared for Richland Village 2/7/06 During the final hearing for the township's Richland Village redevelopment plan the public reaction continued to be overwhelmingly positive. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Town's redevelopment plan draws criticism 2/7/06 — The second public hearing for the Richland redevelopment plans attracted
about half the people from the first meeting, but criticism was still high
Monday night.
Your final say on Richland tonight 2/6/06 The Township Committee tonight will hold its final public hearing on the Richland Village redevelopment project. The public will have the opportunity to hear the latest details about the railroad-themed plan to transform Richland. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Buena inches toward sewage facilities expansion 2/6/06 The borough is a step closer to an agreement that would allow its Municipal Utilities Authority to expand its discharge facilities, according to local officials. Until the discharge issue is resolved, that expansion won't happen. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
Article Regarding Richland from Today's Courier Post 2/6/06 
Photos by LAWRENCE HAJNA/Courier-Post
Richland's general store still dispenses items such as coal, buckshot, animal feed, honey and hardware.
Buena Vista Mayor Chuck Chiarello envisions this railroad line carrying
people from Richland to Cape May.
LAWRENCE HAJNA/Courier-Post
Gary Brookland, owner of the Richland General Store, has reservations about the redevelopment plan in Buena Vista.
Richland's new train station is located near the town's old feed mill,
which is to be saved and incorporated into the redevelopment plan.
There's little reason for anyone to stop in Richland. In fact, most South Jersey residents probably don't even realize the place exists. Born of railroads more than a century ago, the little Atlantic County village is located west of Mays Landing on U.S. Route 40, a highly traveled back route to Atlantic City and Ocean City. With its old-fashioned feed mill that once unloaded trainloads of grain for chicken farmers and a general store that still dispenses coal, buckshot and animal feed along with honey, candy sticks and hardware, Richland could have been plucked straight from rural Iowa. Quaint, yes, but hardly reason enough to stop and spend a few bucks. Buena Vista Mayor Chuck Chiarello has big plans for Richland, envisioning a major shopping and office complex patterned after a Victorian-era railroad to be built along a rail line between Winslow and Cape May. The village would have artisans like a blacksmith or leather worker, arts and craft stores, and restaurants. It would be complemented by a 3,000-square-foot indoor model railroad display. "The core is a village of shops, essentially a Peddler's Village or a Smithville," Chiarello said, referring to the popular 18th-century-themed shopping complexes located respectively in Bucks County, Pa., and Galloway. If so, it would be Peddler's Village in the Pines. Plans picked up steam when residents packed a recent planning board meeting to learn about a redevelopment zone proposed to spur the project. The zone designation -- believed to be the first for an area designated as a village in the Pinelands National Reserve -- is dividing Richland's population of about 1,500. There are those who want to see their township generate some economic growth and those who want Richland to remain what it is -- a sleepy village on the edge of the Pinelands. Gary and Tracey Brookland, who recently invested their life savings to purchase the landmark Richland General Store across from the project site, have misgivings. They fear the project could snowball, bringing the same unsightly sprawl that has already sullied much of South Jersey's landscape. "It's a Pinelands community. I thought they were going to kind of keep it like the lifestyle of the Pinelands," said Gary Brookland, 42. "That's why I came here." While she also harbors uncertainties, Angela Biscoglio, owner of Little Frankie's Italian-American Deli across the street, said she believes commercial taxes the project generates could help control rising residential property taxes. "It'll put Richland on the map, and I hope it will be good for business also," said Biscoglio, 44, noting that sandwich sales picked up last fall with the launch of a scenic rail line between Richland and Tuckahoe, 15 miles away. The success of Chiarello's plan rides on the railroad, in particular expanding it into Cape May. So far, the Richland-Tuckahoe excursion, operated by the Cape May Seashore Lines, has drawn some 3,500 people in three months of operation, Chiarello said. It ran only on Saturdays and resumes service in March. He wants to extend the service to Cold Spring Village, a restored 19th-century village in Cape May where Cape May Seashore Lines operates another tour route. But some 10 miles of track through Woodbine would require costly repairs. At some point, the line could be extended to a connection in Winslow with the Atlantic City commuter rail line, Chiarello said. This could open the possibility of tourists from all over the region taking the train to avoid Cape May's notoriously bad summer traffic, he said. While Chiarello brims with confidence that the project will happen, it still needs a developer to take it on. It also needs state Pinelands Commission approval. The redevelopment zone designation gives municipalities more control over the direction projects take and the naming of developers. Zones have been established in Pinelands towns and rural development areas but not in the national reserve's 51 designated villages -- places such as Chatsworth, Vincentown, Indian Mills, Blue Anchor and New Lisbon -- that are thought to have special character. The Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan does not preclude redevelopment zones in villages, but it does require that development be compatible with their existing character, Pinelands Commission spokesman Paul Leakan said. "One of the main items that the commission will look at is the overall scale of the proposal and the types of uses being proposed and whether they are consistent with the Pineland village zone," he said. While the Pinelands Preservation Alliance has not taken a formal position, Carleton Montgomery, the group's director, worries this could set a precedent for projects in more ecologically sensitive parts of the Pinelands. But Chiarello hopes the project will lead to broader community revitalization that taps into the region's tourism potential. "The Pinelands plan is not devoid of economic activity," he said. "We're not trying to overrun it and we couldn't overrun it with the rules that are in place. The one thing the Pinelands owes a town like us is the ability to survive." Reach Lawrence Hajna at (856) 486-2466 or lhajna@courierpostonline.com
Opponents want brakes applied to ATV park 2/6/06 The state Department of Environmental Protection's push to open an off-road vehicle park here near the Buena Vista border has cooled since last month's change in leadership, prompting some opponents to try to scuttle the proposal now while it's weak. For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
ATV park foes spring into action 2/6/06 The state Department of Environmental Protection's push to open an off-road vehicle park here has cooled since last month's change in commissioners, prompting some opponents to try to scuttle the proposal now while it's weak. Acting Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Lisa Jackson has replaced former DEP chief Bradley Campbell, who issued a policy directive in 2002 to build two all-terrain vehicle parks by 2005 to curb illegal riding. The DEP targeted a 213-acre abandoned sand mine off Jackson Road as a possible site. "We're in the middle of changing administrations so we don't want to move forward too aggressively," said John Watson, assistant DEP commissioner for natural and historic resources. Ed Knorr, a local environmental activist, and Chuck Chiarello, the mayor of neighboring Buena Vista Township, are seizing the opportunity to criticize the proposal as unsuitable and potentially disastrous. Knorr is asking township council to write an ordinance to ban ATV parks from all areas of the 46.5-mile township. Chiarello has already personally presented Jackson with his written opposition to the ATV park. "We don't want the problem the state has with illegal ATV riders to be dropped on Monroe Township," said Knorr, who heads the Green Action Alliance. In a letter to the council, Knorr said his request wasn't intended "to deem ATVs or their riders as social outcasts, but to stay consistent with the health and protection of our environment . . . ATVs can produce smog clouds, dust and debris, trash, a threat to our water, destruction of woodlands and wildlife and the list can go on." Council President Marvin Dilks said the governing body will consider Knorr's proposal while it waits for a response from the DEP on the project's status. The DEP used $1.2 million from the Green Acres program to buy the Sahara Sand Inc. property in Monroe in May 2005. In an early January letter sent to a homeowner living near the mine, Campbell wrote that the state acquired the land with the intent of building an ATV park there. But he noted the DEP hadn't made a final determination. The DEP is, by no means, giving up on the proposal, Watson said, noting it's been regularly consulting with the Division of Fish and Wildlife and the Pinelands Commission. "It won't take us long to put forward a plan if that's the direction we decide to take," Watson said. Chiarello, who met with Campbell and Watson late last year to express his concerns, said neither he nor a coalition of environmental groups from around the state will support an off-road vehicle park until the state Legislature requires registration and licensing of ATVs; strengthens the state's enforcement authority against ATV use on public and private property; and creates an education and training program for riders. The DEP is pursuing such legislation in tandem with its ATV park efforts, Watson said. Joan Stahl, who lives about 90 feet from the sand mine's entrance, worries the DEP will try to sneak something past residents when they're not expecting it. After all, she said, the DEP never notified her it was buying the property with the intent to put an ATV park there even though she lives across the street from the site. Tom Pannone worries that the park won't get built, forcing ATV enthusiasts to either go to other states or ride illegally in New Jersey. "The state said there would be legal ride parks by the end of 2005. That's come and gone," said Pannone, who owns Goodfellows Motor Sports, an off-road vehicle dealer in Monroe. "The state is dragging their feet, I do believe. Now, there's a new administration and we're at the bottom of the list . . . That past directive was basically just a lie." Reach Lisa Grzyboski at (856) 251-3345 or
lgrzyboski@courierpostonline.com
Buena Vista officials going above and beyond call of duty 2/1/06 For complete details go to: www.thedailyjournal.com
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Address: Buena Vista Township
Copyright © 1999 [Buena Vista Township]. All rights reserved.
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