Trash talk invigorates
campaign 5/24/06
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www.thedailyjournal.com
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Talkin' trash: Summit casts critical eye on litter problem 5/24/06
At a summit participants agreed to join forces for a large-scale litter
awareness week. The effort will promote cleanup activities while
discouraging continued trashing of roadsides and public areas.
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www.thedailyjournal.com
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At age 56, life
is finally working out for him 5/21/06
The sun pokes through an audience of empty branches, oak and cedar. Fred
Akers stands 20 feet from the bank of the Great Egg Harbor River, scanning a
distant tree for what he thinks is a pine warbler.
The river gurgles as it winds around the edge of Weymouth Furnace Park on a
picturesque April morning. Traffic passes in the distance. It's not as secluded
as Akers, Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association administrator, would like, but
it'll do.
“There's more of a slope to the land around here, and that's what gives the
water greater velocity. And when you see water bubbling and all, it really
almost has a life of its own,” he says. “This is a great spot.”
And this is a great time for Akers, 56. Because life fits, and for a long time
it didn't.
Of all the areas of life influenced by Akers' generation, few have been as
inconsistent as the approach to the environment. Al Gore. Destruction of the
rain forests. Exploration of alternative energy. Ozone erosion.
As he grew up in Brigantine, the outdoors was a place of enjoyment for Akers,
not activism. Young adulthood was more of the same as he bounced from one
industrial job to another.
It wasn't until his wife's interest in a local issue spurred his own activism
that turning the environment into his life's work made sense. Akers calls it an
“a-ha” moment, when his purpose became clear.
Maybe it should have come into focus sooner. The signs were certainly there.
Bird-watching trips with his father, even if Akers at the time thought they were
boring. Pushing a 19-foot aluminum canoe into the Great Egg Harbor River, not
too far from where he stands now, and paddling upstream with his mother, father
and sister in search of wild cranberries for the family's Thanksgiving feast.
It's been barely three years since he became the river association's leader. Now
he tromps around marshes wearing hip boots in the dead of night in search of
Pine Barrens tree frogs. Because where there are frogs, there is a tool to
preserve the environment in which they live.
But he's not naive. He understands the system he lives in. His generation has
done very well accumulating wealth, and preserving the environment runs contrary
to that goal. He knows that. But he's also enjoying the fight. He only wishes he
had more time.
“Yup, because I'm just getting started,” Akers says. “And I'm pretty
resourceful, so I'm putting a lot of things together and I'm getting a lot of
traction quick. But if I had five years' more time I'd just be that much farther
ahead.”
Balance. He has found balance in his life, he is happy and he sees the community
doing its part, too. It is heartening to see municipalities create environmental
commissions. Gratifying to see the effect of open-space taxes in places like Egg
Harbor Township and Weymouth.
“I'm really optimistic,” he says, “because I see a lot of good things coming. A
lot of good recognition. And a lot of progress in getting that balance.”
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Officials blast
plan to pay for state police 5/13/06
Friday a proposal by Gov. Jon Corzine's administration is to start charging
some municipalities for state police protection. Buena Vista Township
would have to raise $791,560 adding 28 cents to its tax rate, to pay the state.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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Paying for State Police
Editorials, 5/11/06
Gov. Jon S. Corzine wants rural towns that don't have a police force to pay a
total of $25 million this year — about one third of the cost of having the State
Police answer calls and patrol in those towns. It's a fine plan. As we've said
countless times, the pain must be shared in a tough budget year. And having
these towns pay at least a portion of the state costs always did make sense.
But here's a caveat: The pain must be shared fairly. And a state funding
formula that would require relatively poor Buena Vista Township in Atlantic
County to fork over $791,000 for State Police protection, tiny rural Shiloh in
Cumberland County to pay $57,120 and relatively affluent Upper and Dennis
townships in Cape May County to pay nothing simply isn't fair.
The formula exempts communities with tax rates or property values below their
countywide average. And therein lies the problem: In places like Cape May
County, the “average” property values are wildly skewed by the coastal
real-estate boom.
But consider some other barometers of wealth and ability to pay: According to
U.S. Census figures, the median property value in Buena Vista in 2005 was
$77,150 compared to $144,500 in Upper and $111,000 in Dennis. The median
household income in 1999, the most recent Census figures available, was $43,770
in Buena Vista compared to $60,942 in Upper and $56,595 in Dennis. The tax rate
in Buena Vista is $3.62 — compared with $2.55 in Upper and $2.27 in Dennis.
So officials in Buena Vista and other rural towns that might have to pay are
understandably squawking.
The concept of making rural communities pay a portion of police protection is
sound. And there were good intentions in trying to exempt truly poor and highly
taxed towns. But lawmakers just need to rework or scrap the formula. Perhaps
they should eliminate the county-by-county approach and look at relative tax
rates or property values on a more regional basis. Maybe there are other
statistical ways to wean out the truly poor and heavily taxed communities.
Perhaps there aren't, and everyone should simply share equally in the burden.
But making some relatively poor rural communities pay and letting relatively
affluent bedroom communities off the hook isn't the way to share the pain.
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Local fire
chief helps save life while on vacation 5/10/06
Richland Fire Chief Anthony Monfredo along with a Pennsylvania EMT revived a
4 year old boy who was found unconscious in a swimming pool at a PA campground.
The child came around and spent the night a the hospital.
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Even the quiet,
pristine areas being trashed 5/10/06
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Buena Vista sees tax
rate spike 5 cents 5/9/06
Township Committee adopted the new municipal budget which is a rise in tax
rate of a nickel.
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Buena gets
$50G. to study future commercial zone 5/9/06
BUENA VISTA TOWNSHIP — Officials are hoping to use an influx of state money
to fund a study that could help reduce school taxes in the future.
The township was recently notified that the Department of Community Affairs had
awarded them $50,000 what they called “smart growth” funds.
Mayor Chuck Chiarello said the money will go toward researching the area around
Comar, a plastic manufacturing plant on Tuckahoe Road.
There has been interest in that land for development, Chairello said, and the
study will try to discover whether a commercial park is a good choice for the
area.
“It'll give us the opportunity to see if we could bring some new ratables into
the area,” Chiarello said on Monday.
Some people also expressed interest in the area for residential redevelopment.
But Chiarello said that the township is going to focus on bringing in business
that would help reduce the growing strain of school taxes.
This is the fifth year straight that the Buena Regional School budget has been
defeated by voters. In the upcoming weeks, the district's finances will see more
cuts before it is passed, resulting in a loss of classroom resources and
activities, said Superintendent Diane DeGiacomo in a previous interview.
This year's school budget was $30 million.
Chiarello said the study will also have to focus on how the area could be used
considering strict Pinelands regulations.
“This is a study we couldn't have otherwise afforded,” Chiarello said.
The DCA also awarded similar funds to 23 other municipalities, including an
additional $50,000 to the Cumberland Development Corp.
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Towns say bill from
troopers is unfair 5/9/06
The state is working on a formula to determine how much rural towns should
pay for State Police coverage.
But the proposed system still has apparent inequities.
Buena Vista Township would pay $791,660 under the proposal. Corbin City would
pay nothing.
Bass River Township would pay $165,580. Dennis Township would pay nothing.
Shiloh, population 534, would pay $57,120. Upper Township, population 11,985,
would pay nothing.
“Are you kidding me?” Shiloh Mayor Howard Scull Jr. said about whether his
borough could afford the fee. “No way!”
Eleven towns in Cumberland County would pay a total of about $3.8 million under
the proposal.
Four Atlantic County towns would pay a total of $1.5 million. Three towns in
Cape May County would pay zero.
“For those towns that can cover costs, we're asking them to pay what's pretty
modest per household,” said David Wald, a spokesman with the state Department of
Law and Public Safety.
Under the proposed formula, towns that would be charged for the coverage would
pay about $280 per household.
The actual rate is subject to change.
The state is trying to raise
$25 million, about one-third of the estimated cost each year to patrol and
investigate crime in rural towns that don't have municipal police departments.
If the proposal is approved as part of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's budget package, it
would take effect in 2007.
“It would have a dramatic effect on their property-tax rate at a time when they
least can afford it,” said William Dressel, director of the New Jersey State
League of Municipalities.
“There doesn't seem to be any logic to the formula. The amounts of money might
not seem like a lot, but for towns like Shiloh, it would put a tremendous burden
on residents,” he said.
If State Police are preoccupied by their rural police duties, it's hardly
Shiloh's fault. This is a farming town of one square mile. In 2004, State Police
investigated two burglaries, four larcenies and one stolen car here.
The borough's mayor said if push comes to shove, Shiloh will look to its
neighboring towns for police protection. Officials expect that move would save
money over the State Police proposal.
“How about the city of Camden? They had 300 State Police cars out there for a
year and a half,” Scull said. “It's all to bail out the budget and I'm not in
favor of it.”
Under the formula, the 19 towns exempted from paying anything for police
coverage had tax rates higher than their county's average or property values
lower than their county's average. Property values in towns such as Upper and
Dennis townships are much lower than the Cape May County average, which includes
pricey islands such as Ocean City and Avalon.
Rural towns such as Buena Vista Township argue that environmental restrictions
in their areas strongly discourage development, which might bring in tax revenue
to pay for police.
“If you want our town to pay for its own police, lift the environmental
restrictions so we can afford that. With that burden on us, there is no way on
earth a town like Buena Vista Township can,” Mayor Chuck Chiarello said. “If
you're trying to balance the budget on the backs of a few rural towns, I think
the state is misguided.”
Officials in rural towns say they are pleased with the services they get from
State Police, and they acknowledge it would cost far more to create their own
police departments.
But fees and fines that State Police collect in their towns go to state coffers,
not theirs, they said. And that is no small amount. Buena Vista Township
generated $213,073 in court fees and fines last year, Chiarello said.
Many other towns also get state or federal money that rural towns never see.
Shore towns get money for beach replenishment or lagoon dredging or new bridges,
Chiarello said.
“Every town has special needs they get special treatment for,” he said.
The Department of Law and Public Safety commissioned a 2003 study of policing in
rural towns. State Police employ 850 troopers, or 29 percent of its total staff,
for rural policing in about 76 towns across New Jersey.
That report concluded it was “simply not fair” that towns such as Upper Township
pay nothing for police coverage while taxpayers in neighboring towns pay more
for their own local police departments.
The towns that get a free ride under the formula said it was only fair.
Woodbine, population 2,616, is one of the 19 towns that would pay nothing next
year for its policing.
The borough is home to a barracks that serve three northern Cape May County
towns. The borough disbanded its own police department in the 1980s after most
of its local factories closed.
“We didn't have the ratables, the development and so forth to sustain a police
department,” Mayor William Pikolycky said. “I'm satisfied with the State Police.
It's the state's finest police department. I just hope our (budget) numbers hold
up.”
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Lawmakers slam police
patrol proposal 5/6/06
Lawmakers blasted a proposal to bill some rural towns
for State Police patrols last week. They also criticized plans to shift
$21 million in new motor vehicle fees to select state projects.
For complete details go to:
www.thedailyjournal.com
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