bullet June 27, 2008    

History's helpers receive $2.1M

25 county grants aim to preserve sites

Thursday, June 26, 2008

BY LAWRENCE RAGONESE

Star-Ledger Staff

An environmental group was awarded $250,000 in Morris County historic preservation funds yesterday as seed money for the potential purchase of Willow Hall in Morristown, an endangered historic site that has been targeted for townhouse development.

It was one of 25 grants totaling $2.1 million approved by the freeholders for historic projects in 17 towns, to be financed by the voter- approved Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund.

The Passaic River Coalition got the largest award, at $250,000, to help finance the purchase of Willow Hall, the 1840s Italianate pudding stone mansion in Morristown that was once the home of Speedwell Iron Works owner George Vail. The plan is to turn the building into the group's new headquarters, said Passaic River Coalition Executive Director Ella Filippone. The organization now operates from a house in Warren Township, Somerset County.

She said the organization wants to buy the entire 6.2-acre property, which borders Speedwell Lake and is across the street from Historic Speedwell, a county park and national landmark. Filippone said talks have been held with property owner Frederick Stradtman and K&K Developers regarding the tract, which is earmarked for 20 townhouse units.

But the scope of the purchase depends on the outcome of pending court challenges to the development plan, said Filippone, who declined to divulge a potential sale price for the tract.

In 2003, the Morris County Park Commission offered Stradtman $1.6 million, but K&K agreed to pay $3.2 million if its development project is approved.

Filippone conceded the $250,000 grant awarded yesterday is not nearly enough to buy the house or property and said her group will apply for money from the Morris County Open Space Trust Fund.

Stradtman could not be reached for comment.

A freeholder-appointed panel made its funding recommendations yesterday, getting unanimous freeholder consent. Panel Chairman Lawrence Fast said funding was recommended for 25 projects in 17 towns for a total of $2.1 million.

Sixteen of 25 projects got construction grants, while 13 received full funding. Of the 25 projects, 17 received funding in previous years. Projects were funded in four towns that have not previously gotten historic grants: Butler, Chester Borough, Long Hill and Rockaway Borough.

For the first time, an acquisition grant was recommended, for $250,000 to the Passaic River Coalition for Willow Hall. Other projects getting large sums include:

·  The Oscar Kincaid Home in Boonton Township: $188,600 for restoration and rehabilitation of the kitchen and dining room, plus upgrades of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

·  Hartley Dodge Memorial in Madison: $150,000 as part of a larger project to rehabilitate the entire building, including restoration of bronze work and existing marble.

·  The Growing Stage in Net cong: $126,914 for restoration and rehabilitation of the front facade.

From the program's inception in 2003 through 2007, the county has awarded 104 grants totaling $6.7 million for 45 historic sites lo cated in 26 of the county's 39 towns, said Fast. The county closed on 18 grants during the past year, including for work on the Glen Alpin House in Harding, Nicholas Vreeland Out Kitchen in Montville, Friends Meeting House in Randolph and Middle Valley Community Center in Washington Township.

 

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June 9, 2008                                                                                   

NJ DEP Mapping Contest - In an annual contest for the most creative use of computer mapping technology, our GIS Specialist Lubica Cverckova won 2nd place in two categories. On Thursday, June 5, 2008, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection held its 21st annual mapping contest in Trenton, NJ. Over 30 maps were presented in 5 categories, including Best Data Integration, Best Analytical Presentation, Best Software Integration, Best Small Format, Most Unique and Best Instructional Presentation. There were also five other categories which all maps were competing in, such as Best Overall Map (submitted by NJDEP), Best Overall Map (non-NJDEP), Best Cartographic Design, Best Internet Mapping Application and Newbie of the Year.

Lubica, in her first time representing the Coalition at the Contest, submitted two maps: 'Old Man Passaic' , an imaginative re-creation of the watershed as an elderly gentleman (for the Most Unique category) and 'Computation of Water Resource Values of Land for the Passaic River Basin Using GIS' (explaining how PRC calculates and visually displays water resource values for use in municipal natural resource inventories and open space plans) that won 2nd place in the category of Best Software Integration and 2nd place in the category Newbie of the Year. The winning map is going to be presented at the 2008 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California, August 4 - 8.

 

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 Please, see the submitted maps below.

                                 

                    Old Man Passaic                 Computation of Water Resource Values of Land

                                                             for the Passaic River Basin Using GIS
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June 6, 2008

Organic Lawn Care Workshop - Join the Morris County Park Commission and AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassador Mike Romankiewicz for an afternoon of talks focused on teaching homeowners how to care for their lawns with the environment in mind. The free workshop is going to be held in Frelinghuysen Arboretum on Saturday, July 19, 2008 from 12.30 pm to 4.30pm. For directions, please click here. For more information about the seminar please see the flyer below.
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May 20, 2008                         

                                                                                            

Passaic River Coalition Stays On Top of Groundwater in Summit - Passaic River Coalition, working with its own Groundwater Protection Committee, spent Saturday, May 10, in Summit, NJ at the city’s first Green Fest to help raise awareness of the uses of groundwater by the residents and local businesses. PRC’s booth on the Village Green was illustrated by maps showing wellhead protection areas for Summit’s own and neighboring wells and showing the underlying bedrock that connects Summit’s water to not-so-obvious neighbors throughout Union and Essex counties. PRC staff Anne Kruger, Susan Nanney, Matt Polsky, and Eugene Reynolds together with GWP volunteers Chairman Richard Plambeck and Patricia Collington discussed the basic facts of rain and recharge, dams and droughts with interested Fest visitors, pointing out, for example, that they were standing on ground that would be included in the outer protective zone for the NJ American Water Corporation wells sunk on the south side of the city.  With a crowd estimated at 3,000 for the Fest, the PRC booth was never without visitors.

 

(Left) Assistant Director Eugene Reynolds offers groundwater education at Summit Green Fest

 

 

(Below) Members of Boy Scout Troop 67 help enlighten Fest visitors about compact fluorescent bulbs

 

 

Along with PRC and GWP, other environmental and watershed groups exhibited at the Green Fest, including the Rahway River Association, Sierra Club, and Trailside Nature and Science Center of the Watchung Reservation.  Civic groups and green-minded businesses were also well-represented, holding workshops on recycling, organic cooking, and micro-lending for sustainable ventures, as well as offering a variety of eco-friendly products like organic clothing and personal care products for sale.  The Green Fest also provided educational entertainment in the form of movies on American agribusiness (King Corn) and transportation (Who Killed the Electric Car?). 

 
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Please, click below to view/print the maps presented at the Summit Green Fest. Please, note the original size of map 'Aquifer Systems in Summit City and Neighbors' is 41 x 65 inches and the size of map 'Well Head Protection Areas in Summit City, Union County, NJ' is 38 x 65 inches.

 

                   

 
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See below some of the educational materials displayed at Summit Green Fest. The big maps displayed at the Fest are free to view on our home page.

     

 
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May 15, 2008

 

PRC participates in the 4th Annual Passaic River Paddle Relay – On May 10, 2008 the Lower Passaic witnessed a great event – a 9 mile relay of kayaking and canoeing from Riverbank Park in Newark upriver to the Nereid Boat Club in Rutherford. The relay was organized by the Lower Passaic and Saddle River Alliance (formerly WMA 4) and the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners. It was cosponsored by the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation & Cultural Affairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the veterans to the first-timers including New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell and the Essex County Executive Director Joseph N. DiVincenzo, everyone gathered on Saturday to help the Lower Passaic /Saddle River Alliance reach their goal of reconnecting people to an ignored and forgotten urban treasure – the Passaic River.

The race was held in individual kayaking and canoeing. The canoeing portion of the race was divided into three legs with teams consisting of six paddlers, with two paddlers per canoe on each leg.

 

      Bill Pascrell, Tom Pietrykoski, Joseph N. DiVincenzo

 

Our GIS Specialist, Lubica Cverckova, represented the PRC office in kayaking at the relay, and, although she did not place among the top finishers, she helped the Nereid Team to come in first place when she saved a lost paddle after their canoe tipped over into the River.

The race finished around noon at the Nereid Boat Club where all paddlers, friends and family members met after the race for the finish line festivities such as Paddle awards ceremony, a nice lunch given by Whole Foods Market and beer donated by Anheuser-Bush. There was also an exhibit of artwork from local children entered in Essex County’s Earth Day Poster Contest.

Special thanks go to Tom Pietrykoski, Chairman of Lower Passaic & Saddle River Alliance for putting such a great event together.
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May 14, 2008

 

In the Middle of America, Passaic River Coalition Rallies with Others for Our Rivers - Once a year, the good people of River Network, a non-profit dedicated to connecting people and saving rivers, hold a River Rally, a gathering of the leaders of watershed protection across the country for a four-day conference described as part education, part inspiration, and part celebration. With the generous assistance of scholarships and travel donations, PRC was able to send three staff members (Executive Director Ella Filippone, Assistant Director Eugene Reynolds, GIS Specialist Lubica Cverckova) to join in the learning and the networking.

 

(Below) Heron and gull on Lake Erie

This year, the Rally was held in Huron, Ohio, on the southern shore of Lake Erie, the first Rally to be held within the watershed of the Great Lakes. The welcome to the Rally was given by environmental officials from Ohio and Wisconsin, and the opening plenary speech was given by Chris Brown of the US Forest Service, in which he celebrated the 40th anniversary of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act with personal reminisces of freeing rivers from dams.

After the speeches, the Rally moved into its two best activities: workshops and social events. With over 70 different topics from which to choose, PRC staffers spread out to discover new ideas on evaluating the ecological services of rivers, using free software to maintain and improve PRC’s Web site, targeting the more likely sources of corporate donations, and organizing to produce community-based watershed plans (the secret, it appears, is offering free food). The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival offered both educational and entertaining films and shorts, from cattle ranchers restoring a Montana river valley and a profile of Martin Litton, who helped Sierra Club save the Grand Canyon and now, at 90, fights for the sequoia, to The Return of the Cuyahoga, a documentary about Cleveland’s river, its notorious past ("the river that burned") and its slow return to health.

(Below) Storm clouds brewing over Sheldon

 Marsh State Nature Preserve, Huron, Ohio

While the weather moved the Saturday evening barbecue indoors (and forced the cancellation of the Quasi-Annual Dutch Oven Cook-off), the Rally brought attendees together for several good opportunities to put names and faces together, to share stories and contact information, and just to relax and to honor the people who have made marked contributions to protecting America’s rivers and streams.

On Sunday evening, the River Heroes Banquet gave us five individuals who have worked and sacrificed to save waterways big and small, located up north in Alaska, down south in San Diego, and right in the middle of things along the Wabash in Indiana. Also recognized, with a pair of standing ovations, was Dr. JoAnn Burkholder of North Carolina State University for her work identifying a major cause of fish kills associated with algal blooms (Pfiesteria), in the defense of which she was severely and unfairly attacked, both professionally and personally. After the banquet, the celebration continued with some acoustic bluegrass/reggae music, getting people dancing and clapping along.

 

(Left) The gorges of Chippewa Creek, a tributary of the Cuyahoga, offer some challenging hiking for visitors to Cleveland Metropark’s Brecksville Reservation

Because it would not be a Rally without some outdoor interactions, the 2008 Rally offered a number of field trips to get participants out to discover some of Ohio’s natural and cultural wonders. On Monday, Eugene and Lubica elected to paddle along Old Woman Creek, a gentle stream that forms a relatively undisturbed estuary on Lake Erie. There, while spawning carp were ready to leap into the kayaks and canoes, bald eagles nest in the trees and cliff swallows nest under the road overpasses. After lunch in downtown Cleveland, PRC’s Rallyers boarded a plane for home, already thinking about the 2009 Rally in Baltimore and speculating about which new friends and acquaintances would be there.

(Right) Paddling on Old Woman Creek, Eugene tries to tell a bald eagle from a buzzard.

 

 

 

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Passaic River Coalition gratefully acknowledges the support of Continental Airlines, which provided free air transportation for PRC staff to attend the 2008 River Rally in Huron, Ohio.

 
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April 30, 2008

Amid Galaxy of Green Stars, Passaic River Coalition Gives Tour of River Through Time - Passaic River Coalition spent time recently exhibiting at PSEG’s three-day Global Green Expo, held in Liberty State Park’s historic Central Railroad of NJ Terminal building, where an estimated 16,000 people attended talks on global warming, workshops on composting, and speeches by NJ notables (Gov. Corzine, Sen. Lautenberg), Hollywood eco-activists (Ted Danson, Ed Begley Jr.), and environmental superstars (oceanagrapher Dr. Sylvia Earle, Animal Planet’s Jeff Corwin).

 

(Right) After delivering the keynote speech on Friday, Sen. Frank Lautenberg stops by to discuss groundwater with Trustee Dick Plambeck.

Scores of environmental groups, such as fellow river organizations like the Hackensack Riverkeeper and environmental advocates like NJ Conservation Foundation, along with companies offering "green" services (including Prout Funeral Home from Verona) also occupied the main station platform area. Our display on the history of PRC and the Passaic River (past - 1972, present - 2008, future - 2020) was well-received and attracted a number of favorable comments.

 

(Left) PRC Trustee Dr. Joan Tell shows off the linked history of the River and the Coalition.

During the three days, we collected the names (and addresses/phone numbers/e-mail addresses) of more than 100 people who entered our drawing for a guided tour of Greenwood Lake; sold several copies of our DVD, "The Groundwater Adventures of Walter Wet"; handed out hundreds of informational booklets/brochures/newsletters/contact postcards; gained one new member on the spot; and got several requests for multiple copies of our materials from people who wanted to bring them back to their job sites, social organizations, or hometown civic groups.

With the success of our appearance at this first PSEG eco-fair, PRC is looking forward to returning to Liberty State Park for the 2009 Expo.

 
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Please click below to view the maps presented at the first annual PSEG Global Green Expo.

 

                 

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April 8, 2008  Please register for the 4th annual Passaic River Paddle Relay - See flyer below:

 

 

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The registration form with directions can be downloaded here.
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April 8, 2008   -   SAVE THE DATE FOR SUMMIT GREEN FEST!

 

Newsletter Article              

[159 words]

 

 

On Saturday, May 10, the first annual Summit Green Fest will be held in downtown Summit, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

 

Green Fest will be a fun, festive way to share ideas, gain new knowledge, and work together for a greener, healthier community.

 

Green Fest will include displays and workshops on popular topics like green cleaning, energy savings, lawn care, and much more.  There will be organic food tastings, a screening of Who Killed the Electric Car hosted in person by actress Chelsea Sexton, a visit from the Trailside Museum Eco Van, live music, and a green walking tour of downtown Summit.  All who complete the tour will receive a free organic cotton tote bag.

 

Visitors to Green Fest can join a “free-cycle” yard sale, donate eyeglasses for the needy and cell phones for soldiers, give to a Red Cross blood drive, and participate in other civic endeavors.

 

For more information, contact Anne Marie Treger at 908-277-0925 or amtreger@mac.com.

 

 
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 ENLIGHTENMENT ON A GREEN JERSEY
Big PSEG global expo to showcase environmentally friendly lifestyles
Thursday, January 24, 2008
BY DIEGO CUPOLO
Star-Ledger Staff

The historic Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal in Jersey City once served as the gateway for new Americans coming through Ellis Island. This spring, it will serve as the gateway for eco-friendly ideas and business initiatives.

Yesterday, Ralph Izzo, CEO of Public Service Enterprise Group, unveiled plans for the PSEG Global Green Expo, a three-day event designed to educate state residents and businesses on how to reduce their impact on climate change.

"We believe it will be one of the biggest and most comprehensive Earth Day events New Jersey has ever seen," said Jennifer Kramer, a spokeswoman for PSEG, the parent company of Public Service Electric & Gas.

The expo will take place on the weekend following Earth Day -- April 25-27 -- and will showcase environmentally-friendly products, programs and services available to consumers, businesses and communities. Activities for the entire family are being planned including a "Caring Kids Oasis," exhibits, interactive workshops, presentations by environmental leaders and organizations, entertainment and a wholesome food court.

"We basically want to show that there are so many different ways for people to go about their normal lives and reduce their carbon footprints," Izzo said. "This event is about informing and inspiring, both residents and business owners."

Scheduled speakers include Ed Begley Jr., an actor and environmental activist; Ted Danson, a Golden Globe award-winning actor who founded the American Oceans Campaign; Jeff Corwin, host of "The Jeff Corwin Experience" and "Corwin's Quest" on Animal Planet; and Deirdre Imus, wife of Don Imus and best-selling author of the "Green This!" series.

The first 1,000 people to enter the expo each day will receive a free compact fluorescent light bulb, Izzo said. Participants will also be able to bring "difficult recyclables" to collection areas in the train station parking lot, including CFL light bulbs, printers and various electronics.

"I can't think of a more fitting venue for this event than historic Liberty State Park, the crown jewel of our world-class parks system," said Lisa P. Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, in a press release. "With its views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, this oasis on the Jersey City waterfront stands as a testament to the power each of us has to transform possibilities into progress."

During the news conference, Christine V. Bator, commissioner of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, said she had seen the recent Broadway musical "Jersey Boys" and was struck by the production's use of "Jersey imagery." She watched as the actors performed in a setting of smoke stacks, pollution and industrial areas -- a perception of New Jersey Bator is hoping to change.

"The Global Expo is going to help New Jersey change its image back to the image of the Garden State," Bator said.

Admission for the event is $15 for one day, $25 for two days and $30 for three days. There is no charge for children under 12. Other expo sponsors include The Star-Ledger, NJ.com, WNJN, the Jersey Journal and Liberty Science Center. For more information about the PSEG Global Green Expo visit www.nj.com/globalgreen.

Diego Cupolo may be reached at dcupolo@starledger.com or (973) 392-1644.