MAY 2019 FREE
COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
Bridge closure a bane for Boro business
Mind control (and Twinkies) Cults, scams and eugenics: the disturbing history of Hopewell Borough’s mysterious castle
By Joe eMansKi
jemanski@communitynews.org
By Diccon hyaTT There’s a giant building that looms on the commanding heights overlooking Hopewell Borough. Its view is concealed from the town below by a stand of trees. But in the winter, after the leaves fall, passersby can catch a glimpse. The view is best from the graveyard next door. It’s a huge, strangely shaped mansion of brick, with two towers at its corners, one round and one square. It is, technically, a Victorian house, but everyone in town calls it The Castle. It’s the kind of eerie building that attracts urban legends: that it has secret tunnels; that it was once the headquarters of a cult; that it is like a maze inside; and that it has ties to the origins of one of a powerful corporation. Not only are these urban legends true, but The Castle protects yet stranger and darker secrets. The Castle was built by Webster Edgerly, a 19th-century See CASTLE, Page 12
Elizabeth Maher Muoio (left) at Gov. Phil Murphy’s Get Covered New Jersey campaign launch, Oct. 30, 2018.
From Pennington to the State House Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio has trod a steady path of civic involvement By Maya eashWaRan When Elizabeth Maher Muoio was sworn into the New Jersey General Assembly in 2015, she received her committee assignments for the coming term. As a freshman representative in the Assembly, the lower house of the state legisla-
Mayors express concern over school board’s proposed tax hike, Page 6
ture, she was was placed on two committees—Regulated Professions and Women and Children—out of the available 27. “You know, there’s only one woman on the Budget Committee,” she said to the speaker of the Assembly. When her next term began, Muoio was assigned to the Budget Committee, laying the stepping stones for her current role as New Jersey State Treasurer. Today, she oversees 14 divisions, handles a $38 billion budget, and works alongside an allfemale leadership team. Inside the Treasury office in Trenton are reminders of the political figures that have worked for the department throughout history. Documents
and photographs of prominent bureaucrats are framed and hung on the walls. Among these, Muoio’s photo stands out. She is one of a handful of women who have served in this office. Muoio, 56, has always been interested in government. “It wouldn’t have shocked me in high school to hear that I would have ended up in elected office,” she said. “I was really involved with student government in high school and college. So when we moved to New Jersey and I would read stuff in the paper about things going on in the community, I decided to get involved in the way I knew.” A lifelong Democrat, Muoio recognizes the essential role See MUOIO, Page 21
NOW OPEN IN PENNINGTON!
3 Tree Farm Rd. (Just off Rt. 31 in Pennington Point) Proud to be part of the Hopewell Valley community! See our ad on page 33
Mike Gray had a sense of what was coming before most people did. Gray, of Sourland Cycles in Hopewell Borough, had known for some time that the HopewellRocky Hill Road bridge over Bedens Brook, on the eastern end of the borough, was on the list of area bridges that were in need of repair. He had learned it while researching potential bike routes through the region. There were further hints when PSE&G moved its utility poles back from the road in January. “Then you knew sooner or later, this bridge was going to go,” Gray says. However, Gray and other business owners in the borough say they had no official word of the pending closure, from the county, municipal governments or anyone else, until signs went up shortly before construction was set to begin. Nor did they know until then that the project would take an estimated five months to complete. The road is closed to all traffic until work is complete. The impact of closing one of the only ways into town has been significant for many businesses in the borough, with many reporting declines rangSee BRIDGE, Page 11
Jack’s
GREENHOUSE & FARM ANNUALS • PERENNIALS • SHRUBS • TREES
Mother’s Day Flowers See Our Ad On Page 4
1179 NEWARK, NJ