Pine Barrens Tribune February 22 - February 28, 2025

REFERENDUM REVELATION

Governor, in Roundtable on Wildfires at Coyle Field, Learns of Aging Equipment and Decreased Staffing at State Forest Fire Service Event with Mayors Marked Launch of NJ Wildfire SMART, Actions That Stress Fire Safety and Prevention to Bring About Better Coordination

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

WOODLAND—Governor

Southampton School District Acknowledges, in Now Trying to Reverse Course to Keep Solar Field, That It Has Dissemenated Incorrect Information to Voters About Savings Array Provided on District’s Electric Bills, But Question Asks Voters to Fund ‘Removal’ with Some Voters Having Already Cast Ballots by Mail Ahead of March Special Election

By D ouglas D. M elegari

Staff Writer

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Phil Murphy last week visited for the first time Coyle Field, an airfield utilized by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) in Woodland Township, and during the visit that came during his final year in office, the governor was implored by Woodland Township Mayor William “Billy” DeGroff to update the agency’s reportedly aging equipment, while other mayors urged the governor to increase prescribed burning, enhance communications and ensure “overgrown” firebreaks are maintained.

Murphy also learned that staffing for the NJFFS is down substantially from what it once was, despite state officials maintaining during the event that wildfires are becoming more frequent in the state, fueled by climate change.

The public dialogue that led to the revelations was part of a bi-partisan

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

A solar array that Southampton Township School District officials initially asked voters to remove through financing, but now the district has decided to keep.

New Pemberton Council Suggests It Is Leaning Against Prospect of In-House Trash Collection, But Open to Regional Agreement Pemberton Mayor Told He Has Done ‘Great Job’ of Rectifying Issues with Private Hauler in ‘Getting Us on a Schedule’ for Trash Collection

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—A spontaneous resident question, “Why can’t we have our own garbage pickup?” in Pemberton Township led to a revelation during a Feb. 5 Pemberton Township Council meeting that the township fathers are now leaning against the prospect of in-house garbage collection in the municipality, something that was previously said to be under review by a council subcommittee, and had been suggested by then-Business Administrator Daniel Hornickel and township administration early last year as a solution to its then-troubles with its private hauler, as well as rising costs the entity was passing on.

“Every other township has their own garbage trucks,” the resident who asked the spur-of-the moment question on Feb. 5 maintained (some towns actually privatize their collection services), prompting new Republican Councilman Perry Doyle, Jr., to retort, “You think $300,000 (for simply a new dump truck) is a big investment?”

Doyle, in recounting a “very big, big conversation” that occurred six to eight months previously, prior to Republicans taking absolute control of council this past January, contended it would take “millions of dollars” to “start an in-house trash system.”

“It was not financially feasible for this township to do that,” new GOP Councilman Matthew Bianchini added. “The numbers just did not add up.”

The exchange caused Republican Mayor Jack K. Tompkins to reveal he “was originally in favor of something like that,” or an in-house trash collection program, “but the more people I talked to, they told me to stay away from it.”

New Township Solicitor Jerry Dasti ultimately disclosed that he was asked by Republican Council President Joshua Ward to review the possibility of joining together with other towns, through a shared services agreement, for trash collection services.

Such an arrangement, he maintained, would comprise possibly two to three towns, and based on his experience, “the savings are tremendous.”

“We have to talk to some of the other towns, and have to see if the contracts that they have will end when ours ends, so we can go out (to bid) together,” noted Dasti, calling any such arrangement as one that would be “down the road.”

Hornickel previously pointed to a KYW Newsradio report that “nearly a dozen towns in Gloucester and Salem counties have ditched private trash collection companies for shared services as a way to reduce costs,” with the report noting that the “shared trash pickup services are run through the Logan Township Department of Public Works in Gloucester County.”

The now-former business administrator expressed his desire to possibly have Pemberton lead such a shared service in Burlington County, given what he believed

were the capabilities of the township Public Works Department.

Such a situation can “offset the cost to the town running it,” contended Hornickel at the time, and allow the services to be “actually cheaper – much cheaper.” By taking on trash collection in just one small community, he contended, it could cover the cost of an entire trash truck or the corresponding totes.

The effort to make changes with regard to trash collection services in Pemberton followed the January 2024 awarding of a new contract by Pemberton Council to Seaside Waste in the amount of $4,527,303, from April 1 to March 31, 2027.

Seaside Waste was the lone bidder, and the bid amount reflected a substantial increase. Additionally, the township saw its trash pickups reduced from twice weekly to once weekly through the new contract.

Hornickel, as a result, had pushed for the township to create a solid waste utility, and to begin to fund it in order to build it up to eventually be able to bring collection services in-house. But an ordinance to create the utility ultimately died for lack of motion.

The then-business administrator identified the “three options” in moving forward as staying the course with a private hauler, contracting with another town through a shared services agreement, or bringing collection inhouse. The council subcommittee was supposed to evaluate all three options, all as the township raised its collection fees to cover a debt that had developed.

When the resident on Feb. 5 asked Pemberton council if there was any possibility of joining with neighboring towns for trash collection services, Ward replied that the only municipalities “around us” that “collects their own trash” are Southampton Township and Wrightstown Borough.

And while Pemberton, a Burlington County municipality, abuts Ocean County, according to Ward, “we are one of the only counties that you have to go to the county landfill” to deposit collected waste.

“You cannot go out of Burlington

Medford Council Approves Resolution Supporting Application for Weight Restrictions Along Taunton Blvd. and Tomlinson Rd. Request from Other Towns to Join Opposition to Offshore Wind Farms Is Relegated to Medford Environmental Committee for Consideration

By Bill B onvie Staff Writer

MEDFORD—The Medford Township Council approved a resolution supporting an application to the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) for vehicle weight restrictions along Taunton Boulevard and Tomlinson Mill Road at its Feb. 4 meeting after adding it to the consent agenda following a discussion of the issues involved.

The council also agreed to charter subcommittees to deal with Taunton Boulevard traffic and Medford Village parking issues, and to review and revisit a request from the mayors of various shore area communities that it adopt a resolution opposing the building of offshore wind turbines.

Medford Mayor Erik Rebstock pointed out that approval of the weight restriction resolution “does not guarantee that the weights will be reduced, merely that we will appeal for a weight reduction.”

Responding to Rebstock’s request for comments from other council members, former mayor and Councilman Charles “Chuck” Watson replied that a dead end (explained further below in this story) was one of his concerns, as was how such a reduction would be enforced.

“Like, how do police officers know whether it is an asphalt truck delivering asphalt to Medford or a contractor and a truck that is violating the law?” he asked, pointing out that “It is easy if it is a bridge that has a weight limit, right? If you go over the bridge, you are violating the weight limit.”

Watson, however, said he would be “more than happy to address those issues” if or when we hear back from DOT.”

Concurring with those sentiments was Councilwoman Donna Symons, who said she had done “a lot of work” on the issue, having researched “all the vehicles, all the axles.”

Symons said she had some similar questions about “the police having to patrol it, as well as the dead end and the need for new signage.

“And we have Hopewell Road (which intersects with Taunton Boulevard) that is part Medford, part Evesham,” the councilwoman pointed out.

But Symons, too, indicated she favored “moving forward” and “seeing what DOT has to say,” adding, it is “definitely worth asking.”

When asked by Rebstock to weigh in on the matter, Township Engineer Christopher Noll noted that the dead end

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See RESTRICTIONS/ Page 12

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BurlCo Saint Patrick’s Parade to Honor Organized Labor; O’Connell, a Fmr. Commissioner and Transportation Leader, Made Grand Marshal

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

MOUNT HOLLY—The 21st annual Burlington County Saint Patrick’s Parade is scheduled for March 1 on High Street in Mount Holly (held intentionally on the first Saturday of every March to allow for maximum participation).

And this year’s Grand Marshal is Daniel J. O’Connell, who many readers may recognize as a now-former Burlington County commissioner and prior director of the county commissioners’ board.

Jim Logue is one of the founders of the parade.

In 2004, he told this newspaper, members of the Irish community in Burlington County had just started the first division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, “which is an Irish-Catholic organization dedicated to Irish heritage and culture.”

Some of the members got together in February 2004 and had proposed a Saint Patrick’s Day party in Burlington County, but Logue said he was the “voice of reason” and urged his group to hold off knowing it would be onerous to pull off in less than four weeks’ time.

So, instead, according to Logue, he and his group had decided to visit the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Hamilton, Mercer County.

“So, we watched the parade,” Logue recounted. “It was a good time. We went out to the after party. We were listening to the Irish music. I had a few pints of Guinness and made a joke – totally made a joke! It was along the lines of, ‘Forget starting a party next year, we are starting a parade!’”

Logue told this reporter in jest, “So, be careful what the jokes are that you make after a few pints of Guinness!”

And so, a beloved tradition “to enrich the Irish culture of the community” in Burlington County was born.

“It has grown immensely from the first year,” Logue observed. “I think we had 13 groups in the parade. This year, we will probably have about 90 different groups in the parade.”

The local parade’s first Grand Marshal in 2005 was former Burlington County Clerk Ed Kelly, who at the time was the only surviving founder of the Philadelphia Saint Patrick’s Parade Committee, having joined it when he was just 17 years old in the 1940s, according to Logue.

For this year’s parade, the theme is “Saint Patrick, bless the men and women of organized labor.”

O’Connell, the 2025 grand marshal, exhibits such “roots,” according to Logue, involved in not only the Ancient Order of Hibernians, but also as a member of the Transportation Union.

“The Transportation Union was very instrumental in the history of Irish independence and freedom,” Logue explained to this newspaper. “People like James Larkin (Irish trade union leader) and James Connolly (an Irish political figure and trade union leader involved in the Irish labor movement, ultimately executed in the Rising) were active in the Irish Transportation Union.”

This years’ parade theme will honor the men and women of the organized labor and the countless Irish men and women who have fought for labor rights throughout the

years including James Connolly, Mother Jones and O’Connell, with a special recognition of “Essential Workers”

O’Connell, a lifelong resident of Burlington County, has dedicated his career to public service and union advocacy, making him an ideal choice to lead this year’s parade, according to Logue.

He has lived in Delran for more than 30 years and has called Burlington County home for nearly 65 years, and has served his community in a number of significant ways, from his work as a locomotive engineer to his leadership roles in local government and organized labor.

O’Connell’s career as a locomotive fireman and engineer spanned across major transportation systems including Penn Central, CONRAIL, and New Jersey Transit. His leadership extended beyond the tracks as he became an advocate for workers’ rights, serving as a local union representative and eventually as the New Jersey State Legislative Director for the United Transportation Union (UTU).

In this role, he worked tirelessly on legislation at both the state and federal levels to protect the rights of transportation workers.

Now retired, O’Connell remains active in his community. He is a member of the Rancocas Nature Center, the Burlington County YMCA, and volunteers at WXPN, a public radio station in Philadelphia.

His commitment to service has extended into local politics, where he served on the Delran Township Council, and during his time as a Burlington County Commissioner, he held various leadership roles, including liaison to the Health Department, Schools, and Elections.

O’Connell’s Irish heritage is a source of pride for him, Logue told this newspaper.

The son of the late Michael (Mickey) O'Connell and Rita O’Connell (née O’Brien), O’Connell was raised with a strong connection to his Irish roots. Both his maternal and paternal grandparents were born in Ireland, and O’Connell has traveled there on multiple occasions, visiting his family’s ancestral homes in County Clare and County Kilkenny. He is a proud member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an organization that honors Irish heritage and culture.

Burlington County Clerk Joanne Schwartz nominated O’Connell for this prestigious honor, citing his tireless work on behalf of his fellow workers, his commitment to public service, and his deep connection to his Irish heritage.

“Daniel is the embodiment of all the great things that his Irish heritage stands for – dedication to service, love and concern for others, and a fierce commitment to fighting for workers’ rights,” Schwartz said. “His quiet strength and unwavering support for his community make him the perfect Grand Marshal.”

As the Grand Marshal of the 2025 Burlington County Saint Patrick’s Parade, O’Connell will lead the parade down High Street, a role that honors both his contributions to the local community and his rich Irish heritage.

Logue also noted “we have usually about a half dozen pipe bands in the parade, four or five Irish dance schools, probably about a dozen Irish organizations from

the Ancient Order of Hibernians to the Celtic Society, to groups like the Mary from Dungloe and the Rose of Tralee.”

Additionally, he said, “we usually have about seven or eight Irish bands on floats, sometimes more,” as well as “mummer’s bands in the parade, in addition to police, fire, and community groups.”

“I just got word yesterday that it looks like this year we are going to have Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in the parade,” Logue pointed out.

Another tradition, Logue noted, “is we select a young woman each year as our ‘Miss Saint Patrick,’ who epitomizes the future of the Irish movement and community,” with Logue stressing this is important key because without helping to foster the next generation, “our traditions and culture might go away.”

This year’s Miss Saint Patrick is Kathleen Wagner, a Burlington Township resident and 11th grader who is educated at home. Besides being a junior in high school, she has been a Girl Scout for more than eight years in Troop 23371, where she has earned her Bronze Award, the highest award a Girl Scout Junior can earn. When Wagner is not busy with Girl Scouts, she dances three nights a week at Edge Dance Center where she takes Ballet, Contemporary and Tap.

“Kat has been involved in the Burlington County Saint Patrick’s Day parade her whole life,” Logue told this newspaper. “Her first few parades, she sat on the parade route with her mother, Jessica, and various family members while her dad, Jon, drove his tow truck in the parade. As she got older, she helped her father prep the flatbed to be parade-ready by cleaning and painting it. When Kat was three years old, she was finally old enough to ride

in the truck with her parents and her older sister, Abby. She waved to the spectators and threw candy to them.”

While Wagner, Logue noted, is still learning about her Irish heritage, “she has recently received information from a family member that her paternal side dates back to the early 1800s” and that her “oldest known ancestor was born in Tulla, Clare, Ireland under the last name, Shanahan, which changed to Shannon sometime in the early 1800s due to unknown reasons.”

He added that Wagner was informed that there was Irish heritage on her mother’s side, but the history is unknown. Wagner, in keeping with tradition, will get a $1,000 scholarship.

The parade will start at 1 p.m. Right after the parade, according to Logue, at the corner of High and Washington Streets, “we have a heated tent, and it will be nice and warm in there, and we have an Irish Music Fest all day after the parade with six bands, and the headlining band will be the Young Wolfe Tones from Ireland, which the head of that band, Derek Warfield, who is now about in his 70s, wrote a lot of the Irish songs that people are familiar with today.” Warfield is coming to Burlington County from Ireland.

“So, most of the Irish songs that people know about, he wrote,” Logue said. “So, if you really want a good, authentic Irish music experience, we will have a tent set up.”

For more information about the 2025 Burlington County Saint Patrick’s Parade, please visit www.mounthollyparade.com or follow us on social media. Ample parking will be located in the county and township parking lots off of High Street.

Local Boy Scout Troop, Non-Profit Organization, Tire Business Partner to Rehabilitate Fence for Browns Mills Baptist Church

Pemberton

PEMBERTON—A Pemberton Township woman has died after reportedly becoming trapped in her bedroom during a morning fire on Feb. 14.

According to Fire Chief Craig Augustoni, the fire was first reported at 10:39 a.m., at 250 Garden Avenue in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton.

“When we got there, we had reports of someone trapped, and there was fire coming out of the bedroom window,” Augustoni told this newspaper. “Neighbors were telling me, basically, she was in that room.”

According to the fire chief, Pemberton Township Police officers “tried to get inside, but there was just too much smoke.”

“We located her, but unfortunately, she did appear to have expired already,” Augustoni said.

Officials were not in a position to immediately release the victim’s identity. According to the fire chief, the woman was the only one inside the home at the time of the blaze.

The one-alarm fire was placed under control at 11:30 a.m., but crews did not leave the scene until after 5 p.m.

The inferno, Augustoni added, left “major damage” to the what he described as a one-story ranch-style dwelling.

Besides the civilian fatality, he noted, no firefighters were injured in the blaze.

The fire remains under investigation by the county and state fire marshals. There is no word on its cause.

The fire chief said it was the eighth fire in town that his volunteer department has responded to since the start of the new year.

By Jenn lucas

Staff Writer

BROWNS MILLS—Most people who drive along County Route 530 in Pemberton Township probably never noticed it, but there it sat for at least 15 years. Cracked. Broken. Forgotten.

After a while, it just became the norm for the congregation at Browns Mills Baptist Church.

Now, thanks to the hard work of Boy Scout Troop 145(b), the generosity of the local Sons of the American Legion 294, and help from neighboring business TriState Tire Service, Inc., the fence that separates the church from the business stands tall and with a new coat of paint.

“God brings us all together,” said Pastor Maurice Mimms, who began as one of the leaders of the congregation three years ago. “This is a wonderful community to be a part of.”

In his time serving at Browns Mils Baptist Church, Pastor Mimms has become an ambassador for the church, inviting people everywhere he goes to join him and his church family, according to Pemberton Councilman Matthew Bianchini, who was on hand to help honor the Scouts for their work.

At this recent Sunday service, new faces stood up and introduced themselves as they were welcomed by the church community. Besides Bianchini, other guests included Boy Scout leader Shawn Wentworth and Scouts Connor and Ryan Wentworth, Elliot Doyle and Amelia Carter, as well as representatives from the Sons of the American Legion.

All were coming together to celebrate the accomplishment of repairing the longstanding issue with the fence, and Pastor Mimms beamed with town pride as he presented awards to both groups.

When there was an issue or need, according to Mimms, he started to ask himself questions like, “How can you get the resources? How can you get manpower? How do you find people with the will to get behind something? Who in the community whose motto is that?”

The answers Mimms came up with were The Sons American Legion and Boy Scouts, two groups whose core values embody those statements, he said.

“We try to serve, it is what we do,” Wentworth said. “It is a small community, and we are everywhere. We do as much as we can.”

Mimms noted that, “Every time I ask Shawn (Wentworth) for something, he is always coming out and I thank him personally for always being here for us.”

It is not just about a repaired fence, however, Pastor Mimms asserted, it was about everyone coming together and pooling resources to pull it off.

The Scouts provided the manpower, according to Wentworth, while the Son of the American Legion provided the money for supplies like paint and brushes. TriState Tires donated fence pieces.

“It is about bringing things back to a standard of excellence,” Mimms declared.

“That is what we do in Pemberton/Browns Mills. We don’t leave things; we see there’s an issue and we bring it up.”

TRASH

(Continued from Page 2)

County,” Ward noted. “You have to go to that landfill. That is why our tipping fees are outrageous.”

Ward revealed he has since held discussions with Atlantic County to utilize their landfill, to the point that officials there said, “we would love to say bring your trash down here,” but for the moment, “legally, we are not allowed to do that.”

The current Pemberton council president then told the resident that if he thinks “$300,000 for a dump truck is outrageous, try $7.5 million” for obtaining the needed equipment for commencing an in-house trash hauling program, “because we are going to need at least five or six trucks.”

“You are talking about a million dollars a truck, just straight cost,” Ward maintained. “That is not even on top of the employees who you are hiring, the insurance that you are going to take, the repair and maintenance that you are going to take for the fleet. You are talking a lot of money.”

It is a “huge lift,” Ward maintained, for a “township that doesn’t have a lot of money.”

Hornickel, however, last year, had maintained “a lot of research” was done back in 2021 and such a program was costed out at that time. He further maintained worker’s compensation costs to the township are “not going to somehow go through the roof,” because the plan is to procure “singlearm bandits and rear tippers,” which lead to a “diminished” risk of back and shoulder

injuries for truck operators.

The then-business administrator, who maintained bringing collection in-house would also provide for “more control” over pickup schedules and “efficiency,” also had maintained that the amount the township is currently being assessed by Seaside reflects “corporate profits,” or comes out to be 20 percent higher than it would be if trash collection was done in-house.

Ward, on Feb. 5, maintained he could “go down a million different rabbit holes” about trash, and that it is “something that comes up in another two years when we look at going out to bid again,” in light of the township’s contract with Seaside Waste, which began last year, being only a three-year contract.

Meanwhile, Tompkins, who had been the subject of public criticism of late, received praise from the inquiring resident.

“I want to say one thing that the mayor has done, that I like,” the resident declared. “Thank you for getting the garbage picked up every week. That is a big improvement from when it was twice a week, and when they weren’t coming and picking the trash up.”

After the resident again expressed that he was “very happy” with the “trash getting picked up,” Tompkins quipped, “I’m not normally getting good comments on that.”

It caused Ward to recognize, in responding to the resident, “you are right, the mayor has done a great job (with) trash collection and getting that done, and getting us on a schedule, and I commend administration for that, with you.”

Photo By Jenn Lucas

Pastor of Browns Mills Baptist Church, Maurice Mimms, center, along with Minister Derrick Spring, left of center, honor Boy Scout Troop 145(b) members, from left, Connor Wentworth, Elliot Doyle and Ryan Wentworth and Sons of the American Legion 294 Treasurer Heath Lewis and Junior Vice Commander Glenn Walker (red jersey) with Pemberton Township Councilman Matthew Bianchini, right, who was on hand to also thank them.

ROUNDTABLE

(Continued from Page 1)

roundtable discussion with the governor, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette, top NJFFS brass, mayors from across the state representing wildfire prone communities, and both senators from the 8th and 9th Legislative Districts that comprise the Pinelands, Latham Tiver and Carmen F. Amato, Jr.

It marked the launch of a “series of actions,” or what the governor’s office is calling NJ Wildfire SMART, the latter an acronym for wildfire Safety, Mitigation, Awareness, Response and Training.

“We may want to talk offline and maybe sharpen our pencils a little bit in terms of resources here,” said Murphy after hearing the concerns of the mayors. “We are in a tough bind, but there are certain things here that are just beyond whether or not it is a tough year (budgetarily) or not.”

DeGroff, in welcoming the governor to Woodland, or the “Capital of the Pines,” noted he has been actively in the NJFFS since he was 18 years old and has now been involved with the agency for the past 25 years.

“I know money is an issue,” DeGroff told the governor. “But a lot of the equipment is very old in the Forest Fire (Service).”

The Woodland mayor noted his vehicle assigned by the agency is 25 years old, and “I know we have dozers and stuff that are from the 70s.”

“So, I think equipment is very, very important,” DeGroff impressed upon the governor.

The Woodland mayor repeatedly praised, however, the mechanics of the NJFFS for being able to “work with what they have.”

“These mechanics, they slap trucks together,” DeGroff observed. “I mean, it is hard to get parts for a (year) 2000 truck sometimes. And they are amazing (given) with what they work with.”

DeGroff would return to the subject of the NJFFS needing upgraded equipment repeatedly when given an opportunity to

speak during the course of the nearly hourlong roundtable discussion.

In kicking off the discussion, Murphy told those gathered that when he presents the state’s upcoming fiscal year budget, this will be a year “where we will have to trim our sails,” but that “I am happy to say we are not going to trim our sails in the resources we put together to fight fires.”

“I am going to propose the same level of money that we have in this year’s budget,” Murphy declared.

The NJ Wildfire SMART initiative, which Murphy described as “not a money issue,” but rather a “coordination awareness issue,” is, according to the governor, simply intended “to sharpen up a bunch of the efforts that we already have in place.”

“That is not for more money,” said Murphy of the initiative. “But we think we can, with that same amount of money that we have in this year's budget, can get a lot more bang for our buck in terms of getting out ahead of what we know.”

However, DeGroff, in making a final plea to the governor, asserted, “I really think maybe you ought to try to find a little bit more funding somewhere, to upgrade some of this equipment, because we could have a real bad year it looks like upcoming, and we don’t know when it is going to get better.”

“And we definitely need the equipment, that is for sure,” DeGroff added.

Murphy acknowledged “you kind of shocked me with your 25-year-old vehicle,” and repeated in apparent disbelief that some of the agency’s equipment is “from the 70s,” and when DeGroff noted “we were told to take good care of the stuff we get,” the governor proclaimed, “good lord!”

However, as DeGroff described the importance of having updated equipment for the state agency to utilize, the governor remarked, “yep,” and recognized “it is old.”

Tiver, when he was asked if he had anything to add to the discussion, responded, “I think everybody here is pretty much on the same page as far as manning, having the right resources, and not 25-year-old trucks, because, God forbid, if they break down in the woods in

the middle of a fire, we all have problems.”

Prior to the revelation, in opening the roundtable, Murphy described “we put some significant amount of – or more money to work fighting forest fires” in the state budget, with LaTourette claiming the NJFFS “has seen more investment under this administration than others in history,

including increases in staffing, more FTEs (full-time employees), as we call them, to add to our ranks.”

LaTourette further contended that under the Murphy administration, there has also been “additional funding for supporting equipment and contracted support,” in

See ROUNDTABLE/ Page 11

Photo By New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

A roundtable discussion at Coyle Field, marking the beginning of actions through NJ Wildfire SMART, the latter an acronym for wildfire Safety, Mitigation, Awareness, Response and Training.

REVELATION

(Continued from Page 1)

of time on this, because it is 2 percent of the referendum,” is how Superintendent Megan Geibel prefaced the revelation, before adding, “but I think it is important to share.”

Geibel then ultimately detailed the “variable has changed” since public remarks she made previously to the Southampton Township Committee, in which she had maintained that “we don’t see a discount in our electric” from having the solar array, and canceling a contract “is still cheaper” than continuing with it. That is in addition a paid mailing to local households, sent at the start of February, which advertised that there is a “cost saving(s) to (the) district with removal.”

But now, declared Geibel on Feb. 12, “The good thing is, we have enough people looking at it and saying, ‘You’d probably be better off keeping this solar array.’”

The superintendent continued that the solar array now “does not need to be removed,” and that the district has since contacted the “state” to see if it can do the complete opposite of what it had told voters it intended to do with sought financing, now wanting to “update it and upgrade it with the money that we put into the referendum.”

Geibel, who ultimately recognized “this is a hot button issue,” would soon find that this pronouncement and shift in thinking ended up causing some attendees to actually spend a whole lot

of time on this particular part of the referendum, with prospective voters pressing her on how the district could possibly move forward with a ballot question that specifically asks voters for permission to use funds for the “removal of the solar array.”

And, as was pointed out during the Town Hall, Vote-by-Mail ballots (VBMs) were already sent out about two weeks prior to the Town Hall, with this newspaper later confirming that 511 voters have already returned their completed ballots to the County Clerk, as instructed.

Additionally, the Pine Barrens Tribune published a letter to the editor not too long ago in which its author had cited Geibel’s previous explanation of the need to remove the solar array as the reason that voter had changed her mind, deciding to cast her vote for the question in the affirmative.

Geibel is now left trying to explain how the district erred in what it had initially communicated to voters, with the superintendent initially declaring on Feb. 12, “When we started this, we didn’t know what the benefits were to the district.”

The superintendent, however, soon offered that “we now have chillers,” which she indicated was behind the changed variable, and “when it (the array) was put in, we didn’t have chillers.”

While Geibel did not offer much additional detail, a source close to the district was far more succinct in

See REVELATION/ Page 7

Snapshot Challenge

REVELATION

(Continued from Page 6)

describing what has since changed, and how it related to the chillers.

“There was an increase in the electric bills, not because they made a bad deal, but because shortly after the deal was reached, the district installed chillers for the new ACs,” the source said. “As a consequence, consumption went way up, and thus, so did the electric bill. But the rates charged, were the rates quoted. And so now they are realizing that, without the solar, the electric bills would have been significantly higher on account of the increased consumption caused by the chillers.”

The source summarized that “they are now realizing that the solar is yielding a cost savings” to the district, and that “consumption went way up when the chillers went online.”

Geibel, in appearing previously before the Southampton Township Committee, had also stated “we are planning to remove that solar field that is out there on our property,” before adding, “We’ll be utilizing that for athletic fields.”

But during the Feb. 12 Town Hall, Geibel now claims, “It is not contingent to get the turf field by removal of the solar panel(s).”

“They are two separate things,” she contended. “We can keep the solar panels, and we can benefit.”

Geibel, in a previous presentation to the Southampton committee, also described that the solar array had been “sold to multiple solar companies” and that “they are very hard to chase down.”

“They are very hard to know if they are even compliant with the contract that they initially gave us,” previously charged the superintendent.

But now, according to the superintendent on Feb. 12, the solar panels are in “very good condition.”

“The efficiency looks like they are still creating the same, or equal to the amount of kilowattage,” Geibel added. “We now have a plan to move forward when that lease is up.”

Geibel, however, despite the final day of voting on the referendum being less than a month away, acknowledged, “we are still getting to the bottom of what savings we actually had.”

“We might have broken even,” the superintendent contended. “We might be in the red. We are still waiting on PSE&G to provide the savings that we had over the life of the lease of this.”

What Geibel maintained she has since gathered is that the solar array was installed back in 2013, and in December 2028, “it will be ours, if we choose to move forward with it.”

Geibel described that it is “basically” a “lease to own” arrangement in which a holding company is “leasing our land with that equipment.”

“They are making the money on the extra solar, and we are getting a discount on our PSE&G bill,” said Geibel of her understanding of the arrangement. But when one participant in the Town Hall asked, “How much did we get back from the lease of the property from the solar panels?”, the superintendent responded, “We don’t have that information yet,”

adding, “We are waiting for one more piece of data from the PSE&G solar management piece … to find out the savings.”

Geibel also repeated twice, “We’ll have paid over a million dollars to the holding company.”

The superintendent, after indicating the district is now planning to reverse course to keep the solar array, declared, “I want to let you know that because the ballot question says ‘removal,’ does not necessarily mean we need to remove it.”

How that is even a possibility, she contended, is that the “state said we can use the money to upgrade, especially because electric is going up, or it can be removed.”

“And if it is removed, the company, in what we uncovered through this whole process, is responsible for doing that, not us,” said Geibel in only raising further questions about how removal of the solar array ended up being on the ballot. “So, that is a good thing.”

But one man ultimately responded, “I want to know why I am finding out now, on February the 12th, when the vote is in March, more about the solar package.”

“Why isn’t this information available?” he asked. “Why wasn’t it available before, to put the referendum together?”

The man indicated the “situation where you don’t know the answer” to a key question has jeopardized “very admirable things that need to be done in this school district.”

He continued that the question of, “How much has this school district saved over the past 10 years?” is “something you should know,” before asserting that keeping the solar panels is something the district “shall” do (instead of allowing for wiggle room) in light of the system apparently providing discounted energy costs.

The man, who did not receive a reply, was followed by a woman who said she “wholeheartedly agrees with everything that the district would like to do,” as outlined in the referendum, “other than removing the solar panels.”

“Can the referendum be changed to take that line out of there?” the woman asked. “Because once it is documented that we are removing the panels, that is what we are required to do, per the law.”

Use of any borrowed money to “upgrade the panels,” the woman maintained, makes for “a different referendum.”

Geibel responded, in part, that the local School Board “can take action tonight,” based on her having checked with the state, and that as long as the borrowed funds “upgrade electricity and our current system, we could reissue that.”

“Because if we couldn’t, the board would make a motion to pay that back to debt,” the superintendent contended.

However, the woman persisted, “Are you willing to change the verbiage in the referendum to remove the words, ‘remove the solar panels,’ and change the verbiage to ‘upgrade the solar panels’ when the life expectancy is done?”

The woman also questioned if the question is not changed, and it gets approved as is, whether any future superintendent could have an opportunity to change course from the current administration, and proceed with removal.

“I hear your concern,” the superintendent responded. “We do hear your concern. I think the board does, too.”

School Board President Jeff Hicks, however, asserted, “I am an advocate of ‘it needs to be right,” contending he would “champion” such an outcome, but then Geibel interjected, “the ballot question cannot be changed because it already has been printed and distributed.”

“That doesn’t mean that the referendum project can’t be altered,” Geibel further contended. “And the board can decide to do that.”

But as the woman pointed out, what is printed on the ballot is “what you are voting on.” She then called it a “tragedy” in suggesting everything else that is part of the bond question, she and others would have gotten behind.

“If it is not on the referendum correctly, when we vote, then it is not going to … ,” the woman declared, to which the superintendent again contended the school board would have a vote on whether to proceed with keeping the solar array, and then that would be memorialized in its “minutes.”

But as the woman pointed out to the superintendent, “that is not what is on the referendum.”

“So, unless it is changed on the referendum, whatever you are saying right now, I am sorry, but it doesn’t mean anything, because it is not correct information,” the woman pointed out to the superintendent. “That is not what you are voting on.”

Hicks said he “agreed” with the woman, to which she observed there is strict verbiage in the ballot question pertaining to the solar array’s removal.

But it led Geibel to then assert, “removal of the solar panel had nothing to do with state aid” the district would be receiving toward the referendum (34 percent), emphasizing the solar panel removal “was not one of the projects that was eligible for state aid.”

“Well then, you are unfortunately going to have a lot of people who are going to vote ‘no’ to a referendum because of the burden that is on there,” the woman snapped. “It is a shame, because I’m being honest and putting it on the record – I will vote ‘no’ for it the way that it is written right now.

“And I want to see the things happen within the buildings. I strongly believe that we need those things to happen. But I can’t, in good conscience, vote for something that I disagree with, or to have the solar panels removed.”

The Pine Barrens Tribune later asked Geibel, in part, how the district can now proceed with a referendum that comprises knowingly false information, and how proceeding with such a question doesn’t constitute fraud on the part of the district.

Geibel initially replied she would be meeting with “the attorneys,” and would update this newspaper the following day. When the next day came, the superintendent wrote back, “ What I can tell you at this point is that the solar array issue is under review.”

“We are proceeding with the question, as it is presented on the ballot, but are reviewing internally and with our outside consultants and our legal team,” she continued. “We will have more

information in the very near future, which will be shared publicly.”

The woman who pressed the superintendent on Feb. 12 regarding the legitimacy of the ballot question, declared, “The other piece that I don’t understand is how you guys don’t have the billing for the electricity.”

“The district pays the bill every single month!” she charged. “How the district does not know how much it is paying each month, and how much its bill would have been – (it) doesn't seem like the business manager knows what they are doing.”

The woman maintained that “you should be able to answer that information and have it” at the Town Hall, further charging, “You cannot be reliant on PSE&G to provide that information,” but rather, “You have access to your electrical bill at all times, just like every member of the public who is sitting here!”

Geibel responded that “the reason why we don’t have” the entirety of the savings information is that she is a new superintendent of the district, while the business administrator, Mary Conroy, is also new.

“It is very convoluted to find where the money came in, and what was the return, and what were the credits,” the superintendent contended, noting at one point she is not a solar expert.

While the district, according to Geibel, contacted PSE&G and learned of a $5,000 credit being provided, “we don’t know what that looked like in 2013,” adding the township school district’s accounting system currently in use “is different from what it was back in 2013.”

“And to be quite frank with you, this solar project has changed hands three times,” Geibel explained. “The contracts have been transferred from one solar company to another. It took a good amount of time for us to even find out who was the sole holder of our contract. We just knew that bills were going out and we really didn’t have that information. So, we were trying to get to that.”

Leo Wisniewski, Southampton’s electrical inspector from 1999 to 2019, however, made an appearance at the Feb. 12 Town Hall, recounting it was a 554 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) system, or “ground array” that was installed. He then noted the average cost in South Jersey for energy is 19.64 cents per kW hour, or over $150,000 in “energy savings.”

Geibel previously stated to the Southampton committee “we pay $8,100 a month *for our solar panels*, and we don’t see a discount in our electric,” adding, “… so even at the cost that we know it is going to be to get out of that contract, it is still cheaper than continuing the next five years at $8,100 a month.” (This newspaper has since done an air check to verify the accuracy of the quote, and found it is accurate as previously reported.)

When Wisniewski stated, “the school pays $8,100 a month for energy – your energy bill,” Geibel maintained “that is incorrect” and “that is misquoted” from the newspaper.

“That is what we pay to the holding company,” said the superintendent of the amount, clarifying “we have an energy

bill and then we pay that to them (the holding company).”

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Wisniewski responded, “Oh, that is in addition to the bill,” to which Geibel confirmed that he is correct in his understanding, adding that the monthly fee is in addition to over $800,000 “paid out for the life of these.”

It led Wisniewski to ask, “So, how much is your energy bill?”, to which the superintendent responded, “We are still waiting for PSE&G’s solar management bill from PSE&G to provide the historical data.” However, she eventually recognized the district’s “average” electric costs since 2013 have been between $160,000 and $200,000 per year.

“We are getting closer,” Geibel said. “We need to go back to the archives to tell us what the credits are. We agree that there are credit savings on our PSE&G bill. We just don’t know with the life of the lease, how much we saved.”

In 15 years, they agreed, the lease will be paid off, to which Wisniewski then surmised there will be an over $150,000 per year savings to the district.

Wisniewski maintained his belief that the district is looking at a $1.5 million savings over a 10-year span.

This newspaper, in researching some of the statistics Wisniewski provided regarding the local solar array, came across an October 2013 press release from Regan Young England Butera, a local architectural firm, announcing a groundbreaking ceremony for the solar array.

That release, which shows that some of the school board’s current members were serving at the time of the groundbreaking, including Hicks, contended “the solar project, over 15 years, is projected to save Southampton taxpayers $1,056,000 with zero taxpayer dollars used for the construction or operation of the system.”

Another longtime board member, Betty Wright, is quoted as saying, “when the solar PV system is operational, it will generate approximately 98 percent of the electricity,” after it was mentioned the then-solar system owner was to “sell the electricity, to the school district, at a discounted rate for 15 years.”

A newspaper article from the Trentonian , which regularly covered the area at the time, reported “the school district entered into a 15-year power purchase agreement, or PPA,” and that “a major benefit of a PPA is that the district will not be responsible for any costs and work needed to maintain the system,” before concluding, “after 15 years, the district will decide if it wants to purchase the equipment and maintain it, or remove it.”

A second newspaper that provided regular coverage of the area at the time, the Burlington County Times , reported

that a representative of the then-solar company contended the solar array’s 2,100 panels “will generate almost all the electricity the schools use,” with thensuperintendent Michael Harris (who has since retired, but came back briefly before the hiring of Geibel), quoted as saying the district will save between $65,000 and $70,000 a year.

Leon Carelli, current vice president of the Southampton Board of Education, said during the Feb. 12 town hall meeting that he “learned” from attendees that “the solar array is something that they don’t want to go away.”

“And while the ballot may not be able to be changed, this board can indeed make a policy, binding ourselves, and we are a contingent board, to maintain that solar array, at least through the life of the panels, at which point we can revisit it and have the cost of maintenance be beyond that,” Carelli said. “So, in that light, Mr. President, I would like to make a motion that we maintain the solar array until the end of the currently existing contract.”

Wright seconded that motion, but Hicks, who maintained he has pressed for information about the solar array for the past 12 years and maintained it should have been provided even before a contract was put together, interjected he has a “grave concern” with such a motion, contending, “I think, legally, we are bound to what is on that ballot.”

“What is printed on the ballot is what the public is expecting to approve or disapprove,” Hicks contended.

Some members joined with Hicks, maintaining the “legality” needs to be researched further, concerned, “Are we legally bound to remove it?”, while others sided with Carelli, including Wright, who declared of the ballot question “it should not have been that way,” but the board has “the ability to change it” afterthe-fact, asking, “Why not do it?”

“Put the word out,” Wright declared. “I think the word will spread pretty fast, as (it) usually seems to. Now we just have to put it on the Facebook, come on!”

The board threw out the initial motion, and then following an executive session, passed a new one, maintaining “that pending the solicitor’s confirmation of the board’s duty to adhere to the ballot language regarding removal of the solar array, the Board of Education will maintain the solar array for the duration of its contract.”

Apartment Sustains Significant Damage in Pemberton Fire

PEMBERTON—Firefighters in Pemberton Township battled an apartment fire at a 16-unit, three-story apartment building on Jan. 28.

When crews arrived at 8 Trenton Road just after 6 p.m., according to Fire Chief Craig Augustoni, “they found fire showing from one apartment” of the building.

“Firefighters stretched a hose line and made a quick knock down of the fire,” he reported. “Crews checked for any extension in the above, and next to the

fire apartment, and found no extension.”

The fire, the chief said, was placed under control within 15 minutes. However, he noted there was significant damage to the apartment and the occupant was relocated.

Everyone had safely evacuated the apartment building and were accounted for by the time firefighters arrived on scene, the chief noted.

The fire is currently under investigation by the Burlington County Fire Marshal’s Office.

One Dog Perishes, Two Others Injured in Pemberton Inferno

PEMBERTON—A fire at a one-story dwelling in Pemberton Township claimed the life of a dog and injured two other dogs.

Firefighters were called to a one-story dwelling at 100 Vine Street, around 2:42 p.m. on Feb. 5, according to Fire Chief Craig Augustoni.

It was there that firefighters observed smoke, and upon entering the home, they were able to contain the fire to its kitchen area.

The fire was placed under control within 15 minutes, Augustoni said.

“There were no injuries to the occupants, but unfortunately one dog died, and two others were injured,” Augustoni reported.

“They were transported to the animal hospital by the owners.”

The injured dogs have since recovered, according to the chief.

The house sustained major smoke damage and significant damage to the kitchen, Augustoni added, and its occupants were relocated with friends.

The fire is under investigation by the Burlington County Fire Marshal’s Office.

Purported Suspicious Fire Leaves Browns Mills Dwelling Unsafe

PEMBERTON—An early morning “suspicious” fire in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township on Jan. 31 left a dwelling reportedly unsafe for occupancy.

Firefighters received a report of a fire in the unit block of Rancocas Lane around 1:36 a.m., and upon arrival, found “fire showing from the front and side of the dwelling,” according to Fire Chief Craig Augustoni.

The dwelling sustained heavy fire and smoke damage, and was flagged as an unsafe structure by the Pemberton

Township Construction Official.

The occupant, while having been able to evacuate, was transported to the Screening and Crisis Intervention Program (SCIP) for evaluation.

The fire was placed under control at 2:25 a.m., but units remained on the scene until after 9 a.m. to support an investigation.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Burlington County and State of New Jersey Fire Marshal’s Offices. However, Augustoni told this newspaper this blaze has been deemed suspicious.

Sparking Outlet Causes Bedroom Converted into Office to Catch Fire

PEMBERTON—A sparking electrical outlet led to a small fire at 119 Bayberry Street just after 5 p.m. on Feb. 9.

Fire Chief Craig Augustoni said that the sparking outlet was found in a “bedroom converted into an office.”

One-Story House in Pemberton Sustains Major Damage from Fire

PEMBERTON—A one-story dwelling reportedly sustained major damage in an early afternoon inferno on Carpenter Lane in Pemberton Township on Feb. 5.

Firefighters arrived just after 12:23 p.m. to find a one-story dwelling at 3 Carpenter Lane with fire and smoke showing, Fire Chief Craig Augustoni told this newspaper.

The fire was placed under control at 12:51 p.m.

FEB/MAR

FEB. 23

Comic Book Show

Location: Swedesboro

There were no injuries reported, according to the chief, but the house sustained major damage.

The occupants of the home were relocated with family members, the chief noted, and the fire is under investigation by the state and county fire marshals.

While this, and two other recent township fires were within a two-mile radius of each other, Augustoni told this newspaper they are not connected.

Details: A Comic Book Show will be held Sunday, Feb. 23, at the Holiday Inn, 1 Pureland Dr., Swedesboro, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be artists, writers, costume groups and more! For more information, call 609-242-7756. Admission is $5.

MAR. 2

Coin and Collectable Show

Location: Lindenwold

Details: South Jersey Coin and Collectable Show will be held Sunday, March. 2, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Moose Lodge, 2425 White Horse Pike (Rt. 30), Lindenwold. Admission and parking is free. There will be free door prizes, food and refreshments, over 30 friendly dealer tables. The show will be held on the first Sunday of each month during 2025. Dealers wanted! Security provided. For more information, call Tom at 609-742-2279, or visit southjerseycoinshow.com

And while it ultimately led to a small fire, “the fire was contained to the office area, with minor smoke and water damage to the first floor and basement” of the home, the chief reported.

All the occupants were safely out of the home when fire crews arrived, Augustoni noted, and subsequently had relocated for the night.

OPINION

GUEST COMMENTARY

New Jersey’s Deadliest ‘Bug’ Is Actually Not an Insect

A record 384 New Jersey residents contracted a deadly fungal pathogen last year. The fungus, Candida auris, kills about a third of its victims. It is just one of many drug-resistant superbugs wreaking havoc across the Garden State – and across the entire world.

Antibiotic resistance is forecast to cause 39 million global deaths between 2025 and 2050. That is more than four times the population of New Jersey.

Soon, we may not have any way of combating these infections – unless companies are able to develop new medicines. To do so, those companies will need some help from Congress.

Public health officials and doctors have been warning for more than a decade that we desperately need new antimicrobials capable of killing superbugs.

The problem is not that the science is too hard. The problem is a financial one.

To slow the pace of antimicrobial resistance, hospitals and clinics avoid unnecessary prescriptions and emphasize to patients the importance of finishing their full course of treatment, lest some of the bacteria or fungi survive – because what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger.

These stewardship programs are critical, from a public health perspective. But they also drastically limit the market for new antimicrobials, since the medicines are used so judiciously.

As a result, companies generally don’t sell enough doses of new antimicrobials to break even, much less turn a profit. Of the 10 antibiotics the FDA has approved from small companies since 2013, nearly every one of those companies has financially

collapsed, was bought at a fire-sale price, or is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Fortunately, Congress is considering legislation that’d change the financial calculus around antimicrobial development.

The PASTEUR Act introduces a new payment structure that isn’t based on sales volume, but rather on value to public health. Developers of successful new antimicrobials would be eligible for a set amount from the federal government in return for access to the drug for government-run healthcare programs. Think of it as a kind of a subscription program.

This model would keep small companies afloat in their efforts to save us from superbugs.

New Jersey will especially benefit, since the superbug problem is so severe here. Though our state makes up 2.7 percent of the U.S. population, we have reported 7.4 percent of Candida auris cases nationally since 2013. We also have a diverse population. Individuals who are at a higher risk of health disparities – older people, people of color, immunocompromised individuals, or people experiencing homelessness – face a higher risk of drugresistant infections. Health equity must be part of the fight against superbugs.

New Jersey is ready to take a leading role in the development of new antimicrobials. We boast over 76,000 jobs in the life sciences sector, more than 85 percent in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, at more than 3,000 facilities. They are raring to go.

All we need to do is fix our development model.

Debbie Hart is the president and chief executive officer of BioNJ.

We welcome letters to the editor. Please submit them to: news@pinebarrenstribune.com with your name, address, and telephone number. Letters become property of the newspaper and cannot be returned. Letters may be subject to editing, and shortened for space considerations. All letters should be 500 words or less.

Fun By The Numbers

Like puzzles? Then you’ll love sudoku. This mindbending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test!

Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

Sudoku

– DeBBie Hart President and Chief Executive Officer of BioNJ.

ROUNDTABLE

(Continued from Page 5)

addition to “increased communications support, and increased support for our acquisition and development of vehicles.”

“And (for) folks who don’t know, the NJFFS makes its own forest firefighting vehicles,” LaTourette explained. “The folks that you see here, and those in our research and development center further south, they will acquire a chassis for a vehicle, and then construct upon it the additional equipment that we need to navigate our terrain, right?”

But despite the commissioners’ claims of increased staffing, West Milford Mayor Michele Dale, whose town was affected by a large wildfire last fall on the New JerseyNew York border, dubbed the Jennings Creek Wildfire, detailed a “concern” of hers about staffing of two North Jersey fire towers, pointing out, “my understanding is they are not staffed currently today.”

“I know that you said you are going to allocate the same amount of funding, and not cut funding, which I am incredibly grateful for,” Dale told the governor. “And I am generally not one to champion for adding more dollars. But I would strongly encourage that you take a look at where there are deficiencies in the state and open up the staffing for them to be properly staffed, and not ‘stress staffed,’ meaning not just temporarily staffed at times.”

DeGroff concurred “staffing is a big issue.”

The descriptions of staffing issues led to Murphy asking Bill Donnelly, chief of the NJFFS, which is overseen by the NJDEP, to address it.

“There are some vacancies,” Donnelly told the governor. “That is what we pride ourselves on – our early detection and rapid response. The idea behind our fire towers is that they see where most people don’t.”

It led Murphy to inquire of Donnelly, “What is your total staffing right now?”, to which the chief responded, “I think we are in the low 60s.”

When the governor drilled down to see if that figure represents an overstaffing of the agency, the NJFFS chief acknowledged, “No, no, it was like somewhere in the 90s when I started. We had like 90-something.”

Murphy, upon hearing that staffing has decreased in the agency, declared, “That is something we should really look at hard.”

“As good as 60 guys and gals might be, there is only so much 60 guys and gals can do,” Murphy further declared.

At that point, Donnelly reminded the governor “our guys just aren’t fighting fires,” rather “there is a lot that goes on in the Forest Fire Service.”

“We respond to all kinds of different things, from people burning illegally, to people getting lost in the woods,” Donnelly said. “We have to go out and do searches. We work well with other agencies in the NJDEP. So, there is a lot going on for our agency, as well as wildfires.”

Donnelly recognized “you are right, sometimes we find ourselves being a little taxed, especially this year.”

Greg McLaughlin, who preceded Donnelly in the role of NJFFS chief, and is now the NJDEP’s administrator for Forests & Natural Lands, acknowledged “we do have to use part-time staff to staff towers where we have vacancies with our full-time staff.”

“Full-time staff in the tower position offers us a lot of benefit, though, in terms of a full-time person because they are the staff that is supporting the building of the trucks that Commissioner LaTourette mentioned,” McLaughlin added.

Murphy, however, pointed out “this line of business, police, teachers and nurses” are presently impacted by what he referred to as “the demand-supply imbalance,” contending “it is not just New Jersey,” where this is observed, but rather, “this is an American phenomenon right now.”

Staffing in those aforementioned professions, the governor recognized, “is not where it needs to be,” contending that New Jersey State Police Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, if he was present at the roundtable, would attest there are “too many vacancies right now across all those professions,” which are “among the most critical in any community.”

Amato, in light of the staffing revelation, told the gathered stakeholders “whatever we can do on a local level to help advertise, or to get those vacancies filled, I think is very important.”

“We have a lot of volunteer firemen in the 19 towns that I have in the district, and I am sure a lot of them would love to have a professional career in the Forest Fire Service, so that would be great to fill those vacancies,” Amato declared. “I think it is very important, because if you have those vacancies filled, that is just peace of mind for everybody working.”

New Manchester Township Mayor Joseph Hankins raised his understanding “we are losing a tower in Lakewood.”

“The towers are extremely important in the Pine Barrens because you can’t patrol all these roads, and everybody knows that the road you are on is not going to be the road the fire starts on,” Hankins said. “It is Murphy’s Law. I know that well, not ‘Governor Murphy,’ but … the towers are a big thing for us.”

DeGroff also iterated “it is very important that the towers are staffed at all times.”

“It is very important that, you know, when one tower picks up a fire, it is very important that another tower gets crossed, so we know exactly where we are going, and we are not out there looking for it (the fire). It (not having it in sight) makes the fire get larger.”

McLaughlin responded that “we are constructing a new fire tower to replace the Lakewood fire tower,” confirming “it is going to be located in Jackson.”

“So, it will have the same coverage area throughout Ocean County and Burlington County there,” he said.

But Murphy inquired whether the Lakewood tower is “closing just because it is old,” to which McLaughlin claimed it is closing “because there are some obstructions, and it is on leased property.”

This issue that was raised led Murphy to confirm his understanding there are 21 fire towers in the state, to which he was told he was correct.

A number of the mayors, including Bass River Township Mayor Rick Adams, called for “more (controlled) burning” of the forest floor prior to fire season, with Woodbine Mayor Bill Pikolycky (whose municipality includes hundreds of acres of the Belleplain State Forest), contending it “will position us better.”

McLaughlin assured the mayors “we are really ramping up our commitment and dedication to prescribed burning

throughout the state, because we realize that is our best tool.”

“It is economical,” McLaughlin declared. “It is safe. And we can treat fuels. And we want to reduce those fuels.”

McLaughlin also pointed out that “for the first time in a long time, we have sent staff to the Prescribed Fire Training Center (in Florida), which is the national premier location to receive top-level, Type 2 Burn Boss training.”

“And now we have several of our staff that are nationally certified as Type 2 Burn Bosses,” McLaughlin added.

Murphy inquired as to how many acres the NJFFS prescribe burns each year, to which McLaughlin responded, “we have been targeting 25,000 acres a year,” but the agency has been doing about 20,000 acres each year.

“So, we are getting close to that target,” McLaughlin said. “We’d like to increase that number, though, significantly.”

LaTourette noted there were 12,000 acres that burned last year, not through prescribed burning, but rather through “wildfire destruction.”

Particularly alarming officials, causing them, in part, to convene the roundtable is that “in 2024, we saw over 1,400 wildfires burning more than 12,000 acres, but 884 of those fires were from Sept. 1 to the end of the year,” when the state saw a record dry spell, according to LaTourette.

And it was recognized that the last fire season had a greater number of fires in the northern part of the state, than what is typical, with most of the fires usually occurring in the south.

Dale, in terms of the needs for her border town, called on Murphy “to maybe see if there is any opportunity to create, especially for municipalities that border state lines that are heavily forested, having some sort of standing agreement, possibly already in place, so that communications can flow better.”

Murphy called it a “great suggestion.” He also revealed an interesting tidbit that New York State does not have a forest fire service, maintaining it presented an “incredibly challenging” circumstance during the Jennings Creek Wildfire.

“You think that is crazy,” Murphy declared. “New York has got almost 20 million people. They don’t have a state forest fire service. And that made that (battling the fire on West Milford’s line with New York State, which ran through New York’s mountainous watershed area) really hard. And I would argue it took longer to get that under control, because of that, than it otherwise should have.”

He called “the fact they don’t have a state fire service” something that is “beyond belief for me,” maintaining having one is “a good thing.”

Dale also called for better communications equipment, contending, “I think communications for the safety and welfare of the people that are up there, and working those fires, is paramount.” It led Donnelly to disclose “we are looking to transition up to the system that the state police use, as well as most people in the state,” or “a 700 system.”

DeGroff raised a subject that was a recent topic of discussion locally,

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RESTRICTIONS

(Continued from Page 2)

to which they were referring “would be Tomlinson Mill Road, as you are coming from Evesham to Medford,” a location that would allow no place for a Class 7 or 8 truck to go once arriving there.”

Thus, either the driver would have to avoid that stretch of road, he said, or “have to find a place to turn around, which would be limited to the parking lots that are there.

“That will be one of the concerns that the NJDOT will have,” maintained Noll, recounting it having first been raised during an initial application process 15 or 20 years ago.

Possible alternate routes, he said, are Jackson Road in Waterford Township, which then goes to County Route 541 in Shamong through Medford and Medford Lakes, and State Highways 70 and 73, which NJDOT officials would have to determine were appropriate for such use.

“As far as Hopewell Road goes, we did meet with Evesham probably a couple months ago at their request, and they were looking for the same restrictions on Hopewell Road, too,” Noll noted. “So, I don't think (we will) have any issues with Evesham in coordinating with that.”

In regard to the subcommittees formed to tackle community problems, Deputy Mayor Michael Czyzyk noted that the one dealing with Taunton Boulevard traffic had already begun to meet, and that he and Councilwoman Bethany Milk were the two council representatives who would be

serving on it, along with three Lake Pine residents. Czyzyk also thanked Township Manager Daniel Hornickel for his role in developing a charter for that and the Medford Village Parking Subcommittee.

The request for a resolution in support of opposition to offshore wind came in the form of a letter from Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini that he and 50 other state mayors proposed sending to legislators, which referred to a request from Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy to codify that alternative energy source into law.

“In our view such an action would be a mistake of epic proportions, dooming New Jersey ratepayers to pay enormous premiums for unreliable power while causing irreparable harm to the state’s environment and economy,” the letter noted, calling offshore wind and battery storage as being “the highest cost options for generating electricity” and “posing unacceptable environmental and safety risks to NJ communities.”

Instead, it urged that the state “look to nuclear power and low carbon natural gas as the way forward.”

Attached to the letter was a report from expert consultant Ed O’Donnell, who offered to brief the mayor and council on the matter.

Any prospective resolution opposing industrial offshore wind projects along the coast of New Jersey, Rebstock said, would be one on which the township would work closely with its Environmental Affairs Advisory Committee “to make sure that Medford is protecting the land in which we live.” He then suggested that Hornickel

pass the matter on to them to be reviewed and taken up at a future meeting.

Symons, for one, described herself as being “in full support” of such a resolution. However, one member of the public, Zach Wilson, indicated he was not, and expressed concern that the council might be turning its back on alternatives to the burning of fossil fuels and “taking a ‘not in my backyard’” attitude toward wind turbines.

Wilson said that while he understood that these alternatives might have “perceived negative consequences,” the negative consequences of not taking steps like creating wind and solar farms and harnessing tidal, geothermal and nuclear energy are far greater.

“These are things that must be done if we are going to stop the advanced climate change that happens from burning fossil fuels,” Wilson told the council members. “I would very much like to know if the environmental committee actually proposed this as a stance for you, or again, if this is your stance and you are trying to find evidence for that, and support for that, from the environmental committee.

“And I would also like to say that if you stand up and oppose the people who study this for a living, who do this job, who know the data in and out and tell us that this is the right way to go, you are not speaking for me, and I would appreciate you not passing resolutions at the township level that don't speak for the rest of the town.”

Rebstock responded that he “wouldn't say that we are directing the environmental

committee,” rather, “We did receive the resolution, we viewed it, we all are in agreement with it, and we are passing it on to them.”

When Wilson asked from whom they had received it, the mayor replied that there is a contingent of mayors around the state who are specifically against “this building of windmills out at sea in an offshore project,” and had asked if Medford would “stand in support with us.”

Wilson retorted that he would “love to hear a more robust conversation around this and the actual evidence that you are going to use to pass such a resolution.”

In other business, the council unanimously voted to adopt on second reading an ordinance amending the township zoning map to correct the zoning district designation of certain parcels in the township.

Medford Township Solicitor Timothy Prime explained that, “Just for some clarification, this ordinance relates to the township zoning map. Several of the properties in the Main Street district were zoned properly, but they were mislabeled on the map. So, it is simply just reversing that error to make everything line up correctly.”

Another ordinance adopted 5-0 was a model ordinance for 2025, but passed every year, allowing the township to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a cap bank, which the solicitor called “basically a tool to put aside some extra money in case you need it.”

The council also approved Rocky Patel as a new firefighter volunteer member of Station 252.

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from Page 11)

overgrown “roads” in the state forests.

“Maintaining the roads out here in the forest is extremely important,” DeGroff declared. “When I was a kid, you could ride around here to these roads. Now, a lot of these roads are overgrown. There are water holes you can’t get through, mud holes, and they are a mess. And I think the project that has been going on with doing the firebreaks is very important out here.”

Hankins suggested bringing in “thinning machinery” and developing a schedule, “even if there are swatches.”

For Murphy, while there were evident needs that will need to be addressed, it appeared to be the kind of discussion he sought, noting “this discussion is born, in many respects, out of (my having been) an ambassador, in my case, to Germany,” and him having “a boss who had a phrase, ‘you can't answer something with nothing.’”

Then, in recognizing last fall was the “driest fall season on record” in

which “we paid a price for that with a significant amount of fires, including a bunch that were over 100 acres, which is sort of in the major category,” Murphy asserted, “you can’t just look at that and do nothing about it.”

And as one local Fire Warden Tom Gerber put it, “that personal interaction with a lot of these communities early on is key to making sure that today is a successful day.”

“I don’t know if there is any organization in this state that punches more above its weight than this one,” Murphy declared.

“And so, it is up to us to try to figure out how we can back and fill, and make sure you have got the resources you need.”

For LaTourette, “I take all this to heart, and we will be following up with all of you, as well as with our members of the Legislature.”

“Thank you for visiting Coyle Field,” LaTourette told the governor. “And most importantly, thank you to the brave men and women of our New Jersey Forest Fire Service. New Jersey is unique in states among the East Coast in that we have a dedicated Forest Fire Service.”

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