INSIDE THIS WEEK
Green Bank Actress and Fmr. Miss N.J. Remembered. Page 5
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Bass River Medford Medford Lakes Pemberton Pemberton Borough Shamong Southampton Tabernacle Washington Woodland
Vol. 1 - No. 38
Southeastern Burlington County’s News Leader
Miller Fills Vacant Medford Lakes Council Seat By Mark Hatoff
For the Pine Barrens Tribune
MEDFORD LAKES—An old friend filled in the final piece of a puzzle at a Medford Lakes Borough Council meeting at Oaks Hall on May 11. First, longtime Borough Manager Julie Horner-Keizer had publicly announced her resignation at an April 13 council meeting. Then, at her last meeting on April 27, it was announced that Dr. Robert J. Burton had resigned his council position and was hired as the new borough manager, replacing Horner-Keizer. That left a seat on council vacant. But on May 11, that seat was filled when Gary Miller was sworn in as the new councilman, filling Burton’s former spot. No stranger to council, Miller has served off and on from 1994 to 2016. This most recent meeting, which took 22 minutes, marked the beginning of his third stint as a council member (1994-1998, 2010-2016 and 2017). Miller was also the mayor of the Borough from 1996 to 1998 and 2010 to 2011. He served as deputy mayor from 2015 to 2016. “I had heard rumblings of the possibility and so I was sort of prepared when the phone call came from the Mayor (Thomas J. Cranston),” Miller said. Miller, who has begun his 13th year on council, said he was called by the mayor less than a week before, on May 5. “I was approached by the mayor to see if I had any interest in taking on the responsibilities,” Miller said. “I gave it some consideration and thought that I could be active and productive as a councilman again.” Burton said he was very pleased that Miller agreed to return. “I thought it was a great idea (to ask Miller),” Burton said. “Gary was on council before I was and was a mentor to me. He and Jeff Fitzpatrick (former councilman) were the ones who had reached out to me to serve on council in 2012 and they really helped me through the process and transition.” Burton said that Miller would maintain his council seat until the regular election in November. He also appeared to indicate that Miller would run for the seat. The winner of November’s election would then serve out the rest of Burton’s term which would last through June 30, 2020. “Gary is very well known in town and he’s left Medford Lakes in really good shape,” Burton said. “He’s not just a former, fellow council member, but a good friend as well.” Miller said it has always been an honor to serve the people of the Borough.
COUNCIL>>PAGE 19
May 20-26, 2017
10 Years Later, Historic Warren Grove Wildfire Remembered
More Than 17,000 Acres and 13 Structures Were Scorched by the Forest Inferno
PHOTO BY JOHN ANDREYCHAK, NJFFS Firefighters watch as an out of control wildfire consumes forest land in the area of Warren Grove in 2007. By Catherine Galioto
For the Pine Barrens Tribune
BASS RIVER—Ten years after the historic Warren Grove Wildfire swept through thousands of acres of land in the Pine Barrens, its effects are still reverberating. The impact of the May 2007 fire did not just change Pinelands history, but it also led to new best practices for a prescribed burning program and other safety measures such as emergency evacuation procedures. Michael Achey, now the New Jersey Forest Fire Service warden for Division B, said the “worst possible conditions” led to the quickly spreading wildfire on May 15, 2007. He said the fire began on a very dry and windy day which followed a series of dry days. A flare deployed during a military bombing exercise at the Warren Grove Bombing Range, from an F-16 jet fighter belonging to the 177th Fighter Wing, sparked the fire. Achey was working that day in another division of the fire service and recalled a large
number of wildfires, including much smaller ones, being fought elsewhere across the state at the time the historic blaze broke out. “If they (fire service personnel) weren’t deployed to assist with the Warren Grove Wildfire, they might have been responding to a smaller fire incident of their own,” Achey said. He said the first 36 hours were the worst part of the fire fight as the blaze swept across the undeveloped and more remote areas of Warren Grove; threatening the developed corridors of Route 9, the Garden State Parkway, and Route 72. Paul Shives was Stafford Township’s business administrator at the time of the wildfire. He and the mayor were in Trenton that day, seeking approval of the township’s master plan, when their phones simultaneously lit up with calls about the wildfire that had begun. “It quickly became apparent we had to get back, urgently,” Shives said. But heading east across the state to Stafford became nearly impossible with the fire raging to
the west of Stafford at Warren Grove. He said the initial thought was this was a fire that could be contained in a short time, but the dry conditions and gusty wind proved it would quickly get worse. Shives, a resident of the Ocean Acres section of Stafford, helped roll out an evacuation of threatened sections of town. “I remember the stresses of the day, but also how my thoughts quickly turned to my family,” he said. “At the time, it was my wife and I along with our children, a family of six. She had to pack the car and get ready in case it would be time to evacuate our neighborhood.” The wildfire which originated in the eastern part of Bass River Township in Burlington County; forced the evacuation of thousands of residents, mostly in Atlantic Hills, West Farm Hills, the western part of Ocean Acres, and Pinewood Estates; all neighborhoods of either Barnegat or Stafford townships in Ocean County.
WILDFIRE>>PAGE 20
Now Direct Mailed to Over 2,250 Homes in LeisureTowne and 195 Homes in Hampton Lakes
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