A SHARED SENSE OF GRIEF

Nearly a Year After Auction, Former Bass River School Sold to Lakewood Developer for Initial $757,500 Bid Price

Purchaser Who Sued District Tries to Smooth Relations by Bringing Refreshments to Commissioners’ Meeting

By Bill B onvie Staff Writer

BASS RIVER—The building that housed the former Bass River Elementary School, along with the four-plus acre parcel it is located on at 11 North Maple Ave. in New Gretna, is now the property of Lakewood real-estate developer Eli Blech, who claims he has “nice things” in store for it and has been attempting to smooth over his relationship with the Bass River Township community following a legal hassle that resulted in a five-month-long delay in the closing.

Patrolman Brian Andrew Lucykanish’s Untimely Death in an Off-Duty Accident Has Been a Loss to Both the Pemberton Twp. Police Department, Where He Was Known for His Calming Nature, and Friends and Neighbors in Marlton Where He Leaves Behind a Wife and Four Young Children

By Bill B onvie Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—The sudden passing of Pemberton Township Patrolman Brian Andrew Lucykanish in a reported motor vehicle crash in Waterford Township on the night of Feb. 2, has brought a shared sense of grief to both his colleagues in the Pemberton Township Police Department and his friends and neighbors in Marlton (Evesham Township), where he resided with his wife, Kirstin, and four young children, Ava Grace, Waylon Cash, Katie Alan and Jameson Daniel.

Lucykanish, who was just 31 when he died from injuries reportedly sustained in the accident on Jackson Road in the Atco section of Waterford while off-duty (details of which were still unavailable by this newspaper’s deadline time from the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, to which all calls have been referred), was held in high esteem not only by colleagues and superiors with whom he served during the years he wore a badge, but by those who knew him from his years in the military, during which he did tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pemberton Township Police Chief Jay Watters, in a moving tribute to Lucykanish emailed to the Pine Barrens Tribune on the morning of Feb. 8, described him as See PATROLMAN/ Page 9

The sale of the property took place on Feb. 6 (the date this newspaper previously reported it would) for $757,500, the amount of Blech’s original high bid on March 11, 2022, after a breach-of-contract lawsuit brought against the Bass River Board of Education was dismissed without prejudice last month by Burlington County Superior Court Judge Paula Dow.

“I have confirmed the sale has been closed with Eli Blech at the highest bid price,” the board’s current president, Thomas D. “Tommy” Williams, Jr., said in a call to this newspaper on the afternoon of Feb. 6. “He has the ownership. We are no longer the owner.”

The purchaser, for his part, wasted no time in attempting to alleviate any hard feelings that might have been created

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