Depending on your income, you may be able to:
• Eliminate your Part D premiums • Receive subsidized prescription copays Want to save money while on Medicare? • Eliminate Medicare Part Bwhile premiums Want to save money on Medicare? it really is possible!) • Get home(YES, energy up to $225 annually (YES, itassistance really is possible!)
Want to save money while onmoney Medicare? Want to save while on Medicare? (YES, it really is possible!) (YES, it really is possible!)
Depending on your income, you may be able to: Depending on your income, you may be able to:
• Eliminate your Part D premiums • Eliminate your Part Dinformation: premiums For more • Receive subsidized copays • Receive subsidized prescription prescription copays Retired and Senior Volunteer Program of Burlington County • Eliminate Medicare B premiums premiums • Eliminate Medicare Part Part B (856) 222-9311, ext. 1051 / $225 1488 • Get home energy uptoto $225 annually • Get home energyassistance assistance up annually
| rcbc.edu/rsvp/medicare Depending on your income,Depending you may beon able to: income, you maymippa@rcbc.edu Formore more information: information: your be able For to:
Accommodations are availableProgram for deaf and hard of hearing. Retired and SeniorVolunteer Volunteer Program ofofBurlington County Retired and Senior Burlington County
• Eliminate your Part D premiums • Eliminate your Part D premiums • Receive subsidized prescription • Receive copays subsidized prescription copays • Eliminate Medicare Part B premiums • Eliminate Medicare Part B premiums • Get home energy assistance up to $225 annually • Get home energy assistance up to $225 annually
222-9311, 1051 / 1488| mippa@rcbc.edu | mippa@rcbc.edu | rcbc.edu/rsvp/medicare-savings (856) (856) 222-9311, ext.ext. 1051 / 1488 | rcbc.edu/rsvp/medicare-savings
This project was supported, in part by grants from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions.
This project was supported, in part by grants from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL or CMS policy. Department of was Health and Human Grantees projects under government sponsorship to express freely(CMS) their of findings conclusions. This project supported, in partServices. by grants from the U.S.undertaking Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Centersare for encouraged Medicare & Medicaid Services the U.S.and Department Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL or CMS policy.
of Health and Human Services. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL or CMS policy.
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Forwww.pinebarrenstribune.com more information:
1/22/20 12:04 PM
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Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Burlington County Retired and of Senior Volunteer Program of Burlington County le 1488222-9311, ext. 1051 / 1488 ifesty (856) 222-9311, ext. 1051 /(856) L & s t f i G mippa@rcbc.edu | rcbc.edu/rsvp/medicare mippa@rcbc.edu | rcbc.edu/rsvp/medicare Guide
@PineBarrensNews
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Accommodations are available for deaf and hard of hearing. Accommodations are available for deaf and hard of hearing.
1 AGE S SE E P
Vol. 5 – No. 12 ♦
The News Leader of the Pines
♦
December 5, 2020 – December 11, 2020
‘A MAJOR FIASCO’
Pemberton Borough Considering Revival of Pedestrian Bridge Mayor Sees Span Offering Access to Proposed ‘Island’ of Shops Near Grist Mill Antiques Center
This project was supported, in part by grants from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department This project was supported, in part by grants from the U.S. Administration for Community Living (ACL) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or of Health and Human Services. Grantees undertaking projects under government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL or CMS policy. opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL or CMS policy.
By Andy Milone Staff Writer 9731 CS_PBT_Full Page.indd 1
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1/22/20 12:04 PM
Photo By Andy Milone
Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution
With a Rapidly Accelerating COVID-19 Outbreak at the Fort Dix Federal Prison Being Blamed on the Transfer of Nearly 300 Inmates from a ‘Hot Spot’ in Ohio, Some Powerful Voices Are Taking the Government Prison Bureaucracy to Task By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer
FORT DIX—While an outbreak of COVID-19 has exploded in the past couple weeks at Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), located on the Fort Dix side of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the dreaded respiratory virus seems to have coincidentally all but disappeared, at least in the inmate population, at another federal prison in the system previously considered a “hot spot” for the contagion—that is, after nearly 300 of its residents were reported to have been recently transferred in increments to the Fort Dix compound. As of Dec. 1, a website maintained by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), had registered 282 confirmed active cases of COVID-19 among inmates and 28 among staff members at FCI Fort Dix, the nation’s largest federal prison that can accommodate over 4,000 prisoners—an increase from 268 and 22, respectively, only a few days before.
In addition, the BOP on that date listed a total of some 488 inmates as having tested positive at some point for the virus, with 69 inmates and six employees reported as having recovered from it. By contrast, the BOP website on the same date listed the Elkton federal prison in northeastern Ohio, from which hundreds of prisoners were moved to Fort Dix, as having only three confirmed active cases of COVID-19 among inmates and 12 among staff. At the Elkton facility, according to BOP figures, 662 inmates have had positive COVID-19 tests, and 899 inmates have recovered (second highest on the list). The latest Coronavirus outbreak at the Fort Dix prison, which has dwarfed one that occurred there last spring, is being increasingly blamed on that mass transfer from FCI Elkton, which an inmate who was recently given a compassionate release from the former facility called “a major fiasco” in an interview with the Pine Barrens Tribune.
The situation at FCI Fort Dix has reached the point where it has aroused the concern of New Jersey’s two Democratic senators, who, joined by members of the House, requested on Nov. 9 that a moratorium on such prisoner transfers, scheduled to end Nov. 23, be extended to protect inmates, staff and residents of the surrounding community from a further spread of the potentially lethal pathogen. The government’s refusal to comply with that request (which had not changed by Dec. 2 when this newspaper went to press) has now been sharply denounced by one of those two senators. Earlier this year, the Coronavir us problem at Elkton was considered so dire, the Associated Press reported at the time, that the Ohio National Guard had to be called in to help with prisoners’ medical needs, and the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sought to have See MAJOR/ Page 9
PE M BE RT ON B O ROUG H —T h e prospective revival of a pedestrian bridge 12:04 PM that once1/22/20 stretched across the North Branch Rancocas Creek is being proposed by Mayor Harold Griffin as something that could help attract more people to Pemberton Borough by providing access to an “island” that he envisions as a site for a cluster of small retail shops. Griffin told Pemberton Borough Council at a Nov. 16 virtual meeting that about $50,000 of Burlington County Recreation Grant money is available for the borough to spend, but discussions of the idea revealed that some amount of taxpayer dollars will likely be required for such a project as well. The span in question, which the county had temporarily installed for pedestrian use while the Hanover Street Bridge replacement was being undertaken last year and earlier this year, would be permanently erected across the creek near the Grist Mill Antiques Center under Griffin’s proposal. Following a lengthy discussion marked by some hesitancy related to the financial feasibility of the potential undertaking and any future liability it might involve, but not necessarily the motives behind it, the council members unanimously settled on obtaining a quote and additional information about what the project might entail from Abbington Engineering with the understanding that any future “soft costs” are prohibited from being reimbursed by the county grant. The 120-foot pedestrian bridge, made mostly See BRIDGE/ Page 10
INDEX Business Directory... 12 Christmas Countdown... 3 Games..........................11
Holiday Gifts & Lifestyle Guide.......................... S1
Job Board.....................14 Local News................. 2
Marketplace.............. 15 Worship Guide...........11
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