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Vol. 4 – No. 15 ♦
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The News Leader of the Pines
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By Michael Garofalo Staff Writer
FLIPPING OUT Woodland Condemns Home While Being Flipped and Claims Its on Property That Is Non-Conforming; Owner Says He Fell Victim to ‘Very Powerful’ Person WOODLAND—A flipper’s project to rehabilitate a home in the downtown Chatsworth section of Woodland Township has been turned upside down after township officials not only recently condemned the dwelling, but declared last week that the 1874 structure with an electrical meter on it, inhabited for decades, is sitting on a nonconforming lot. Township Clerk Maryalice Brown contended at a Nov. 26 Woodland Township Committee workshop meeting that the home at 4007 County Route 563 is “ready to fall down” and that the
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Town Taken to Task Over Public Records Asks for Law Review
A home at 4007 County Route 563 in Chatsworth that is listed as a knockdown for $16,000 after the township condemned it and declared the parcel it is on non-conforming. The corner, according to Township Clerk Maryalice Brown, is on the neighbor’s lot.
Staff Writer
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December 7, 2019 – December 13, 2019
Photo By Farwez Ali
By Douglas D. Melegari
To Advertise Call: 609-801-2392
municipality is dealing with an “urgent situation” as it could fall on a neighboring home. Officials discussed at length during the workshop meeting how they might be able to temporarily secure the home, while the town pursues possible demolition, with an initial estimate revealed last week suggesting it may cost more than $17,000. Township Solicitor William Burns, on several occasions during the workshop meeting, cast doubt that the town would be able to ever recoup the money. Farwez Ali, the owner of the home, in a later interview with this newspaper, said he is not only a flipper, but a civil engineer who migrated from The Republic of Trinidad
and Tobago to the U.S. over 40 years ago, and that he has found the home to be “structurally sound,” though it requires a “substantial” amount of work. Ali contended that several circumstances, including Brown expressing her belief at the workshop meeting that he was cutting holes in a wall of the home to make it fall down faster, is the result of someone very powerful in town working behind the scenes with the township’s code enforcement officer, Tom Boyd, to see that the home is removed. Ali also said he is left to wonder whether “white supremacy” is involved in the matter. See FLIPPING/ Page 14
TABERNACLE—Against the backdrop of Tabernacle Township’s long-running legal issues concerning access to public records, the Tabernacle Township Committee moved last week to formally ask New Jersey lawmakers to consider enacting comprehensive reforms to the state’s open records law. The township committee voted unanimously at its Nov. 25 meeting to pass a resolution calling on the state Legislature to convene a commission to review the state’s Open Public Records Act (OPRA), which the governing body contended “has been fraught with abuse and misuse.” The OPRA, which was enacted in 2002, requires that government records be made available for public access upon request. Only certain, specific records are subject to an exemption under the law. Tabernacle has faced extensive litigation in recent years relating to OPRA and the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), commonly known as the “Sunshine Law,” and has paid a number of settlements covering plaintiffs’ attorney fees and costs. The resolution approved by the township committee last week describes OPRA as “a well-intended law” that has spiraled out of control, due to the volume and nature of requests, the cost to taxpayers in responding to requests and the potential liability generated in having to pay disproportionate-prevailing party attorney’s fees should the requests turn into litigated matters. The resolution also contends that OPRA has created liability for municipalities in determining which documents shall be released, with or without redaction, while officials attempt to maintain individual privacy. The Tabernacle Township Committee requested that the commission be comprised of mayors, municipal clerks, municipal managers, attorneys, police chiefs and other interested parties, to “review and examine the effects of OPRA on local government and the needs to be fulfilled by the law.” The resolution, which was based on a model version drafted by the Municipal Clerks’ Association of New Jersey, will be forwarded to state representatives, the governor and other stakeholders. “I think we have learned a lot in terms of what OPRA is designed to do and I think we have also learned a lot about what OPRA was probably not See RECORDS Page 12
INDEX Christmas Countdown......... 3 Holiday Gift Marketplace....................... 18 and Lifestyle Guide. . ......... S1 Community........................ 10 Opinion................................ 9 Health................................ 13 Job Board.......................... 19 Senior Column................... 10 Here's My Card.................. 16 Leo the Lion Challenge..... 10 Hobbyist............................ 15 Local News.......................... 4 Worship Guide................... 11
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