Published in the Asbury Park Press
By JEAN MIKLE
TOMS RIVER BUREAU
TOMS RIVER -- A local environmental group is urging the Dover Township Committee to pursue acquisition of unpolluted land at the former Ciba-Geigy Corp. site, so that the property can be preserved as open space.
Willie deCamp, president of Save Barnegat Bay, wrote in a June 8 letter to Township Committeeman J. Mark Mutter that the 1,300 members of his organization strongly support a recommendation by Dover's Open Space Committee that the Ciba property be preserved.
"We can think of no more progressive conservation step that the township of Dover could undertake than the conservation of the Ciba tract," deCamp wrote. "Its well-known wildlife value, its sheer size, and its proximity to the Toms River make it by far the premier open-space acquisition target in Dover Township."
In May, the township's newly formed Open Space Committee listed the Ciba property as one of the two most important open-space acquisitions that the Township Committee should consider.
The other recommendation the committee made was that the township purchase vacant land that could affect the Barnegat Bay Estuary.
The sprawling Ciba site has been included on the federal Superfund list of contaminated properties since 1982, but only about 300 acres of the land were ever developed. About 1,000 acres are unpolluted, and the property is home to herds of deer and other wildlife.
Township Committee members appear divided acquiring the property.
Last year, the then-all-Republican committee endorsed the purchase of the property and its preservation as open space for passive recreation, but Democratic candidates John F. Russo Jr. and John M. Furey warned that buying the Ciba land could bankrupt the town.
Mutter has noted that the township could seek funding from a variety of sources to purchase the Ciba property. However, Russo and Furey, who are now committee members, have said they are concerned that buying the land could use up all funds available for making other, more important purchases.
Russo said last week that the township should concentrate on purchasing and preserving pieces of property that are in imminent danger of being developed. Because there is an ongoing cleanup of the Ciba property, it is unlikely anything will be built there within the next few years, Russo said.
Ciba officials have indicated that their long-range plans are to develop the property, which is zoned for industrial use.
Published on June 13, 2001
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