Published in the Ocean County Observer
By ANDREW KLAPPHOLZ
Staff Writer
TOMS RIVER -- The controversial $15 million appropriated in the final days of the 2001 lame-duck Republican Legislature to buy the Ciba-Giegy property in West Dover will be split up, if a measure introduced this week by Assembly Speaker Albio Sires, D-33rd, gets final approval.
The measure would spend $1 million on the nonprofit "Save Ellis Island!" foundation for restoration to the state's 22.5-acre portion of historic Ellis Island. The remaining $14 million would be equally distributed among the state's 21 counties for open-space preservation.
Upon learning of the proposal yesterday, Republicans from the 10th Legislative District vowed to fight the measure at all costs.
"I will be mobilizing all our colleagues in Ocean County to resist this particular legislation," said state Sen. Andrew Ciesla, R-10th. "It really is, literally, unbelievable."
Calling the original appropriation one of his "premier objectives of the last session," Ciesla said Ocean County -- specifically, Toms River -- needs that money to stop growth.
"This is definitely a slap in the face for the residents of Ocean County and all the environmentalists who are trying to preserve open space," said Assemblyman David W. Wolfe, R-10th.
The proposed Ciba deal was sharply criticized by high-profile Democrats, who said the only ones to benefit from the deal would be the chemical giant that contaminated the land decades ago. Now that the land's preservation is in jeopardy, it will be up to the Republican minority to stop it from getting to Democratic Gov. James E. McGreevey's desk for final approval.
"We need to educate the entire Legislature to what's going on here," said Wolfe, citing the need for more preservation in increasingly congested Ocean County.
"He's attempting to take money away from Ocean County and redirect it to other counties in the state," Ciesla said of Sires. "He is in for the fight of his life."
Published in the Ocean County Observer 10/31/02
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