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Dems, GOP team up on Ciba-Geigy land's future
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Published in the Ocean County Observer
BY LAWRENCE MEEGAN
STAFF WRITER
TOMS RIVER — Dover Township Democrat and Republican party leaders are calling for a unified, bipartisan action in future dealings that concern the 1,350-acre Ciba-Geigy property on Route 37.
John Furey, president of the Dover Township Democratic Organization, and Rick Clement, board chairman of the Dover Township Republican Organization, issued a joint statement calling on the elected leadership of both parties to "have an honest, open and forward looking dialogue about how the Route 37 Ciba property can best be used to serve the long term best interests of the Dover Township taxpayers."
Both said in a press release the Ciba-Geigy issue is so important that it must be removed from the political arena and pledged to not use the statements, discussions or suggestions of anyone concerning Ciba in any future political activities or campaign.
"The issue is off the political table," they said. "It is too important and it must be addressed now before it is too late. The future property tax profile of Dover Township may well depend upon what we do together. We have a responsibility and an opportunity."
"This is a vast property and if we do not work cooperatively to chart a taxpayer-friendly design for its future, we will find ourselves on the sidelines watching as it is developed in a way that we may all find unacceptable, but that is nonetheless legal," said the statement.
"If the property is properly developed it will be a blessing to the taxpayers," said Clement yesterday.
"But if it is done wrong it will be a big problem for the residents of Dover Township," added Furey.
"This is something I don't want anyone to misconstrue," he added. "Timing is important and we need to be ahead of Ciba-Geigy in order to determine what goes there."
Noting that the property is privately owned and has value to Ciba-Geigy, the two leaders said that anyone who believes the company will simply give the property away for a park are wrong.
"For more than 50 years, Ciba-Geigy and its predecessor company, Toms River Chemical Corporation, have been a presence in Dover Township. Once a highly regarded employer of thousands of citizens, Ciba was convicted of environmental crimes in the 1980s," the statement said. "For the last 20 years as operations at the plant ended and a massive federally managed clean-up began, Ciba and Dover Township have been at opposite ends of most, if not all, issues."
The property lies on the western edge of Dover Township and is bordered by Manchester Township and Berkeley Township. It is approximately the size of South Toms River, Seaside Heights and Pine Beach combined.
The township is in the process of suing the company to have buried storage drums that were not part of a federally mandated clean-up removed from the site.
Published in the Ocean County Observer 05/20/06
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