News
SH Superintendent To Retire
By Muriel J. Smith
SANDY HOOK - Richard Wells, superintendent at Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook for the last eight years, is retiring June 2 after 32 years with the National Park Service.
William Nelligan of Long Branch, will serve as acting superintendent.
The native Floridian first joined the Park Service in 1976, working in the planning and design center in Denver, Colorado. In the years after that, he also created the Master Plan for the Freedom Trail in Boston National Park, as well as at Valley Forge National Park, and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.
One of his accomplishments at the Gap makes Wells particularly proud.
Although the Park Service has rules banning truck traffic in the national parks, because park property at the Delaware Water Gap presented a short cut between I-80 and I-84, the mandate was largely ignored.
"You can't enjoy the true national park experience, you can't have the rest and recreation you come to a national park for, if there is heavy truck traffic going through, he said.
When Wells saw there were nine fatalities involving semi-trucks in a single year, he vowed to change that situation. "I'm all in favor of saving historic buildings," he says, "but it's better to save lives."
His perseverance in getting the truck ban enforced took an Environmental Impact Statement and four- and-a-half years of work, but Wells prevailed and trucks are no longer permitted through the Delaware Water Gap National Park area.
"More important," he stressed, "the statistic of nine fatalities in one year was brought down to 0 with truck involvement when we got finished."
There have been many accomplishments during his more than three decades of service. At Ellis Island, he was project director for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Great Hall, a project that took another five years. He was also able to rehabilitate three more buildings. Ellis Island also marked a transition for Richard from the planning and design side of the park service to the facility management side, since he stayed on for another seven years as division chief.
Coming from the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island complex to Sandy Hook was dictated by the Park Service's desire to put Richard's expertise to use at Fort Hancock, the turn of the 20th century army base which later also became a Nike missile station.
Wells takes pride in the fact that 66 of the 100 useable buildings on the fort are in use; there are eight tenants, including the Marine Academy of Science and Technology (MAST), Brookdale Community College and the Marine Sciences Consortium.
Additional occupants of buildings once part of the military base include a child care center, the N.J. Audubon Society, the American Littoral Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in addition to the ten buildings in the Sea Gull's Nest beach concession and the offices of Sandy Hook Partners, the private developer to whom the park service has agreed to lease at least 36 buildings in the former Fort Hancock complex for commercial use. Under the lease agreement, the developer is responsible for rehabilitating the buildings.
"This is a rare example of an intact 19th century army base," he explains, adding, "its place in military history is secure."
The NPS plan to enter into a public/private partnership to rehabilitate the buildings of the fort that once served as the main protection for Sandy Hook Bay and New York Harbor has been opposed by a local citizens' group, Save Sandy Hook, and Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater and is currently the subject of litigation.
Wells declined to talk about the litigation, but said that since "the American people, and the Park Service, have received favorable decisions in the first two lawsuits brought against the rehabilitation, I feel confident Fort Hancock will be brought back to life and will be put to productive use. That is the best way to insure long-term preservation."
Wells earned a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia and was a visiting scholar at New York University's Wagner College of Public Service. He earned certification in Historic Preservation from the West Dean College in Sussex, England.
In retirement, he plans to "go back to my roots as a landscape architect." He also plans on staying in Atlantic Highlands, where he lives now, and will plant a garden of flowers and trees which he has designed. He's also designing a waterfall he hopes to make part of his landscaping.
There's a particular irony in Richard's retirement at Sandy Hook - one of his early assignments while in planning and design in Denver was to do a feasibility study on the creation of a bike path at Sandy Hook. It was his first visit to New Jersey and the Park. The bike path which came about as a result of his feasibility study was actually completed a few years ago, and Richard, as superintendent, was there for the ribbon cutting.
Looking back on his career, Wells said he has no regrets. "I've worked with the best." He has high praise for the Sandy Hook Foundation, which he describes as "the most effective friends group of the entire area," crediting them with the restoration of the Sandy Hook Lighthouse and other preservation made possible through their efforts.
He has enjoyed working with Sandy Hook Partners on "The Fort at Sandy Hook" project, Wells said, and sees the restoration as a major step in "letting the American people take pride in a place that has played such an important role in American history."
Referring to those who have opposed the plans, the superintendent smiles and notes, "I'm convinced we all want what is best for Sandy Hook; it is so obvious we all love it. We just have different ideas on what is best."
