News
Volunteer Not Authorized To Act For Borough, RB Officials Say
By John Burton
RED BANK - For one borough councilwoman, a Fair Haven resident's crusade to clean up a parcel of borough- owned riverfront property, may have gone too far.
Councilwoman Juanita Lewis, who chairs the borough council's Parks and Recreation Committee, at Monday's council meeting expressed some concern over how things have progressed with a proposed cleanup and for the future establishment of a small park at the northern end of Maple Avenue, intended to provide public access to the Navesink River.
Lewis said her concern involved some individuals who were acting unilaterally by undertaking some work on the property and contacting the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) - and failing to notify borough officials about their work.
"Right now there have been a lot of things done that have not been approved by the DEP," Lewis said.
"The DEP has been contacted by individuals," individuals outside of the borough government about the property, who have and want to do certain things to that parcel, said Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels.
"We don't want anybody to get in trouble; we don't want to get in trouble," for improvements to the site that have been specifically approved by the DEP, Sickels said. "We don't want to have to tear things out."
The property does contain wetlands and would require DEP approval and permits before any substantial work could be done there, according to Sickels.
Neither Lewis nor Sickels mentioned anyone by name. However, it clearly seems their comments were directed to Fair Haven resident Cindy Burnham, who has been leading the charge to convert the borough property for public use.
For the better part of a year Burnham has been regularly attending borough council meetings seeking support for her project to keep borough officials from selling the property, and working to get it preserved, even going so far as to independently organize a volunteer cleanup of the trash-strewn and brush-overgrown location, and to get private contractors to help with the work.
Burnham said after the meeting that she has indeed been in contact with the DEP, seeking the state agency's support on trying to get the site cleaned so it could be eventually used as a small recreational area, one that would provide access to the river, and even a small boat ramp. "They (DEP) asked me to draw up a plan, and I did," she said.
Sickels said he became aware of the situation when the DEP contacted his office about Burnham's communications. The council's park and recreation committee is in the process of drafting its own plans for the site, which will then be presented to the Mayor and Council and the public for consideration, and then on to the DEP for its approval and appropriate permits to proceed with any work, Sickels said.
As it currently stands, "Nobody's been made an authorized agent," for the borough for that property, Sickels said.
"I've been accused of cutting down shrubs that I did not. There's nothing that I've done that's inappropriate," Burnham said.
"I'm not a rogue activist," she insisted. "I never have been."
"I want due diligence to be done," Lewis said, adding, "I want things done in the best interest of the borough."
Burnham has organized another cleanup at the site, this Saturday.
