Activity Report
August 2003

• PARKS COMMISSION MEETINGS:

  Pat Sayles has been attending the Parks Commission meetings and gave a brief report of what was discussed. There will be a weekend horse trail ride on Baldpate Mountain. Frank Ragazzo was re-elected to another 3-year term as the Executive Director. There were no comments about the Pole Farm, but the Baldpate Mountain management plan was discussed with respect to other ideas for the park. The Commission wants to implement the plan before anything else there happens.

• LAWRENCE-HOPEWELL BIKE TRAIL:

  Rick Miller, Lawrence Councilman, proposed routing the trail through the Pole Farm. The rest of the Council was upset that he went outside of the process to make this proposal. The paved trail through the Carson Road woods will no longer be part of the plan.

• PRINCETON RIDGE:

  Ed and Laura met with residents (Janice Flaugher, Jim English, and others) who are in negotiations with Intell over the middle Princeton Ridge site. Intell has reduced the number of houses, but the wetlands LOI application overlooked wetlands that are located where Intell plans to build. The neighbors had written to the DEP and got no response, so Laura sent a similar letter. There has been no answer so far.

• PENNS NECK AREA EIS:

  We sent over 5000 Action Alerts favoring Alternative D-2 and insisting on a wildlife survey. The Princeton Packet wrote an article about it and there were many responses to it. 594 participants sent 4477 letters between July 24 and August 1. The deadline for comments was extended to August 15, but the alert ended on August 1. The final EIS is scheduled to be released this fall.

• KLOCKNER ROAD WOODS:

  Hamilton Township agreed to work toward purchasing the 90-acre woods. Ed and Rocky Swingle (the head of the neighborhood group working towards the woods' preservation) walked the site and determined that the wetlands delineation in the LOI is not accurate. Ed will send a letter to the DEP asking for the DEP to visit the site.

• ELM COURT:

  Princeton Township agreed to preserve 20 acres along River Road in exchange for the 3 acres diverted for Elm Court. Ed, Laura, and Mary Penney attended the Township meeting, asked questions, and thanked Princeton for doing the right thing.

• ROUTE 92:

  There has been no word on the DEIS release date. Its publication was pushed back in order to work with the DEP's BIG Map.