Fire companies to merge in Franklin Township

By Warren Reporter

February 12, 2010, 5:08PM

FRANKLIN TWP. — The Asbury Fire Company #1 and Franklin Township Fire Companies 1 & 2, which are all located in the township, have decided to consolidate both companies together to provide a more uniform response to emergencies, according to a press release from the organizations.

The merged company will be known as Franklin Township Volunteer Fire Department Inc. There will be no closing of stations and all areas that are currently covered by the two companies will be covered by the newly merged company. The areas covered are all of Franklin Township and the valley section of neighboring Bethlehem Township in Hunterdon County.

The stations are located in the villages of Asbury, Broadway and New Village. The new company will have over 60 members with three pumper trucks, one 75-foot aerial, one 3,000 gallon pumper-tanker, a command unit, an air truck and three brush trucks.
The Franklin Township Committee has started the process with the introduction of ordinance 2010-5, which calls for the consolidation.

“Members of both companies are now looking forward to a quick and smooth transition,” states the press release.

All calls will be under one chief as of March 1. The Township Chief of the fire department will be Sonny Read 57-60. There will be 2 Asst. Chiefs Shawn Weilamann 57-70 and George Young 57-80. Captain's positions will be held by Robert Woolf 57-90 and Jan Verkade 57-91, 3 Lieutenant positions will be held by Jason Dilts 57-92, John Frechette 57-93 Andrea Fortunato 57-94. There will also be 2 Safety Officer positions held by Otis Cole and Bob Gerstner. Please check this sight in the near future for changes and additional information.

3 Hunterdon towns oppose huge truck depot proposed in Franklin Twp.

By Gene Robbins/Hunterdon County Democrat

February 11, 2010, 3:04AM

FRANKLIN TWP. -- Governing bodies in Hampton and Bethlehem and Union townships have approved strong resolutions opposing the proposed truck warehouse/depot across the Musconetcong River in Warren County’s Franklin.

F. Greek Co. of East Brunswick has submitted a plan to build 1.44 million square feet of buildings and cover 3 million square feet of land on 192 farmland acres along rural Bloomsbury Road. The project would be used by truckers hauling cargo to and from the ports in Newark and Elizabeth.

The Union Township Committee resolution, adopted Feb. 3, noted that truck terminal “flies in the face” of millions of dollars of investment in farm and open space preservation by the county and municipal government in an attempt to restrain development.

Bethlehem Township’s resolution came Feb. 4 after the committee heard from many of the 25 people who came to the regularly scheduled meeting. The resolution says the project would “have a devastating impact on the natural resources, public safety and general welfare of Bethlehem Township.”

The application estimates at least 700 trucks a day and 2,000 car-vehicle trips per day, much of which would come off Route 78 at exits 6 and 7 — or farther east in Union Township on Route 173 — and pass through Bethlehem and Bloomsbury.
The project would be a $55 million ratable in a municipality with a tax base of $417 million. It would lie across the river in the area of Bethlehem’s only multi-use park and sports fields.

Union Township’s resolution said it “strenuously objects” to the truck terminal due to the regional traffic impact, and called upon the Franklin Township government body to amend its zoning to avoid such potential adverse impacts.

Hampton could see a jump in heavy rig traffic if truckers aren’t prevented from traveling between the depot and Route 31 along Route 632 to avoid Route 78. But Environmental Commission Chairman Robert Sheridan told Council Monday night that, other than an occasional “lost” truck, the impact there would be from many of the expected “hundreds” of local depot employees who would travel Hampton’s back roads to avoid the interstate.

Franklin’s Land Use Board held its first public hearing on the project the same night as Union’s governing body met. More than 300 people, including all five Bethlehem Township Committee members, attended.

Bethlehem Township Committee members said they are talking to neighboring municipalities about the possibility of a shared-services agreement to hire a planner to analyze the plan critically, said Mayor Greg Glazar.

Bethlehem’s resolution says the depot would conflict with a section of Franklin’s own land use laws “to guide development in a manner… that does not conflict with the development and general welfare of neighboring municipalities, the county and state as a whole.”

The Bethlehem Township Board of Education, citing concerns for school bus safety and the health of children in the park, has approved a resolution opposing the truck depot.
Bethlehem Township Attorney Michael Butler said the township didn’t have any direct jurisdiction over the application, but could raise questions and make its opinion known.
Township resident Stephen Trapp, a civil engineer, said the depot would have an impact on the township even before the first tractor-trailer rolls in.

“The construction process itself would be nothing short of massive,” he said. He said building the road, six warehouse buildings and drainage ponds would require cuts in the slope of up to 20 feet, and fills of 20 to 30 feet. He estimated it would take 100 trucks coming and going every day for a year to bring in necessary fill.

Disturbing so much soil could alter the subsurface flow of water and affect wells even off the site, he said.

Resident John Chester said the project could “transform our valley forever.”

Beth Styler Barry, director of Musconetcong Watershed Association, said the projected 3 million square feet of impervious surface could warm the river and harm fish and wildlife.
“If you change the temperature (of the river) by one degree, you are degrading the stream,” she said. Federal and state protections make that illegal, she said.
While there was applause and smiles from the audience after the resolution was read, officials warned that opposition will have to be sustained, perhaps for years.

“Expect a long haul,” said Committeeman John Meehan. You can’t go away.

F. Greek Development withdrawing proposal for Franklin Township, Warren County, truck transfer station

By Stephen J. Novak

March 01, 2010, 3:14PM

The developer is withdrawing an application for a controversial truck transfer station that was proposed near Interstate 78 in Franklin Township, Warren County, according to a letter received today by the township.

"Unfortunately, given the current economic climate, the uncertainty of the pace of the economic recovery and the factors discussed (in the letter), the project simply does not make financial sense at the present time," said the correspondence from F. Greek Development, based in East Brunswick, N.J.

The request to withdraw comes just two days before the second scheduled hearing before the Franklin Township Land Use Board. The first hearing took place in the township elementary school to try to accommodate the 300-plus residents and interested parties who attended.

Individuals and the opposition group Skylands Preservation Alliance began attending land use board meetings in October to voice displeasure with the proposal, before the application was even complete. The developer said in the letter the opposition did not play a role in its decision to withdraw.

"We are confident that the project would be a substantial asset to the township and would have warranted the grant of an approval by the land use board," the letter said. "We are equally confident that we would have been successful in any litigation brought by objectors challenging an approval."

The letter listed several costs associated with the project, including an "unanticipated" $1 million cost to upgrade electrical services to the site, and an additional cost for extending a gas pipeline to serve the property, as well as other various uncertainties.

The project would have put 1.4 million square feet of warehouse and office space on a 191-acre site off Bloomsbury Road, near I-78, if it had been approved. It also was anticipated to create more than 600 jobs.

"It never got to go through the whole process," said Franklin Township Mayor Mark Blaszka. "This would have been a nice application to see what's viable and what's not."