Home Care In Pines Lake, NJ

By Jon "Ferris" Meredith

PublishedFebruary 12, 2024 at 2:00 AM

WAYNE, NJ – In what is likely (hopefully?) the final chapter in Wayne’s Laurelwood Arboretum deer fence controversy, the Township Council passed the ordinance to fund the project and read aloud the wording in the ordinance. The hope was that this would alleviate concerns from those who have been in opposition to this over the past two years.

RELATED STORY: Wayne Township to Fund Controversial Deer Fence in Laurelwood Arboretum

Three compromises went into the final agreement for the installation of the fence:

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But local residents have voiced distrust of FOLA and have wondered if the township would follow through with these promises. Chrysti Cantilli and Peter Rosky are both Pines Lake residents who have spoken up at several council meetings regarding the fence.

“To be honest, there is a great deal of mistrust of this process because of how the last two years have gone for us,” said Chrysti Cantilli. “This 50-foot setback needs to be honored and council and the administration have a responsibility to the community to make sure that it happens.”

So, the council put it in writing and Councilwoman-at-Large Jill Sasso read the ordinance aloud during the meeting and followed it up by saying, “To me this memorializes the intent of all parties and gets us on a path to getting this done. Not everyone's going to be happy, but I feel like this does memorialize what we have agreed to and should make people feel comfortable that we're on the right path forward to get this done in a responsible manner.”

Engineer's Rendering of Deer Fence Location at Laurelwood Arboretum - Image by Suburban Consulting Engineers, Inc.

The Wayne Parks & Rec Department will be managing the installation of the fence, which Sasso says allows the council “to hold the township accountable to fulfill the intent of the agreement."

Starting in March 2024, the township will begin soliciting bids to install the fence, according to Sasso, then look to begin installation in June and finish in July. “So, it's a pretty tight and aggressive schedule,” she said.

Ryan Edge, the Wayne Parks and Recreation Department's Supervisor of Landscape and Park Design will be in charge of the project and “will be on site to ensure adherence to the 50-foot setback and provide guidance to the contractor on where to move the fence should it be necessary to deviate due to rock trees or other obstacles,” said Sasso during the meeting. “Throughout this project, Ryan will be assigned to daily inspections [to] ensure compliance with the DEP and the Township requirements and ensure timely and accurate completion.”

Twelve gates in total will be installed. Six will be pedestrian gates, which will latch but not lock and six will be maintenance gates, according to what she read that night.

“I hope that that the public is confident, both in the intent that's been laid out, and the commitment from the Township to be able to execute this plan,” said Sasso in conclusion. “I know some people have had reservations about how we would actually execute it, and so I hope that this alleviates some of those fears.”

With the arboretum in Wayne’s sixth ward, Jon Ettman, the representative councilman, also addressed the public during the meeting, saying, “I've spoken with members of FOLA. I've made it very clear – and to the administration - that these are requirements should not be taken lightly; they're not to be ignored. I've gotten assurances upside down, left and right, that they are not being taken lightly and that they will be adhered to.”

“While we are disappointed that this project is not going to be stopped or even lessened in scope,” said Cantilli to the council that night, "some will be happy that council has taken the step to now formally attach this compromise to the project.”

TAPinto later reached out to Cantilli, who offered this quote: "We are happy that the council and administration made the approval of the deer fence project conditional on the adherence to the 50-foot setback and other requirements that protect the community."

The funding for the deer fence, which will be taken from the township’s Open Space Fund was approved that night 8-1 with Fifth Ward Councilwoman Fran Ritter the only opposition vote.

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For those of us who grew up swimming in lakes and streams near or in the Jersey Pine Barrens, cedar water is no big deal. It's clean and refreshing like any other lake or stream, but to the newcomer it can be a little scary to think that the tea colored water you're about to bathe in, is actually clean. I saw it for the first time as a teenager going to my cousins house in Evesham Twp. or Marlton. She took up to a place called Creek Run which was a day camp that had a nice lake. When you're a kid and it's hot and somebody takes you to a lake, you just jump in.

Over the weekend I took some adults and kids to a lake near my house that is a cedar water lake. It took some convincing for the mom to let her little ones jump in. The lake water is tested every week for bacteria levels and the water is clear. It's just tea colored. The color comes from a combination of iron deposits in the soil and the roots of cedar trees which are quite prevalent in the area. It can be a little intimidating if you've never been in it before and it will stain your tidy whities if you're in there all day, but it's harmless.

There is a little bit more of a woodsy aroma to the lakes, but not offensive. When the heat index is near 100 degrees and the beach is an hour away and you don't have a pool....Jump in. Most of the family is not crazy about the 'mucky' bottom of the lake, so I bought a few 'floating hammocks' to enjoy on the lake. Of course they're mostly white and no matter how much I hosed them off, just like my tidy whities when I was 14, the lake left it's mark. No biggie! Atsion Lake in Shamong is one of the best family friendly lakes in South Jersey for you to check out.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis' own.

More from New Jersey 101.5:

WAYNE — The Board of Education has awarded a contract to an industrial firm to install backup generators at three sites, including at a local elementary school especially prone to blackouts.

Pines Lake School was prioritized for the new equipment over other locations because it has experienced 14 prolonged outages in the past five years, according to schools Superintendent Mark Toback.

Manor II Electric Inc. won the $643,000 bid. The Newark-based firm was also hired to put in smaller generators at the K-12 district's maintenance garage and transportation hub.

"It's surrounded by trees," the superintendent said of the school. "There's a tremendous amount of trees in that community. Sometimes, when there's a major storm, they fall."

The school, which is for kindergarten through fifth grade, opened with 12 classrooms in September 1952.

The building is served by a different utility than a majority of the township, though Toback said there is no evidence of that having contributed to its electricity woes.

JCP&L provides power to the Pines Lake neighborhood, and most customers who live and work west of the Route 23 corridor. PSE&G is in the rest of Wayne.

The school board withdrew $1.2 million from the district's capital reserve to cover the total price of the generators, which includes the cost for drawings by an architect.

Schools Business Administrator William Moffitt said leftover funds will be redeposited into the account and that he expects the generators to be installed by next summer.

Several facility upgrades were completed before the start of this school year. Boilers were replaced at Wayne Valley High School, and four buildings — George Washington Middle School, and A.P. Terhune, Randall Carter and Ryerson schools — have new ventilation systems.

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

WAYNE — Joseph DeCarlo knows exactly what he wants to say.

But if he cannot sound out the words, there is an array of symbols displayed on a 3-foot panel on his school playground to help him. All he has to do is point to one or more of the 96 colorful icons as he tries to talk, and his teacher will understand.

Joseph and verbally impaired students just like him are improving in their speech every day because of this innovation at Pines Lake School.

The core word communication station is viewed as a quantum leap in the field of speech pathology because it opens opportunities for children with special needs to learn in places that they share with typical peers.

"You can't have education without communication," said Catherine Fredericks, a speech therapist who designed a pair of identical playground boards for the K-5 school.

Next month, Fredericks will present her custom design to international colleagues at a four-day summit in Orlando, Florida.

"Many of my students, who didn't talk at all, now talk," she said. "This has changed their trajectory in school because they were being judged on what they couldn't say."

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That included Joseph, 10, who entered preschool as a nonverbal student.

Louis DeCarlo said his son's skills are now much stronger and that he is proficient in email. He said the playground board allows him to show off those abilities and to feel confident.

"We've been very fortunate with his educational journey," DeCarlo said.

Jennifer D'Acunto, the media specialist at Pines Lake, said her 3-year-old son, Zandi, is learning how to use the playground board — that he "gravitated" to it when he first spotted it. "He went over to the board by himself," she said, proudly, "and he pointed to things on it."

Story continues below gallery.

The Record and NorthJersey.com first met Fredericks in March, a few weeks before the township unveiled a new board at its special needs playground at Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Park on Greenrale Avenue.

Fredericks designed that apparatus, too, saying at the time that she wanted it to be the start of a trend in recreation.

Her wish inched closer to reality after she and a committee of other therapists published a guide for how to create a playground board on the website of the New Jersey Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Now there are plans to install boards throughout the state, including in Fair Lawn, Paterson and as far south as Collingswood in Camden County.

"Communication is a human right," said Donna Spillman-Kennedy, president-elect of the association. A playground board, she added, "promotes not only language development, but social interactions with other children."

Robert Guarasci, founder and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Community Development Corp., said it is "poetry" that a playground board will be put up at Lou Costello Memorial Park on Cianci Street in Paterson, only a few blocks from Public School No. 2, which serves many of the city's students with autism.

The park is undergoing $1.3 million in renovations, but Guarasci said the new board, which will include English and Spanish words, will be installed before the project is done.

"There are a lot of children in Paterson on the autism spectrum, and organizations like mine and the city government should be very sensitive to that," Guarasci said.

Barbra Seltzer, with a private practice in speech pathology, teamed with officials in her hometown of Fair Lawn to secure funding for a future playground board there.

The new installation will be at the playground at Berdan Grove Park on Berdan Avenue. It will have a large board, like Wayne's playground, but also three small boards inlaid in the existing equipment.

"I think that they're needed everywhere," Seltzer said. "The more that people see these systems, the more they're going to be accepting of them and people who use them."

Jose? Celis, principal of Pines Lake, said the potential for more inclusiveness was a main driver when he agreed to two playground boards at his school.

"It's something that all students can benefit from," Celis said. "It takes down a barrier."

Dana Sir, director of student support services for the K-12 district, said the playground boards have been so well-received at Pines Lake that there are long-term plans to put them up at all elementary schools and the early childhood center at Preakness School.

"My vision is that a playground board becomes as common as a slide," Fredericks said. "It's an acknowledgment of the importance of communication."

Philip DeVencentis is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

MANCHESTER – Nearly 30 acres are being added to the county’s open space roster in town.

Manchester Township is donating 29.6 acres along the Toms River, off Ridgeway Road and around the perimeter of Pine Lake Park, to the county for its open space program. The Natural Lands Trust Fund Advisory Committee recommended the acceptance of this donation to the Board of Chosen Freeholders, which approved the donation at its May 1 meeting.

Previously, in 2007, the county and township entered into an agreement that included a donation of 17 acres adjacent to county-preserved property.

“That was delayed due to unforeseen circumstances,” Freeholder Director Virginia E. Haines said. “The township has now agreed to donate the original lots plus the additional 12 acres.”

This acquisition will connect three Natural Lands Trust Funds preserves totaling 86.5 acres along the Toms River, Haines said.

Manchester Business Administrator Donna Markulic said that back in 2007, the township received $650,000 from the county to purchase open space. Specifically, the township purchased property from Ciba-Geigy and gave the county an easement on that property. The township also agreed to donate lots in Pine Lake Park that bordered that Ciba-Geigy property, but that never happened.

“…The Supervising Planner of Ocean County contacted us recently, since we were currently working with them on donating property for the [Ocean County] Park, and asked to resurrect that agreement. The numerous lots…border on the east side of Pine Lake park and are all wetlands and unbuildable,” Markulic said in an email to The Manchester Times. “They will be deed restricted as Open Space and listed on the Recreational and Open Space Inventory overseen by Green Acres through the DEP.”

The park that she mentioned will be on land along routes 571 and 547 that borders Jackson. The county plans to build its 28th park on 120 developable acres there.

The Natural Lands Trust program is dedicated to protecting open space in Ocean County. The fund was approved by Ocean County voters in 1997, and established a 1.2-cent tax to fund land acquisitions. The program generates about $8 million per year.

A nine-member advisory committee, established in 1998, nominates properties for the Freeholders to consider. The county both purchases land and accepts donations of land.

Freeholder director Gerry Little has said that in a county that’s 408,000 acres, about 60 percent of it is permanently protected against development through Pinelands, state parks and 21,000 acres preserved through the natural lands and farmlands programs.