The BERKELEY Times Vol. 32 - No. 10
In This Week’s Edition
MICROMEDIA PUBLICATIONS
JERSEYSHOREONLINE.COM
History Back On Track As Train Runs Again
Council Asks State For School Tax Change
BREAKING NEWS @
jerseyshoreonline.com
Government Page 5
Community News Pages 8-10
Inside The Law Page 14
Dr. Izzy’s Sound News Page 12
Volunteers work to bring the locomotive back to life. By Chris Lundy BERKELEY – A locomotive that helped build a section of town has been given a second life now that it’s been rebuilt by volunteers. “This is the first time it’s run in 50 years, and the first time it’s run in Berkeley in about 100 years,” said Gerry Morey, president of the Berkeley Township Historical Society. The locomotive was built in 1926 by Plymouth Locomotive Works in Ohio and bought by the BW Sangor Corporation. Sangor had a grand
Photo by Chris Lundy
plan. He sold about 8,000 lots in the Pinewald section of town, between Route 9 and the Garden State Parkway, between 1928 and 1929, and built the Royal Pine Hotel and an 18-hole golf course. That hotel is now Crystal Lake Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The manmade lake in front of it was created when they excavated the dirt and the train was used to cart the soil elsewhere. Engine #2173 was one of two used for this (Train Runs Again - See Page 7)
Student’s Research Could Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions
By Chris Lundy OCEAN COUNTY – A high school student has an idea: whether biotechnology can help reduce harmful greenhouse gases right in our own back yard. A rising junior, Alexandra Kanterezhi-Gatto’s laboratory is Cattus Island County Park. The park spans acres and acres of a lush ecosystem on the Barnegat Bay. The wetlands filter water, store car-
bon and help protect the coastline, while providing habitat for fish, birds, reptiles, insects and more. She is investigating whether a specially designed peptide could influence the natural microbial activity occurring in marsh sediments Photo courtesy Alexandra Kanterezhi-Gatto and potentially reduce methane production. Alexandra Kanterezhi-Gatto is developing an Organic material is broken down by independent research project focused on methdifferent microbes. These microbes ane emissions and the health of New Jersey’s (Student’s Research - See Page 7) tidal marshes.
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By Chris Lundy BERKELEY – The Township Council passed a resolution urging the state to change the rules on how school boards raise taxes. “It used to be, the school board would propose the budget. If the public voted it down, it would then go to the town,” Mayor John Bacchione explained. Now, under a rule put in place by Governor Phil Murphy in the year before he left, schools can potentially raise taxes up to 9.9%. State law makes it so that towns collect all property taxes. The town then doles out the appropriate amount to the county, schools, etc. “We’re 27%” of the total tax bill of a Berkeley resident, Bacchione said. The rest is the other taxing entities. He said he’s already spoken to state lawmakers such as Senator Carmen Amato (R-9th), Senator Robert Singer (R-30th), and Assemblyman Gregory McGuckin (R-10th). The council members in attendance voted in favor of sending this resolution to the state. Councilman Thomas Grosse was absent. Many years ago, the residents would vote to pass the budget for the upcoming school year in April, which was also when board of education elections were. If the voters shot down the budget, it would go to the town’s governing body to decide what to do. They usually had just a few weeks to digest all of the budget information. They would choose a number to cut from the budget, and then school districts would have to figure out how to make the new budget work. In 2010, then-Governor Chris Christie worked out a deal with then-Senate President Steve Sweeney that school districts couldn’t increase taxes more than 2%, but there were some line items, such as insurance, that were exempt. In 2012, a new law allowed the vote to be moved to November. It was done under the auspices of saving money on paying for an election. Critics worried that board of education elections – which are already infested with politics – would become even more so because school board candidates would unofficially join a town council slate. The Berkeley Times interviewed primary sponsor of the law, Shirley Turner (now a senator in District 12) in 2012, and she told this reporter that school board elections are already political and usually a stepping stone for municipal office. (School Tax Change - See Page 4)
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