All Aboard for NJ’s Railroad and Transportation Museum, Departing from the NJ Legislature in Trenton, Destination Phillipsburg, NJ
I am interrupting my running comments on the Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Railroad and Transportation Museum and returning to a separate post.
My reason for this is to provide a link to an Associated Press article titled “Court Split Over Wetlands Protections,” published in today’s edition of The New York Times.
The wetlands at the center of this controversy are located on Lake St. Clair, McComb County, Michigan, where kathy’s middle sister jeannie and her husband live on Harsen’s Island, accessible only by ferry, located at the junction of the St. Clair River between the island and Port Huron to the north and the Detroit River between the island and the City of Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, to the south.
(Jeannie’s daughter, Amy, who lives nearby, is Kathy’s niece who e-mailed her aunt the article published in a McComb County newspaper describing the $173.50 fine imposed by Northampton County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Robert Freedberg on the woman charged with tossing lettuce from the window of her car while parked on a Wal-Mart lot. I forwarded Amy’s e-mail to my subscribers, who I felt might find it amusing.)
In a more serious vein, the editorial in today’s edition of The Express-Times regarding the Phillipsburg Railroad and Transportation Museum has helped ingnite an environmental battle destined to rival that of the U.S. Army corp of Engineer’s proposed damming of the Delaware River at Tock’s Island.
This may be the juncture to point out that the City of Newark, which bought the defunct NYS&W railroad when the dam was still a viable issue, decided to sell the bed when the dam project failed.
Newark had bought the property for a water transmission pipe line between the dam and the city’s watershed properties located in Sussex and Passaic counties.
The battle that eventually ended the dam project involved legendary Hackettstown environmentalist Casey Kays and U.S. Associate Judge William O. Douglas, also an avid environmentalist and outdoorsman, and Sunfish Pond in Warren County.
Casey invited Justice Douglas on a hike to Sunfish Pond, an invitation that to the consternation of Warren and Sussex counties senior representative in New Jersey’s Senate, Republican Senator Wayne Dumont - himself a native Phillispburg resident - Justice Douglas accepted.
Dumont was jealous that it was Kays, a low-level Hoffman-LaRouche employee, and not himself, New Jersey’s senior senator, who succeeded in garnering the presence of a U.S. Supreme Court justice for the hike.
Dumont was also miffed because Kays did not invite him on the hike because he was an avid, outspoken, advocate for the dam.
When I moved to Easton, and the New Jersey courts had still not yet awarded the Newark-owned railbed to the state’s park system, I would ride one of my young daughter’s bicycle to Phillipsburg’s law office on S. Main Street.
I would park the bike and stand on the sidewalk outside his office with signs protesting his opposition to the Paulinskill Valley Trail.
He would emerge from the shadows of his office, livid, onto the stoop of his building to bury me, standing resolutely on the sidewalk below, in an avalance of abusive language.
Not long afterward, Dumont was admitted to a retirment and nursing home, located on Route 24 outside Hackettstown, leading over Schooley’s Mountain to Long Valley, where he soon died.
(to be cont’d, as comments to this post)
Copyright © 2006-2008 Billy Givens
Diane Kitchen; niece to Casey Kays said,
December 27, 2006 @ 10:17 am
Hello….thank you for posting this important information….I am so proud of my uncle and all of my family who’s passion for the environment saved this wonderful area…..
I was a bit young at the time, but looking at my life now I see where my love and appreciation of the environment and taking a stand for what’s right came from….
Right now I am in a battle for my grandmother’s human rights…..she is Casey Kays sister and as I mentioned a very big supported of the protests and hikes to saved the pond…she, my grandfather….many member of our family……right now my grandmother is being abused by her own son–tragic, it breaks my heart…..he was not one of the family members who ever visited the pond or cared, infact he never cared at all about my gram….unfortunately he by default became my gram’s Power of Attorney…..and he has isolated her from most family, myself included and all friends…no gifts, no calls, nothing…..he’s being accused of financial exploitation and other abuses….but knowing the legal system and how slowly it moves plus moving her from NJ to PA…..he knows he has enough time on his side that he just might break my Nan’s heart and be rid of her as he has planned all along—I’ve now become and activist for the elderly and have tried every legal, socail service avenue to no avail….or at least any that won’t take years…………she doesn’t have that kind of time…..and she of all people deserves to live out her life in dignity with her loved ones getting outside, which she loves, as often as possible……………
I am writing to see if you might have access to any pictures, books, videos…etc….that refer back to this historic event…….I now only have the media and the public to turn to if I want to get my gram her life and her dignity back before it’s too late………anything, anything at all you could provide would be so helpful…..my Uncle Casey is unfortunatley not in very good health so he and his wife can barely take care of themselves let alone look for pictures and articles for me…….But I am in touch w/a Public Advocate in Sen. Lautenberg’s Office who remembers Sunsfish Pond….and he is promising to try to help us………..but again, I think the media and public are my best bets time wise………….so if you have anything available….I’d like to purchase it ASAP….I have NBC news interested in my grandmother’s story and I want to give them as much interest as possilbe….ie……86 yr old Environmental Activist devoted to saving Sunfish Pond, a national treasure being denied her most basic human rights and dignity…………..ps and if you know any activist supporters still around who might be interested in filming a mini documentary outside of the Nursing Home she is being held in against her will that would be great too….and it would make the news for sure……if there is anyway you can help me please email me…..or call my CA cell….323-422-3239…..I am currently in NJ fighting for my Gram’s rights and all Senior Rights as much as I am able, but I need support……hoping you can help…..even some pictures……..thank you so much and God Bless………….Diane M Kays Kitchen
Laura said,
June 5, 2007 @ 7:08 am
Diane - I hope you will see this post and contact me at bbndr88@yahoo.com, as I do have a lot of information given to me by your Uncle Casey in the mid 80s.