Lake Neepaulin dam issue bungled
In his “Mayor’s Statement” dated July 17, 2014, Wantage Township Mayor DeBoer wrote in part: “1) Introduce an Ordinance for acceptance of Ownership of Lake Neepaulin, to be introduced tonight and adopted at our August meeting.” and “2) Plan on a closing to take place on or about Sept. 1, 2014.” Over the public’s objections, the Wantage Township Committed unanimously adopted Ordinance 2014-15 at its Aug. 21, 2014 meeting.
Based on a gut feeling that Wantage Township and the Friends of Lake Neepaulim were again totally failing to comply with the Loan Agreement they had both signed, (like the Township Committee’s breaching of the Co-Borrower Agreement) I submitted an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) Request, dated Aug. 14, 2014, to the New Jesey Dept. of Environmental Protection in which I requested copies of a number of documents that were required by the Loan Agreement such as the “ninety (90) days prior written notice” that the FOLN had to submit to the state, the state’s written approval of the assignment of the loan, a copy of the audit that the FOLN was required to submit for the $1 million loan, etc.
On Saturday Aug. 30, 2014, I received from the NJDEP a letter dated Aug. 27, 2014, that read in part: “Please be advised that the Department has not received any written documentation regarding the current status of the repayment of the loan from either FOLN or the Township, and therefore has no documentation to provide to you at this time.”
Obviously, no one in our Wantage Township municipal government who is, or has been, involved in the Lake Neepaulin Dam fiasco is doing their jobs correctly, especially Mayor Bill DeBoer, Deputy Mayor Bill Gaechter, Committeeman Ron Bassani, Administrator/Clerk Jim Doherty, the township attorney, now Glen Kienz, formerly Michael Garofalo, and Tax Assessor Kristy Lockburner; but they want to force us Wantage Township taxpayers to pay an extra $1.2 million in property taxes over the next 17 years just to cover up their total bungling of the Lake Neepaulin Dam Fiasco.
If you are a Wantage Township property owner and you don’t want to be forced to pay part of this $1.2 million in extra property taxes, contact the NJDEP Commissioner Robert Martin and remind him that this loan was negotiated by and granted to the FOLN under N.J.S.A. 58:4-12d(1) which reads in part: “Loans awarded under this section to owners of private dams or lake associations. The cost of payment of the principal and interest on these loans shall be assessed, ----, against the real estate benefited thereby in proportion to and not in excess of the benefits conferred,”. This loan is not now nor has it ever been a Green Acres Program loan.
William H. Gettler
Wantage Township