Bark Enough, Get a Dog Park County Aims for Late Summer Opening by Patricia Harris Accompanied by Their five Dogs on Received from the Essex County Receptacles
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The Serving our Community Effort to save Hessian Since 1888 House escalates. Item Wine and cheese fund-raiser April 27, 2006 tonight. Page A3. 75 cents weekly of Millburn and Short Hills www.theitemonline.com ANIMAL HAVEN Bark enough, get a dog park County aims for late summer opening By Patricia Harris accompanied by their five dogs on received from the Essex County receptacles. of The Item leashes—from various towns who Open Space Trust Fund in the past The surface will be crushed Amid a crowd of professed dog had been invited to the event. year. stone and compacted stone dust, lovers and their pooches, Essex In the course of his remarks, the “We certainly appreciate your and the entire facility will be County officials announced Mon- executive said funds for the facili- efforts,” he told the executive. enclosed with an 8-foot high fence. day the start of a $500,000 project ty are coming from a state grant. DiVincenzo also called on An existing shed will be converted to create a two-acre dog park in “People are always complaining township resident Vic Benes, a into an owner observance area and the South Mountain Reservation. we don’t get state money,” he said. board member of the South Moun- storage space. Construction is to take place “During my time in office, we’ve tain Conservancy, to speak. The entrance to the facility will over the upcoming three months, received over $800 million for our Benes said the conservancy has have a memorial for emergency and the facility is scheduled to projects. Some great things are embarked on a program to service dogs that lost their lives in open later this summer. happening in our county.” improve and preserve the 2,047- the Sept. 11 tragedy, a steel portico, The dog park will be situated off The executive called on mayors acre parkland and sponsors ornamental concrete pavers and Crest Drive in the area where a for- of nearby towns, county freehold- cleanup activities and hikes. landscaping. mer deer paddock is located. ers and members of the advisory The group is currently working An informal path for owners to The dog park was created at board of the Essex County Open on a new map and next month will walk their dogs on a leash will be least in part in response to the Space Trust Fund to speak during be cleaning up the portion of the created around the perimeter of efforts of an ad hoc committee of the session, as well as a landscape Rahway River that flows through the dog park. township residents, led by former architect from the firm that the reservation, he added. A $52,010 contract was award- Committeeman Salvatore Bate, designed the project and a repre- Benes then invited residents to ed to Schoor DePalma to design who lobbied County Executive sentative of the contractor. “Enjoy the dog park. It’s truly a the dog park, and a $443,398 con- Joseph N. DiVincenzo to create a Mayor Daniel Baer said creating novelty.” tract was awarded to Applied dog park. The group provided a dog park was one of the more According to county plans, the Landscape Technologies of county officials with a report out- prominent topics in last year’s park will be divided into a 1.3-acre Montville to construct the park. lining potential sites last fall, and municipal elections and credited section for large dogs and a 0.7- The county’s first-ever off leash one of the sites they advocated was Bate for pursuing the issue. acre section for small dogs. Both dog facility opened last year in the former deer paddock. “I wish people would talk to me areas will be equipped with dual Watsessing Park in Bloomfield and ADAM ANIK/THE ITEM During the press conference as much about downtown redevel- drinking fountains for dogs and East Orange. Mayor Daniel Baer, left, addresses human and canine audience Monday at the site, DiVincenzo opment as they do about the dog their owners, park benches and The facility was created in part- members during a press conference called Monday by Essex said he was responding to a call park,” he quipped. agility equipment for dogs. In addi- nership with the Watsessing Park from residents throughout the He also offered thanks to DiVin- tion, there will be a dog wash and Conservancy and the federal County announcing the start of construction of a dog park in county to create more recreational cenzo for making the dog park a spray area, “time out” areas for Office of Environmental Protec- the South Mountain Reservation. County Executive Joseph opportunities for pets. In the audi- reality and lauded him for the dogs and dogi-spot stations, which tion, and was built at no cost to DiVincenzo, behind Baer, set a July 15 completion date for the ence were four dog owners— $300,000 in grants the township contain bag dispensers and waste Essex County. $500,000 project. HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE ENVIRONMENT Program evokes ‘shoah’ Spring cleanup for river By Harry Trumbore By Patricia Harris ofTheItem of The Item Tuesday was Yom Hashoah, For the first time ever, volun- Holocaust Remembrance Day. teers from a broad range of com- Because of spring recess, however, munity groups will be pitching in students at Millburn High School next month to pick up trash and the week before heard a handful of debris from the length of the Rah- survivors of the “shoah”—or whirl- way River—both the East and wind—that swept through Europe West Branches—as it flows during World War II relate their through the township. experiences. The cleanup project, part of The annual program, organized National River Cleanup Week by Danielle Nyman, district super- scheduled for May 13 to 21, is visor of the social studies depart- being organized by the munici- ment, this year featured introduc- pality’s Environmental Commis- ADAM ANIK/THE ITEM tions by students who supplied sion. The project is one of a num- Members of the Millburn High School Environmental Club are their fellow students with back- HARRY TRUMBORE/THE ITEM ber of spring cleanup activities the recruiting volunteers for a planned cleanup next month of ground materials on their guests. Sibylle Niemoeller-von Sell, center, whose family was involved commission is sponsoring next One of the speakers, Sibylle month. the Rahway River as it flows through the township. The in the resistance to Hitler, shares a moment with Millburn High students include, from left, Mallory Gadye, 16, Hannah Niemoeller-von Sell, who made School sophomore Shira Sacks while social studies supervisor Among the participants in the the trip to the event from her home river cleanup will be students Dashefsky, 17, Josh Israel, 17, organizer Jackie Talpalar, 16, Danielle Nyman looks on. Niemoeller-von Sell was one of and Merrill Rudd, 16. The project is part of National River in Pennsylvania, told a story of several survivors of the Holocaust to share their stories with from the Millburn High School resistance and fate. Environmental Club and the Cora Cleanup Week, May 13 to 21. Niemoeller-von Sell told the students April 18. Hartshorn Environmental Eagles, audience she came from a spartan decided to remain in Germany and systematically sliced away their as well as members of the South Works will assist by supplying said this week she had no idea her Prussian home and was just 10 resist evil from within. He taught individuality, first through the Mountain Conservancy, B’nai gloves and trash bags and remov- call for volunteers would draw years old when Hitler came to her, she said, “the elementary rules introduction of the Hitler Youth Israel Congregation and the ing filled bags from the street. such an enthusiastic response. power. Her father caught on quick- of conspirative behavior.” and then the weeding out of those Wyoming Civic Association. The Martine Donofrio, chairman of ly to the danger created by the rise She watched her school friends township’s Department of Public the Environmental Commission, SEE SPRING, PAGE B12 to power of the Nazi party, but succumb to “salami tactics” that SEE PROGRAM, PAGE B12 HEALTH WHEN THE SUN CAME OUT Mia, 3 and Max, 2, Eibschutz dance and Bug battlers prep play with Stacie Strawberry in front of the Sunpower Kidz for mosquitoes booth Sunday at the Street Fair after the sun finally came out. By Harry Trumbore is weighing the need to stock gam- Sunpower Kidz, the ofTheItem brusia fish in still water ponds located in areas such as Old Short concept of Lawrence It may not be long before the Hills Park and in the Oakey Tract. Seitz of Westfield, is an first mosquito of the season arrives. The tiny fish feed on mosquito lar- educational program County officials, however, say they vae. that promotes healthy have been preparing for the insects The department also is in touch and fun attitudes about for more than a month. with township officials who have nutritious eating for “It’s a watching thing,” said Lar- said increased construction in the children. The vendor ry Ferchak, superintendent of the Farley Road neighborhood has was one of about 100 county’s department of mosquito slowed drainage of a small pond, participants in the control. which may require stocking with town’s third annual Ferchak said spring weather has gambrusia. Street Fair, sponsored been cool and, until this past week- As in past years, Ferchak said, end, dry. Workers have been clear- the department maintains a list of by the Millburn-Short ing brush from ditches and streams “card stops” of trouble spots and Hills Chamber of and have pesticides ready at hand.