Officials wise to dump sewer-line

Published in the Ocean County Observer 10/22/02

Little Egg Harbor Township officials wisely have abandoned their plan to run a sewer line from Tuckerton to the Garden State Parkway so more development could take place along Route 539.

The plan was widely seen as yet another effort to advance sprawl in Ocean County, and environmentalists were gathered in large numbers at the Pinelands Regional High School to rally against the sewer line extension when Mayor Brian Rumpf waved the surrender flag.

We are certain that his re-election bid, and the battle for control of the governing body in Little Egg Harbor, had nothing to do with the decision.

Regardless of his motives, there is still a chance that one major highway from the Parkway east to a bayshore town in Ocean County will remain relatively unspoiled. When His Honor and friends get their adding machines out, they will be able to calculate that the cost of keeping North Green Street green is far less than the tax hikes that would have followed a decision to turn it into another Bay Avenue in Barnegat.

A green pathway to Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor will remind many of the reason they bought homes in both communities. It will make visitors certain they have not gotten off the Turnpike somewhere in Essex County.

Too often public officials get bull-headed when the public does not like their plans, and stick with them until they are former public officials. Rumpf and friends rightly judged which way the wind is blowing.

An unspoiled gateway to Tuckerton and Little Egg Harbor will be among the best legacies he can leave his town.

from the Ocean County Observer
Published on October 22, 2002