BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff EDISON -— Preserving the past can be an expensive future endeavor.
And saving the Edison Memorial Tower is a major issue officials have grappled with for some time.
“The township budget is very tight this year and we have no dedicated or budgeted township funds for maintaining or repairing the Edison Tower,” council Vice President Parag Patel said.
Voters made it clear by a more than 50-percent margin Nov. 2 that they did not want to use 25 percent of the 1 cent per $100 of assessed property valuation open-space tax to preserve the crumbling tower.
MIGUEL JUAREZ staff “If there is no funding mechanism in place soon, the tower will fall down, said Robert Spiegel, executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association and a member of the township Open Space Committee.
Both proponents and opponents of the tax are in favor of preserving the tower.
“There are ways it can be done,” said Open Space Committee Chairman Walter Stochel. “They [voters] just took a tool out of the toolbox.”
Opponents of the tax don’t want to be taxed for the tower preservation.
They say the state should pay for maintaining the tower, because it sits in Roosevelt Park, a state park.
Those who favored spending 25 percent of the open-space tax on the tower’s restoration say the money has not come through for repairs.
Most of Edison’s requests for state and federal grants have been denied, Patel said.
The township was eligible for a $750,000 matching funds grant from the state years ago and lost it because the township never matched the $750,000 required to qualify for the grant.
The matching money was never provided and the grant was lost because officials felt the state should pay the other half since the tower is located in a state park, Stochel said.
Unfortunately, that is not how a state grant works, he said. The state cannot pay both halves of the grant.
The township will apply for grants from the New Jersey Historic Trust, which has a Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund, Cultural Trust Capital Preservation Grants Program, and a Emergency Grant and Loan Fund, Patel said.
The township should also consider applying for grants administered by the National Park Service, he said.
The state Department of Community Affairs announced recently that Edison’s “Tower Complex” was to be the recipient of a $50,000 grant to study the tower area, determine where future facilities could be located on the site and how it can be fixed, Stochel said.
“It is definitely a start,” he said.
Resident Anthony Russomanno, a former Open Space Committee member, said there needs to be more accountabili-
The Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower & Museum on Christie Street
commemorates the inventions Edison created in his Menlo Park laboratory.
ty about the tower preservation issue.
“They [officials] have been raising funds for that tower for at least six years,” Russomanno said. “Where is that money? I’ll give a check for $100 to the fund. I just don’t know where the fund is.”
Patel said it’s time for more fund raising and grant seeking.
“We have to be creative in our fund raising,” he said. “We must explore diverse sources of funds, including corporate donations, affinity credit cards and community sponsorships.”
Several years ago, there was a program to raise funds for the tower.
The endeavor was called the “Buy a Brick Program,” Stochel said.
“The idea was to buy a brick for every brick in the tower,” he said. “Following that concept, if everyone bought a brick to pay for preservation of each brick, then the tower could be restored. I think I counted something like 700,000 bricks — something like that. It was a while ago though. I can’t be sure of the exact figure.”
Linda DiGeronomo, an Edison resident and principal of the Woodbrook School in Woodbridge, said her school participated.
Councilman Charles Tomaro came to the school and explained the program, she said.
Students or parents could buy a brick and have their name embossed on it on a plaque. The bricks would be installed in as walkway near the tower.
DiGeronomo did not recall the price of the bricks, but said her school bought several and spent about $250 to $300 on them.
“I thought it was a good idea,” she said. “The students liked the idea of contributing to preserving history while having their donation remembered at the site. I haven’t seen them myself, but assume they are there.”
There are five bricks from that school on the site. There are also two from Washington Elementary School in Edison and one from Lincoln Elementary School in Edison.
The township must also push for the state to maintain the tower since it is located in a state park, Patel said.
“The significance and benefits of the tower are larger and well beyond the township of Edison,” he said. “Therefore, the costs associated with this national landmark should be borne by the state and/or the federal government.”
Former Councilman William Stephens agreed.
“No one wants to see it fall into total disrepair, but let’s be realistic, the tower’s repair should not be borne by taxpayers,” he said.
The tower and the land have been leased to Edison by the state.
“So it somehow becomes the township’s responsibility,” Stephens said.
Pavers with donors names’ on them are being used to raise money for the Edison Memorial Tower preservation project.