Corzine will sign fort reuse bill in area

Location of visit to be disclosed later, gov’s spokesman says

BY SUE MORGAN Staff Writer

BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

Protests went unheeded by the Pentagon, which decided to close Fort Monmouth by 2011.Protests went unheeded by the Pentagon, which decided to close Fort Monmouth by 2011. Gov. Jon S. Corzine is scheduled to come to the area Wednesday to sign the bill creating a state-sanctioned authority to direct the future of Eatontown’s Fort Monmouth facilities.

At press time, the exact hour and place for the governor’s April 26 visit had not yet been finalized according to Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Corzine’s office.

However, Coley did confirm that Corzine would be coming to Monmouth County to sign the state legislation known as the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Act into law.

As of late Monday, the Governor’s Office was still trying to coordinate Corzine’s schedule with that of local state legislators, particularly those who co-sponsored the bill, for a mutually agreeable time and place, Coley explained.

“It’s important to the governor to get as many legislators from the area to be there as possible,” Coley said.

A brief ceremony, featuring speeches by the legislators who initiated and supported the two bills that were married to form the final measure, will be conducted at the time of Corzine’s appearance, Coley said.

Corzine’s signature is all that is needed to make the bill, a joint effort crafted by both the state Senate and the Assembly this winter, an official document.

The Assembly bill, known as A-2692, was co-sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Panter (D-12) and Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck (R-12) along with Assemblymen Steve Corodemus (R-11), John Burzicelli (R-3), Sean Kean (R-11) and Samuel Thompson (R-13).

The Senate bill, known as S-1472, was co-sponsored by state Sens. Joseph M. Kyrillos (R-13) and Ellen Karcher (D-12).

The new authority will operate in a fashion similar to the state’s Meadowlands and Pinelands authorities, Panter has said.

After Corzine affixes his signature, the wheels can be put in motion to form the 10-member authority, which will become the official entity charged with overseeing future uses of Fort Monmouth’s land and infrastructure after its scheduled closing by the Pentagon in September 2011.

According to the legislation passed by both houses in late February, nine of the authority members will have voting privileges and the 10th non-voting member will be a representative of the 1,126-acre U.S. Army base to be named by the secretary of the federal Defense Department.

The nine voting members will be the mayors of Fort Monmouth’s three host communities – Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport – a representative of the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders, the New Jersey Secretary of Commerce and four gubernatorial appointees, two of which will be from the private sector.

Those four appointees have yet to be named by Corzine.

Under language inserted by Panter, one of the gubernatorial appointees will be an expert in environmental issues and a second will have hands-on experience in developing jobs.

To guide the authority through specific matters requiring expertise, non-voting advisory boards, possibly composed of citizens and elected officials from the host and neighboring municipalities, will be formed later.

The freeholders have already named one of their own, first-term Freeholder Lillian G. Burry to represent the county board on the authority.

Burry is also a committeewoman in Colts Neck Township, which hosts a portion of Earle Naval Weapons Station, which is not slated for closure by the Pentagon.

The authority will be assigned to come up with a comprehensive revitalization plan for the base that now employs more than 400 military personnel and 5,000 civilian workers, including many engineers and scientists.

Most of those positions are expected to be transferred to the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground by 2011 under the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

Some of the uses called for in the approved bill include business and industry, housing and open space.

Even in its final form, the bill to be signed by Corzine still has its critics – mainly from Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport, the three communities that must bear the brunt of whatever the authority decides to put in place of Fort Monmouth, a fixture in the area for more than 88-years.

Officials from those towns have stated that the authority, given its makeup with only the mayors allowed to participate, is top-heavy with state representation.

Mayors Gerald J. Tarantolo, Peter Maclearie and Lucille Chaump – respectively of Eatontown, Tinton Falls and Oceanport – have also criticized the legislation for not allowing them to appoint designees that could attend and vote at the authority meetings in case of their absence.

Efforts by Beck and Corodemus to insert language allowing each mayor to send a designee failed at the time of the bill’s approval.

All three mayors, as well as state Secretary of Commerce Virginia S. Bauer have been serving on the Fort Monmouth Reuse Committee (FMRC) based in Eatontown.

The future of that multijurisdictional entity, composed of nine voting members from the host towns, county and state governments, and two private sector members, remains undetermined due to the formation of the authority, local officials have said.

The FMRC, formed in the wake of the Aug. 24 vote by the federal BRAC Commission to shutter Fort Monmouth as a cost-cutting measure, is scheduled to meet again on May 8. At that time, a group of University of Pennsylvania students enrolled in the city planning graduate studies program will present their own ideas for new uses for the fort property.