Groups challenge archaeological report

William Liebeknecht, president of the Archaeological Society: encouraging the department to require more survey work.

By: Bill Greenwood
   MONROE — Letters disputing the results of a archaeological survey that states that the Bethel Mission is not located on a 35-acre parcel on Thompson Park on which the Board of Education wants to build a new high school have been filed with the state.
   The president of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, several environmental groups and an area historian have sent letters to the state Department of Environmental Protection saying that the township-sponsored survey does not prove the 18th-century Presbyterian Indian mission was not located on the site.
   DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas could not confirm whether letters had been received by the DEP by The Cranbury Press’ Thursday afternoon deadline. She said that any correspondence was being reviewed by the DEP would be taken into consideration.
   The township is proposing a land swap in which Monroe would trade 175 acres of open land for the Green Acres-protected Thompson Park parcel. The township then would transfer the parcel to the Board of Education, which plans to build new high school.
   The swap has been approved by the county and, conditionally, by the State House Commission. The archaeological study was required under the conditional approval, and the DEP is expected to decide whether to grant approval after reviewing the survey results.
   Richard Grubb and Associates, the firm hired by the township to conduct the study, wrote in its final report that the mission was located about 2,500 feet north of the Thompson Park parcel on which the high school is to be built.
   Assistant Township Attorney Peg Schaffer said the firm, which was paid about $47,000, is recognized by the DEP and that the company followed a plan that was approved by the department.
   "Nothing that I’ve read leads me to believe that what’s located on this site is more important than having a high school there," she said.
   However, William Liebeknecht, president of the Archaeological Society, said he is encouraging the department to require more survey work. He sent a letter to the DEP on June 18. He said he was speaking on behalf of himself and not on behalf of his organization, a nonprofit that seeks to preserve New Jersey archaeological sites.
   He said Grubb and Associates found enough 18th-century artifacts to suggest that at least part of the mission had been located on the high school site.
   He said that Grubb and Associates should conduct a phase two study, which would attempt to determine the boundaries of the mission and determine whether it is eligible for the state and national Register of Historic Places. He said such a study should determine whether some of the 40 cabins, two schools or church that made up the mission were on the site.
   "The Grubb report suggests that (the mission) is farther north down a steep slope, which does not make sense," he said.
   He said the mission site proposed by Grubb and Associates is smaller than documentation suggests it should be, increasing the probability that part of the mission could have been on the high school site.
   Mr. Webster wrote a letter Saturday to the DEP on behalf of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group and Park Savers, a local group opposing the land swap. The groups have also petitioned the state Supreme Court, asking it to overturn the State House Commission approval.
   He said in the letter that, after reviewing the Grubb report, he and his clients believe the report "inappropriately draws definitive conclusions from incomplete and equivocal data." The letter states that the high school site would have been "the most favorable place to locate dwellings and cropland" because it would have been fed by a stream to the west of the site and springs to the north and northwest of the site.
   The letter also claims that the report is "premature" because a title history of the site is still being conducted.
   He writes in the letter that the DEP has two choices: determine that the site is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and ask Middlesex County to conduct an avoidance analysis or determine that the site’s eligibility is uncertain and require more work.
   Mr. Walling, who has nominated the mission site to the state Register of Historic Places, said in an assessment of the Grubb report sent Monday to the DEP that only 627 square feet of the total 1.5 million-square-foot high school site, or .04 percent, had been excavated by Grubb and Associates. He said that, because the survey uncovered 20 18th-century artifacts, a larger excavation would likely uncover many more.
   His assessment also says that the Grubb report contains incorrect information about James Johnstone, who the report states was Monroe’s first settler, and Robert Hunter Morris, who the report states sued the Bethel Indians in 1749 claiming title to the mission site.