Township’s archaeologist find artifacts on small portion of site, but believes a proposed new high school can be built in the park.
By: Bill Greenwood
MONROE An archaeological firm investigating the proposed site of a new high school now says a small part of the site is historically significant but recommends that construction be allowed to proceed on the rest of the site while excavation continues where artifacts were discovered.
Officials from Richard Grubb and Associates, of Cranbury, presented the results Wednesday of an archaeological survey on the proposed school site. The survey determined that 31.4 acres of the proposed 35-acre school site were not historically significant while the remaining 3.6 acres were.
The survey was required by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which must grant final approval for a land swap between Monroe and Middlesex County before Green Acres restrictions on the parcel can be lifted. If the swap is approved by the DEP, Monroe would trade 175 undeveloped acres to the county for the parcel, which then would be transferred to the Board of Education. The swap has received conditional approval from the State House Commission.
The DEP ordered the survey to determine whether David Brainerd’s 18th-century Bethel Mission, a community of Lenni-Lenape Indians, was located on the proposed school site. Grubb and Associates reported in June that the mission was 2,500 feet north of the site, but the DEP said a more intensive study should be done on four clusters throughout the site where artifacts were found.
Ilene Grossman-Bailey, a senior archaeologist with Grubb and Associates, said Wednesday the company has recommended that the DEP release the school site from Green Acres restrictions but that it require data recovery, or an intensive excavation, to be conducted on the 3.6-acre portion that has been deemed historically significant. She said no evidence was found to link the 3.6-acre portion to Bethel.
The DEP is expected to decide whether to release the land after reviewing Grubb and Associates’ report. DEP spokeswoman Darlene Yuhas said Thursday that the DEP has received the report and is in the process of reviewing it. Ms. Yuhas said she could not say when the review would be finished.
Assistant Township Attorney Peg Schaffer and Mayor Richard Pucci both said Wednesday that they expected the DEP to have a decision within a week.
Ms. Grossman-Bailey said the additional work required by the DEP yielded no additional 18th-century material or features, generally considered to be pits or house remains, in two clusters in the central part of the site.
However, she said work at the other two clusters at the eastern end of the site revealed at least three pits that contained 18th-century artifacts along with animal bones from cows, pigs, deer and turtles. She said the pits probably were used to store food during the winter by people from the 18th century.
"This kind of thing is very rare," she said. "We can learn a great deal about all aspects of their day-to-day lives."
Ms. Grossman-Bailey said most of the objects found in the area are European in manufacture, and only eight Native American artifacts were found, including a stone pipe and pieces of pottery.
"If it was a substantial Native American site, you would have found considerably more," she said.
Because of the potential for learning, Grubb and Associates recommended to the DEP that data recovery should be conducted on those two clusters and the rest of the site should be released from Green Acres restrictions, Ms. Grossman-Bailey said. She said the clusters could be fenced off while construction on the new high school takes place, though she also said data recovery might be completed before construction begins.
Grubb and Associates has applied for a file number with the New Jersey State Museum, company President Richard Grubb said. He said the file, which is a summary of the findings at the site, acts a reference for other researchers that may want to do work in the area.
Ms. Schaffer said the township is happy with the report. She said the archaeological investigation is the "last piece of the puzzle," and she expects a decision from the DEP shortly.
Opponents of the swap questioned Grubb and Associates’ presentation. Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic Attorney Richard Webster said Thursday that he expected a different characterization of the results, based on conversations with Richard Veit, an archaeologist with the Archaeological Society of New Jersey.
"My understanding is that in those pits, they found turtle bones, and those things are characteristic of a Native American diet," he said.
He also said it would be risky for the township to begin construction on the 31.4 acres because they could find artifacts elsewhere on the site while working on the proposed 365,000 square-foot high school.
"It’s time now that they stopped taking risks and started taking the interests of the children to heart and find a site that’s really suitable," he said.
Mr. Webster is petitioning the state Supreme Court on behalf of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group and local group Park Savers. The groups want the court to reverse a decision made in the Appellate Division of state Superior Court that upheld the State House Commission’s approval for the swap. Mr. Webster must ask the Supreme Court to hear the case because the appellate division’s ruling was unanimous.
Mr. Webster said the findings do not affect any of the issues in the appeal, but that Grubb and Associates’ admission that part of the site is historic could encourage the court to hear the case.
"We believe that the approval should be rescinded because Green Acres should be about protecting historically significant sites, not allowing them to be destroyed," he said.
Audrey Cornish, a member of Park Savers who lives on Schoolhouse Road, said she believed the officials from Grubb and Associates were "evasive, untelling and not forthcoming with what they found" during their presentation.
"Someone said to me that they dig only to report what they’re being paid to report, and I believe that to be true," she said.