People who love, yet respect, rivers joined cause Sunday in a Raritan River awareness program at Duke’s Park in Manville.
In the morning, the Central Jersey Stream Team, a volunteer group that removes hundred of tires and a lot of other junk from the river in several cleanups a year, went to work.
As that effort was winding down, rescue equipment from Manville, Franklin, Hillsborough, Somerville and the county was on display under the park’s tall trees. First responders well outfitted in wet suits, helmets and flotation vests operated out of pontoon and other boats.
Other responders acted as victims and floated limply in the water as rescue boats came aside and pulled them out.
The Raritan and Millstone Rivers Flood Control Commission organized the day’s events as part of its mission to educate people about the need for clean rivers and flood control, as well as display resources that can save people and property when the inevitable flood emergency comes.
“This shows that when a crisis does happen, the county does have resources that come together,” said Frank Jurewicz, the commission’s chairman. “There are no boundaries, no jurisdictions.”
Volunteers with Flagtown, Woods Road and Manville fire departments, the Hillsborough Rescue Squad and the county prosecutor’s dive team unit all played a part in the day’s drills.
A team of civilian volunteers, young and old, took advantage of the low water level and the warm day to float and walk down the river from the Duke Farms preserve a half-mile upstream. Their efforts netted three shopping carts, chain-link fence, a bicycle, pipes and lots of tires.
By the end of the day, the grassroots Central Jersey Stream Team had collected a bin full of garbage and at least 100 tires of all sizes.
“We get in the water and pull stuff out,” said Dawn Moeller, the group’s secretary. “We’re a bunch of people who are not afraid to get wet and dirty.”
The cleanup effort attracted kids and Somerset County Freeholder Patricia Walsh, who came with work gloves and blue jeans. Next time, she vowed, she was getting in the water.
Woods Road fire company brought its rapid deployment craft, a banana-shaped and colored boat that can inflate in about a minute using a typical air cylinder used by firefighters.
Manville’s larger rescue boat, which needs a deeper draft, stood by, the water too low for it to be demonstrated in action.
Sgt. Daniel Kazar of Hillsborough EMS told some cleanup volunteers, “The stuff you take out helps us. It could destroy our props.”
Steve Priatka, a Hillsborough resident who is a captain on the Manville Rescue Squad, demonstrated throwing a rescue rope to firefighters like Hillsborough Rescue Squad members Ryan Mershon and Dave Zygmund in the water.
For the Stream Team, it represented another stretch of the Raritan River it had cleaned.
A couple of years ago, parents of Evan VanDeusen and AJ Moeller decided to try to “unplug” the cousins from computer devices and took them instead on a canoe trip. The boys pointed out more dumped tires that wildlife, said Ms. Moeller, a former Hillsborough resident.
They decided to mount an effort to take 100 tires out of the river. That goal was met easily. A second stretch netted 406 tires. After two years, they have counted more than 1,500 tires pulled from the river between Clinton and Manville.
What was supposed to be a summer project created a need,” said Ms. Moeller. “People stated calling us.”
For information and to register to help, go to cjstreamteam.org or Facebook.com/100tires.This was another in the annual programs sponsored by the flood control commission.
In 2013, the group sponsored an all-day workshop at Raritan Valley Community College. The day featured programs, speeches and barnstorming about ways big and small to reduce flooding by limiting impervious surfaces, detaining and slowing water before it reaches the river and keeping waterways clear. It talked about the availability of grants and funding for river-related projects and shared zoning and planning tips for watershed municipalities to consider and use.
Last year, the commission convened a conference at Duke Farms, the former estate turned environmental preserve along the Raritan River in Hillsborough Township, near Manville.
Begun in 2012, the Raritan & Millstone Rivers Flood Control Commission is composed of 11 members. They are Somerset County; the boroughs of Manville, Raritan, Somerville, South Bound Brook, Rocky Hill and Millstone and the townships of Hillsborough, Montgomery, Franklin and Bridgewater. The group’s website is www.rmrfcc.org.
