Hammonton, Folsom, bVT officials want to keep SJ Gas HQ
Page 4 • Wednesday, March 9, 2016 • The Hammonton Gazette
COUNCIL, from Page 1
against what Mayor Stephen DiDonato has openly referred to as
“job poaching.” Also on hand was
Folsom Mayor Louis DeStefano
and Buena Vista Township Mayor
Chuck Chiarello.
At the end of the meeting, Hammonton and Folsom both voted to
approve a joint resolution (with
Councilman Joseph Giralo recusing himself because he is employed by the Atlantic County
Improvement Authority) urging
the county government to conduct
a forensic examination of the finances of ACDevco and its holding company, which town officials
said is developing the potential
“gateway” project for South Jersey Gas and Stockton in Atlantic
City, prior to making a final vote
on the bonding for the project.
The council also said the resolution should be sent to Governor
Chris Christie’s office, the Local
Finance Board, the Atlantic
County Freeholder Board and
Videos
wanted
for Teen
Arts
Festival
HAMMONTON—The Teen
Arts Festival will be held May 6
in downtown.
Organizers are calling all teens
to grab your camera, phone or
tablet and show the world what art
means to you.
The Atlantic County Office of
Cultural and Heritage Affairs is
awarding $1,000 for the best original short video by a high school
teen.
The winning video will best
communicate the importance of
art and art education in a teen’s
life and may include the visual
arts, performing arts and creative
writing as subject matter. All
videos must end with the slogan,
“Arts Ed Now” and #ArtsEdNow.
“The Jay and Linda Grunin
Foundation is providing this generous $1,000 award as an ancillary
activity of the New Jersey Teen
Arts Festival. Students may work
individually or in teams,” Cultural and Heritage Affairs Administrator for Atlantic County
Cynthia Mason Purdie said.
Videos must be submitted by
April 30, 2016, through an online
portal: www.artsednow.org/teenvideo-contest.
A local committee will review
submissions from students in Atlantic County and eligible Cape
May County students who participate in the Atlantic County Teen
Arts Festival. The 2016 Atlantic
County Teen Arts Festival will be
held on Friday, May 6 in the Hammonton Art District.
For more information, please
contact the Atlantic County Office
of Cultural and Heritage Affairs
by email to cmasonpurdie@
aclsys.org or by calling 646-8699
x6314.
Citizen of the
Year dinner is
April 14
HAMMONTON—The Hammonton Lions Club Citizen of the
Year Dinner will be held on April
14, featuring Miss New Jersey
Lindsey Giannini as the recipient
of the award.
The event will be held at
Tomasello Winery. Tickets are
available by calling Loretta
Rehmann at 703-4378.
other government entities.
DiDonato began the meeting by
giving a brief synopsis of exactly
what’s happening with the proposed relocation and how it will
affect Hammonton.
“South Jersey Gas is contemplating a move to go to the
Chelsea section of the Atlantic
City. They have asked the county
for $50 million of bonding capacity, and they’ve asked NJEA [New
Jersey Education Association]
SMART growth money for 12
million dollars … It’s moving 180
to 200 jobs east, and South Jersey
Industries will remain in Folsom
with a much smaller crew,” DiDonato said.
He continued by commenting
on a meeting that took place earlier in the week between himself,
DeStefano and Jeffrey DuBois.
DuBois currently serves as Executive Vice President for South Jersey Gas.
DeStefano followed DiDonato
by discussing what a move such
as this would mean for the economy of Folsom.
“It’s disconcerting to Folsom
that 167 jobs are going to be
moved and tax credits are being
used to make that move – to poach
our employees that work in our
town. Part of our displeasure is
that we were never notified that
they were going to move. We
were never given the opportunity
to work with South Jersey Gas if
they felt the need to expand in the
Borough of Folsom … We don’t
have many ratables in our town,
only a few,” DeStefano said.
Although Buena Vista Township was not legally part of the
joint meeting between Hammonton and Folsom, Chiarello addressed the crowd to show the
town’s support for its neighboring
communities.
“It’s difficult to keep business
here. We have similar problems
even in Buena Vista where we
have people being lured away …
I do feel for the impact of this particular project … I don’t directly
blame Atlantic County in this situation. I blame the rules in the
state that allow the Grow New
Jersey and the Economic Development Authority to have this
treasure chest of money to offer
all these towns and businesses to
play hop-scotch around the state,”
Chiarello said.
DiDonato painted a vivid picture as to why the HammontonFolsom area is what he called a
“talent pool” and why the jobs
should remain.
“If you took Hammonton on a
geographic map and drew a circle
for anybody to commute within a
half hour of Hammonton, your
circle would just about touch
Philly. It would go down to Atlantic City. It would go south towards Vineland, and it would go
north through Shamong and most
of Medford. Th N(