Board Decision Gives Us An Opportunity To Fix The Ditch — If We Work On It

People living along the Rosewood Ditch scored a first down on their way to what we all hope will be a game-winning decision to fix the Rosewood Ditch once and for all.

Excuse the football metaphors, but ‘tis the season. And the decision lays out a course of work that those of us living by the ditch must undertake if we want the town to take action and fix it.

The Planning Board Thursday night asked its attorneys to prepare a resolution that gives preliminary approval to the proposed active-adult community the would be built on the Marveland Farms property. The resolution includes a variety of “conditions,” one of which is that the developer will work with the town and with the residents near the Rosewood Ditch to address the issues we’ve been raising—if DEP allows it.

The long meeting Thursday night featured supporting testimony about fixing the Rosewood Ditch from people on both sides of Knollwood and Bolton Roads. They talked about how the ditch has changed over the years, flood conditions when it rains, and mosquito-producing conditions when it’s dry.

An attorney representing the sellers of Marveland Farms told the Planning Board that the Rosewood Ditch wasn’t caused by Marveland Farms, and that they shouldn’t consider the ditch.

Fortunately, when it came time to vote, board members thought otherwise:

• John Cavanaugh (yes) – “DEP has to be shaken up. We need your help (directed at the applicant) to fix this problem. I encourage township residents to continue to show up.”
• Joseph Fleischner (no) – “I voted wrongly for the changing of the zoning.”
• Rene Gadelha (yes) – “The Rosewood Ditch…I wonder how much it can be exacerbated (by Marveland Farms) and that’s been on my mind.”
• Nelson Russell (yes) – “I voted yes on the rezoning because part of the concept was fixing the ditch.”

With the exception of Fleischner, board members acknowledged that the developers had met all their legal obligations and there were no grounds on which they could deny the application. Mayor David Scapicchio went so far as to say, “I’ve been trying to find a reason to deny, but I haven’t heard one.”

Planning Chair Howard Weiss described the ditch as “the biggest problem concerning the residents,” but went on to say it’s “a pre-existing off-site problem” that didn’t really impact the board’s decision.

Weiss has not been especially sympathetic to our cause. He made a comment in the Daily Record that we must be happy with what had been done previously because residents hadn’t been coming to meetings. And Thursday night, he noted that the ditch was a pre-existing condition not directly related to the Marveland Farms proposal. Not the kind of thing we want to hear.

But here’s the thing: He’s 100 percent correct.

For the first time since the ditch’s creation, we have a lot of things in our favor to get the ditch fixed once and for all. Mayor Scapicchio and Councilman John Mania have voiced their support and are willing to work on our behalf.

But we have to do the work.

Last May, the town received a letter about the Rosewood Ditch from the state Department of Environmental Protection. It said, in part, “The Department cannot lawfully permit the cleaning, piping, moving, or elimination of the Rosewood Ditch under the Flood Hazard Area Control Act rules, unless an erosion, flooding problem, mosquito control problem or other threat to public health, safety or welfare can be demonstrated.”

So there’s our charge: Town officials need to document that the Rosewood Ditch is creating erosion, flooding, mosquito and other threats to our health and safety.

Do you have letters, photos or other evidence of the problems created by the ditch? Can you show how it’s changed since 1993, when it was widened? In addition, take photos or videos of the current conditions. See a swarm of mosquitoes? Grab your cell phone and shoot it. A rat? Take a video. Flooding makes another good pic.

Please send copies of anything you have to David Scapicchio, Mayor-Township of Mount Olive, Post Office Box 450, Budd Lake, NJ 07828, or email the information to him at admin@mtolivetwp.org and put the mayor’s name and Rosewood Ditch in the subject line.

Also, please share everything with us. You can do that here, by emailing to fixtheditch@gmail.com or by posting it on the FixTheDitch Facebook page.

If we don’t do this now, if we don’t give town officials the support and cover they need to challenge the DEP, we’ll never get this fixed. And as the water rises into our backyards or we slap mosquitoes on a summer evening, we’ll be able to blame only one group of people: Us.

Let’s get to work. The clock is ticking and we’ve got a lot of work to do to push that ball toward the end zones.

It’s time to fix the Rosewood Ditch

For years, we’ve had the Rosewood Ditch in our back yard and we’ve fought with the town, the county and state to at least keep it clean. For the first time, we have some support from town officials. This blog will be a place to discuss the ditch, post pictures and document the troubles it causes.

It’s imperative that we document that problems the ditch is creating if we are to get anything done with it. The state has told the town we can’t touch it except to solve specific situations, which I’ll post later. Those conditions exist, but the town claims it has no documentation. Let’s get out those pix, those letters and start showing how this thing is damaging our back yard.