Bill\’s Point of View
A dream of a Middle School being built in Gloucester City may still come true after all, that is if Governor Corzine has his request granted. A story on today\’s Courier Post website announced Corzine plans to seek $2.5 billion for Abbott school projects. The Abbott districts in South Jersey include Camden, Gloucester City , Burlington City and Pemberton Township.
Before Gov. Jon S. Corzine gets approval for his plan to halve state debt by hiking tolls and borrowing more money, he will begin a separate push to borrow at least $2.5 billion more to fund school construction projects in the state\’s poorest districts. read entire article
Several years ago in Gloucester City 70 families and two businesses were displaced to make room for the new school in the area between Sixth and Fifth Streets extending from Market Street back to Jersey Avenue.
The homes and businesses were taken under the guise of the eminent domain law. An estimated $20 million was spent to remove the families along with cleaning up environmental issues in the area that have been there for decades. Even after spending millions of dollars the school was never built and the ground has remained vacant..
Most people presumed that because the state of New Jersey School Construction program was broke the new school would never become a reality. In fact recently there has been talk amongst Gloucester City Mayor James and City council about building an over 55 single home development which would help the city with much needed tax revenue.
The local government has been in touch with Trenton to try to release the ground back to the City.
The other issue that led the populace to believe the project would never be built; where are the students coming from to fill a new school.
When that question first came up supposedly the School Board or Administration told the State the City\’s population would increase after the 1000 new homes in the South Port section of the City were built. Even though the project at the time was 10 years or more away from construction, and has been discussed off and on since 1980 the state said okay. The plans to build the school continued until it was announced by Trenton there was no money available. The school construction program for Abbott\’s District was bankrupt because it was mismanaged.
Now what remains is whether or not Corzine can convince the residents of New Jersey to borrow more money to help Abbott Districts build new schools. At the same time he is also trying to convince taxpayers to increase tolls on the NJ Turnpike, the Parkway and the Atlantic City Expressway to pay off the state budget deficit which amounts to several billion dollars.
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