Deal Expected To Pass

Ok, let's pray, hope, make-a-wish-upon-a-star, do a dance, SOMETHING, anything, that this deal goes through.

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Deal still expected to preserve land in Pennsville as part of Supawna National Wildlife Refuge

PENNSVILLE TWP. -- Environmental groups are still lobbying to reach the multi-million dollar asking price in a 77-acre land sale here, proposed to expand the Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge preservation borders.

Although the deadline to reach the $4.4 million funding goal passed in mid-April, a spokeswoman from The Conservation Fund said Friday that the deal is still scheduled to close by the end of this summer.

Funding organizations do not want to make an announcement until every penny is counted, according to Matt Blake, manager of the American Littoral Society's Delaware Bay Program.

"We are still working with the landowner and we are still working to preserve the property," said The Conservation Fund's Vanessa Vaughan. "It is still very much alive."

Freeholder Julie Acton said that environmental groups have brought the closing price down about $125,000 since April. That comes out to approximately $55,500 per acre.
"This is an important step forward in our open space program," Acton said. "It is a win we can definitely build on."

While the public has been divided on the concept -- some argue it will help secure the refuge and bring tourism, others say it ruins the chance of creating a decent ratable there -- freeholders stood behind the preservation by pledging $350,000.

Commonly referred to as the Sinnickson Tract after its current and longtime owners, whose family name dates back to the beginnings of European settlement in the area, the land had been eyed for development into a 280,000 square-foot Walmart Supercenter in 2006.

After a citizen lawsuit and state concession the land should never have been deemed fit for metropolitan growth, developers abandoned the project last year, paving the way for preservation.

The freeholders' decision in April to allocate $350,000 from a $1 million state Green Acres grant passed by a 4-3 vote. Opponents on the board said they were more interested in preserving "home rule," and the township majority seemed in favor of Walmart expansion.

The site design was made about half a mile south of the current Walmart store along Route 49.

Freeholder Dale Cross, a Pennsville resident who originally voted against the county appropriation, said they have to do their best to be ambassadors for open space now.
"It's approved. Now we all have to be unified in the effort to make sure it's successful and becomes a part of our tourism package," Cross said.