Three Year Project: The Woman Who Saved Ponderlodge from Demolition

CAPE MAY — When everyone else gave up on saving Ponderlodge from demolition, Barbara Skinner kept working towards her goal of seeing it saved as an environmental education center.
Her tenaciousness paid off last week when a lease agreement between the state Department of Environmental Protection and Richard M. Stockton College was announced. In a search for interested parties, Skinner had contacted Stockton College as a demolition deadline loomed.
“Three years ago when I went to Ponderlodge, I was struck by the beauty of the place,” she said.
The lodge building was already in existence on a preserved tract of land.
“I couldn’t see that it could be anything else but an environmental center,” said Skinner.
She started an organization to save Ponderlodge.
Three years ago, the Elks Club of Lower Township was interested in preserving Ponderlodge’s main building. An Elks representative accompanied Skinner to a meeting with DEP in Trenton.
She said the Elks were unable to get financing for the project. That left her without a partner for the project.
During the second year of Skinner’s drive to save Ponderlodge, no interested parties were found, she said.
In year three, she decided to give it one last “heave-ho.” She wrote to Rutgers University and started a petition, which received 1,400 signatures and asked for letters of support as requested by Sen. Jeff Van Drew.
Skinner spoke at Lower Township Council meetings and contacted the township’s the recreation department.
Former DEP Commissioner Brad Campbell helped get a six month stay of demolition of the former golf course’s buildings which expired Jan. 31 of this year.
“At that point I was desperate, I couldn’t raise a million dollars by myself,” said Skinner.
DEP told her at that time that they had to move forward with the demolition.
“The main goal was to have a positive use for that property which for the most part would help the year round population, particularly the children,” said Skinner.
She attended a Bioneers Conference in October, a national environmental group where she talked about the project. At the conference, she met Robert Milligan, an environmental consultant from Canada who later drove here to attend an energy conference at Stockton College with Skinner.
She contacted Matthew Altiers, vice president of administration and finance for Stockton College which showed interest in Ponderlodge. A meeting followed that included Van Drew.
“It shows you that if you keep trying and keep trying, occasionally it works,” said Skinner.
She said Van Drew negotiated with DEP and helped finalize an agreement.
Skinner is aware of criticism of her project from some Lower Township residents including the fact she is a resident of Cape May.
“I think it that it just reflects, regrettably, the amount of disappointment the residents of Lower Township have felt watching that property deteriorate for so long,” said Skinner. “Since they don’t know me, they don’t trust me.
Skinner has a long history of preservation and environmental projects ranging from the Save the Beach Theatre Foundation to keeping Cape May’s VFW Hall open to preserving the lawn of Congress Hall.
What is her motivation for projects that use her time and money?
“I think just the satisfaction that one person matters and I think to some degree, it’s a lesson in civics because so many people feel they cannot do anything about anything, so why bother,” she said.
Ponderlodge will be huge benefit to local youth “because it will teach people what makes Cape May County so special, said Skinner.
“I’m really pleased the complex will be saved,” she said.
Skinner said she had help from Joan Dean an environmental steward of U.S. Fish and Wildlife of Cape May National Wildlife Refuge, resident Sam Foxworthy, Doug Jewel of the Sierra Club, Deb Noe, Jane Roop, Sally Sachs, Joyce Gooch, Philip Walker, Jerri Breath, Helen Edwards. Jim Adkins, Mary Peckiconis and John Fleming.
Louis Limon, a 15 year old Lower Township student wrote letters to local newspapers praising the project.
“He was symbolic of who an environmental education center at Ponderlodge will benefit,” she said.