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April 21 to 27
Spring Wildfires
The Jones Road wildfire in Ocean County started on April 22. It has since become one of the worst wildfires in Garden State history, burning more than 15,000 acres, and it was still not 100% contained as of this writing. Nineteen-year-old Joseph Kling of Waretown has been arrested and charged with aggravated arson. Police say Kling failed to properly extinguish a bonfire.
The fire quickly became the news story of the week, at one point forcing the closure of a 17-mile stretch of the Garden State Parkway in southern Ocean County. Thousands of residents were told to evacuate their homes. One commercial business in Waretown was destroyed.
The rating agency Moody’s monitored the fire, noting that it shows that wildfire risk is not confined to western states. Factors like New Jersey’s prolonged drought, higher than normal temperatures and periods of low humidity were what Moody’s pointed to as elements that heighten risk.
A report by AccuWeather says that excessively dry conditions and high temperatures could increase fire danger all along the East Coast of the United States as far south as southern Florida. AccuWeather’s forecast calls for a potentially active spring that will build into the summer fire season. In New Jersey the forecast points to southern New Jersey as an area of moderate to high fire risk.
AccuWeather’s forecast also notes that almost 30% more U.S. acreage is at risk this year than in a normal year, according to national averages. The report projects that as many as 9 million acres are likely to burn in 2025.
Wildfire season in the U.S. usually peaks in late summer going into fall. The report notes, “Across the East, frequent showers and thunderstorms in the summer generally limit fire activity, but this won’t be the case everywhere in 2025.”
On April 23 the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said, “With below average precipitation conditions remaining the dominant weather pattern statewide, New Jersey remains in drought warning.” The New Jersey Forest Fire Service dashboard continues to show fire danger high in the southern regions of the state.
Fighting wildfires that are potentially larger than historic ones may become part of the arrival of spring in the Garden State.
Panic Over Rates
Democrats across the state are in a panic to combat Republican efforts to blame Gov. Phil Murphy’s climate change energy policies for rising electricity rates. The rates are causing significant discontent in the voting public. This year voters choose a new governor, and all 80 seats in the state Assembly are up for grabs. Democratic leaders do not want voters going into the polling booth with an abnormally high electricity bill in their hands.
In order to have Murphy’s policies not seen as a major cause of the rising rates there has been an all-out effort to paint the rising bills as a product of greedy utilities, an incompetent grid operator in PJM Interconnection and even accusations of market manipulation. Murphy’s April 16 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission calls for an investigation.
Nowhere in Democrats’ flailing at the problem are state policies mentioned as a potential contributing factor. Republicans see that as disingenuous. They claim that the state focus on an offshore wind industry that never gained sufficient traction despite enormous levels of policy and financial support left the state short on electric power supply.
The problem, they say, is a straightforward result of basic economic principles of supply and demand. The state encouraged the premature retirement of fossil-fuel-reliant energy generators in favor of its vision of replacement power from renewable sources. What Republicans say was a failed effort to maintain an adequate power supply has produced soaring rate hikes that are grievously impacting ratepayers.
On April 25 there was a second hearing in Trenton to explore the factors contributing to the higher rates. The first hearing was on March 28, at which Christine Guhl-Sadovy, Murphy’s appointee as president of the Board of Public Utilities, said the supply problem driving up costs was based on an “artificial scarcity” for which PJM was largely responsible.
The hearing Friday more sharply defined the party positions on the rate hikes scheduled to go into effect June 1. They are, as Murphy calls them, part of a “manufactured PJM cost crisis” that was “foreseeable and preventable.” Or they are, as Sen. Michael Testa sees it, the result of “Trenton Democrats and the BPU pushing an unreliable, unaffordable energy disaster plan that broke our system.”
The BPU this week ordered electric utilities to submit plans to defer the imminent rate hikes during the hot summer months. There has been no explanation of what that means, how it would work and what the result would be for rates when the summer is over.
Measles and Milk
The Kaiser Family Foundation this week reported on high levels of uncertainty among the public concerning measles. As the uncertainty builds, so does the caseload.
As of April 25, the CDC reports 884 confirmed measles cases, with two-thirds of those cases infecting individuals 19 years old or younger. Some 11% of the infected individuals have been hospitalized, and three have died.
A survey by Kaiser shows the level of uncertainty. Asked if getting the measles vaccine is more dangerous than becoming infected with the disease, 19% of Americans said the statement was true or probably true. Another 25% said vitamin A can prevent an infection, and 24% said it is true or probably true that the vaccines have been proven to cause autism in children.
Kaiser says that the number of individuals who report hearing one or the other false claim about measles or the vaccine is climbing, leaving more parents concerned about what they should do. Medical professionals continue to urge parents to vaccinate children.
Stanford University researchers reported April 24 that measles, rubella and polio are among diseases that could be endemic to the United States again if vaccine rates decline.
All of this comes as massive changes continue in the funding and structure of the country’s public health infrastructure. This week some local parents contacted a Herald reporter over concerns that the FDA had suspended a quality control program meant to ensure that labs across the country can identify pathogens and other contaminants in milk.
The FDA said the move was the result of budget and staff reductions. The agency said it is working to reestablish the program in a new lab. Meanwhile, officials say there is no danger to the national milk supply, as state actions under the pasteurization statutes remain in effect. But the uncertainty that prompts mothers to raise concerns is evidence of an environment in which conflicting information on public health issues is likely to be more the norm than the exception.
Week in Review
*A $300 million to $400 million development project that will replace the former B.L. England power plant on Beesley’s Point has taken a key step forward in the long process of developing the 377-acre waterfront site.
*Having failed twice to gain voter approval for a permanent increase in the school district’s tax levy, the Dennis Township Board of Education this month took a different route: It applied to the state for an increase in expenditures beyond the level permitted by state budgetary caps.
*In a borough that loses people from its employee leadership ranks with little or no public comment, Stone Harbor has now seen the resignation of Clerk Emily Dillon, with the only hint that it was imminent being a line in a slide in Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Lindsay’s 2025 budget presentation.
*One woman’s project to commemorate the efforts of Allied forces during World War II from D-Day to the liberation of Paris resulted in the creation of 80 knitted dioramas depicting scenes from that period. The exhibit opened at the Naval Air Station Wildwood Museum on Monday, April 14.
*The Cape May City Council has adopted a recycling ordinance that has been debated for months in the governing body’s meetings.
*The Cape May City has recognized the service of resident Dennis Crowley as Crowley steps down from a five-year stint as chair of the Municipal Taxation and Revenue Advisory Committee, with Mayor Zach Mullock reading a proclamation in his honor at the City Council’s April 15 meeting.
*The Cape May County Educational Foundation, a sister organization to the county Chamber of Commerce, is increasing its effort to make education more affordable for some county residents.
*For the sixth year in a row Cape May City has introduced a municipal budget with no increase in the local purpose tax. The $28 million budget for the general fund calls for a $10.9 million taxpayer levy, which is the smallest percentage of levy to total general fund appropriations in the county.
*Former Upper Township Business Administrator Gary DeMarzo has chosen to drop a defamation case against an Upper Township resident and was ordered to pay the resident more than $6,400 in attorney fees and court costs.
*County Commissioner Will Morey has presented his fellow commissioners with a proposal for amending rules established this year to control public outbursts or disruptive behavior at board meetings.
*A federal agency has approved electricity grid operator PJM Interconnection’s proposal to set a price cap on its auctions this year and next, a plan that its backers estimate would save consumers in New Jersey and 12 other states $21 billion over two years.
*All programs at the Howard S. Stainton Senior Center at 1735 Simpson Ave. in Ocean City will move to the Ocean City Civic Center, at Sixth Street and Boardwalk, starting on Monday, April 28, and extending through Friday, May 9, due to installation of a new floor at the Stainton center.
*The Democrats are pulling out all stops to try and avoid being blamed by voters when utility bill hikes kick in this June: On April 22, Gov. Phil Murphy signed newly passed legislation that requires utilities to inform customers by text message or email on the 10th and 20th days of a billing cycle about the cost of their electricity and the amount of kilowatt hours or therms they’ve used.
*A 19-year-old Waretown man has been arrested and charged with aggravated arson in connection with the so-named Jones Road fire in Ocean County that consumed more than 15,000 acres of woodlands, authorities said.
*The county commissioners shut down discussion at their April 22 meeting about talking to the Delaware River and Bay Authority about Cape May Airport, claiming such discussion was more appropriate for a closed session.
*The State Planning Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection have approved the township’s regional center designations, a step ahead for the township’s evolving plan for redevelopment.
*About 35 wannabe golf superstars ages 9 to 18 from Wildwood were at the Cape May Par 3 Golf & Driving Range, taking part in the Mentor on the Green program, which teaches golf and life lessons.
*Due to scheduled maintenance, the Grassy Sound Bridge will close to vehicle traffic on Thursday, May 1, at 10 p.m. and reopen at 6 a.m. on Friday, May 2.
*The state Board of Public Utilities is requiring New Jersey’s four electricity utilities to submit proposals to defer rate increases expected to begin June 1 until later in the year, to reduce their immediate impact.
Spout Off of the Week
Who decides what County Road gets paved? Woodbine Road, which has very little traffic, gets repaved while one of the most heavily traveled roads in the County, Court House- Dennisville Road, remains a pot-hole, rut filled mess!
Middle Township
