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County Officials Pledge To Support Planetarium
By Bill McLaughlin
The open public hearing on the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders' annual budget was delayed for two minutes last Wednesday because a Manchester woman was hawking a book in the front of the meeting room.
It wasn't just any woman, selling just any book, to merely anyone.
Pearl Schwartz was representing the League of Women Voters in selling the latest edition of The New Jersey Citizens' Guide to Government, a $4 compendium of facts on laws and lawmakers of the Garden State.
Schwartz has long been a member of the voters' rights organization and also the Littoral Society and other local conservation groups. She spent years lobbying for programs to protect the environment.
Freeholders Joseph Vicari and John Bartlett came down from the dais to buy books just as the 4 p.m. meeting was scheduled to begin.
Later, during the public comment period, Schwartz got a chance to address the freeholders.
"We made a stop at the Board of Elections," Schwartz said. "They buy them from us individually, not the board paying
for them. (This book) makes their job so much easier."
The freeholders praised her as a woman interested in good government and also environmental issues.
"I used to be at every freeholders meeting," she said, "Public and pre-board. I find (pre-boards) much more interesting."
The pre-board meetings are held in the county administration building's third floor conference room the Wednesday before the open public meeting. Usually, a department head must explain his or her program to the freeholders in the pre-board meeting before it is unveiled at the public session the following week.
Trying To Save Planetarium
In other business, the freeholders pledged their support for the Novins Planetarium at Ocean County College, saying they will do what they can to get the local attraction up and running again.
"We'll address the issues out there," said James Lacey, the board liaison to Ocean County College. "We had an anonymous person who promised money but that didn't turn out."
Lacey said the board will work with OCC President Jon Larson on setting up a plan to fix the problems, which range from maintenance, to possibly replacing the outdated but expensive stargazing equipment.
"We'll get to work on solving this problem," Lacey told the audience. "The planetarium itself is in great shape. We just have to find out how to fund this."
Lacey said there is a meeting March 26 and also the freeholders' pre-board meeting March 28 and possible outcomes could be discussed by that time.
Herb Germann, a history professor at the college, offered an anecdote about what the planetarium means to one portion of the populace, who come away awed and inspired by the experience.
"I'm here to speak for the planetarium and those little thirdand fourth-graders who come out of there with the biggest smiles on their faces," Germann prefaced his remarks.
He said the planetarium was a facility that made OCC a destination for younger students every year. Lacking the programs the planetarium staff provided through the years, this becomes a quality of life issue.
"I asked a teacher once, 'How do you get your third graders to line up like ducks?'" Germann said. "'I can't get my (college) kids to do that.' This is an institution that enhances the culture of the county."
And finally, Kenneth H. Vanderziel got a surprise "Semper Fi" salute from Freeholder Gerry Little after the board gave final approval to land sale buys in Berkeley and Manchester.
Vanderziel, a long-time leader of the governing body in Manchester, rose in support of the cooperative county-municipality purchase of land to the west of the defunct Ciba-Geigy plant.
"We undertook this as part of our Open Space plan," Vanderziel told the Freeholders, "As a buffer between the plant and our residential neighborhoods."
Little, who served in the Marine Corps as well, hailed Vanderziel as "a member of the greatest generation, who fought in World War II."
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