Send Protest Letter Online
or Mail Letter:
Contacts:
Msgr. Michael Kelly, Headmaster, 120 North eld Ave, West Orange, NJ 07052
973 325-PREP mkelly@shp.org
John Henrikson, Environmental Studies SHP, JHenrikson@shp.org
Jason Makarow, Director of Advancement and Alumni SHP, jmakarow@shp.org
Chairman of SHP Board John B. Murray, Esq., Connell, Foley & Geiser
85 Livingston Avenue, Roseland, NJ 07068 9730535-0500
The Most Reverend Archdioceses of Newark John J. Myers, Archbishop of
Newark 171 Clifton Avenue, Newark, New Jersey 07104, vasquero@rcan.org
Joe DiVincenzo,, Essex County Executive, 465 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Hall of Records Room 508, Newark, NJ 07102
jdivincenzo@freeholders.essexcountynj.org
Mayor and Assemblyperson, John McKeon, 66 Main Street, West Orange, NJ
07052, 973 325-4100, mayor@westorange.org
West Orange Zoning Board, 973 325-4110 Fax 973 325-6359
zoningboard@westorange.org
John B. Murray, Esq. (Chairman)
Managing Partner
Connell, Foley & Geiser
85 Livingston Avenue
Roseland, NJ 07068
973/535-0500
Andrew Beifus, President & CEO
Beifus Motors
213 Valley Road
South Orange, NJ 07079
973/378-8900
James J. Burke, Jr., Managing Partner
Stonington Partners
767 Fifth Avenue St. 4801
New York, NY 10153
212/339-8500
Rev. Msgr. William J. Daly
St. Joseph¹s Parish
44 Benvenue Avenue
West Orange, NJ 07052
973/669-3221
Thomas R. Farley, Esq.
Ridge Road
West Orange, NJ 07052
973/736-0814
John F. Hunt, Esq.
25 Greenview Way
Upper Montclair, NJ 07043
Melvin Knight
Director of Athletics
Essex County College
303 University Avenue
Newark, NJ 07101
973/877-3000
Thomas P. Mac Mahon, Chairman-CEO
Laboratory Corp. of America
358 S. Main Street
Burlington, NC 27215
336/229-1127
M. Richard Merklinger, Esq., Managing Partner
Hack, Piro, O¹Day, Merklinger, Wallace, McKenna, PA
30 Columbia Turnpike
Florham Park, NJ 07932
973/301-6500
Jon O¹Neil, Deputy Supt., Secondary Schools
Archdiocese of Newark
171 Clinton Avenue
Newark, NJ 07101
973/497-4260
Paul V. Scura, Partner
Scura, Rise & Partners, LLC
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
212/596-3380
Thomas J. Sharkey. President
Meeker/Sharkey Financial Group
14 Commerce Drive
Cranford, NJ 07016
973/272-8100
M. Randall Strickland, Managing Director
BNY Asset Management
Bank of New York
One Wall Street
New York, NY 10286
212495-1784
Jesse J. Watkins, Managing Partner
Herbert L. Jamison & Co.
100 Executive Drive
West Orange, NJ 07052
jwatkins@jamisongroup.com
973/731-0806
Nina Mitchel Wells, Esq.
Director of Public Affairs
Schering Plough Corporation
Giralda Farms, Dodge Drive
Madison, NJ 07940
973/822-7000
Samuel F. Champi, President
Point Construction Company,
Morris Plains, NJ 07924
Sam Ciampi, Managing Director
Sam@SourceOneSearch.com
No addresses for these 3 yet:
John M. Gentempo, President
Service and Tech Systems, Inc.
Nehansic Station, NJ 08853
Donald Remlinger, Director
London Global Financial Services
Greenwich, CT
Margaret C. O¹Connor
TIAA-CREF
New York, NY
All the below at the same address:
Most Rev. John G. Myers, President
Archbishop of Newark
Archdiocese of Newark
171 Clifton Avenue
Newark, NJ 07104
973/497-4000
Most Rev. Paul G. Bootkoski
Vicar General, Auxiliary Bishop
Sister Thomas Mary Salerno, SC, MA
Secretary, Chancellor
973/497-4009
Sister Dominica Rocchio, SC
Secretary for Education
973/497-4260
Sample Letter
Please edit and customize these talking points so they reflect your feelings
about the project! Good luck!
DATE
Dear _______________,
I am writing to you concerning Seton Hall Prep¹s proposed Kelly Athletic
Complex in West Orange.
I am asking you to reconsider your plans for the following reasons:
The community is deeply concerned about the impact of this project on the
environment and our neighborhood.
The plan as submitted is unsuitable for the following reasons:
The effect of clear-cutting 1000 trees, raising the ground-level elevations
with 1500 truckloads of ill, will continue to impact the water table for the
neighborhood and is in violation of Township ordinances which require us to
protect trees, ridgelines and endangered species.
We have reason to believe that the site may be home to the endangered
Indiana Bat, because the site contains eight Shag Bark Hickory trees, which
are typically home to this unique and fragile species. All eight trees will
be cut.
The response from Seton Hall Prep has been dismissive of all real issues as
demonstrated by Msgr Kelly¹s remark ³ It¹s just a few wealthy homeowners,
who don¹t want athletic fields in their backyard.²
The majority of the neighborhood is opposed to this project because
in this age of climate change, destroying trees is the worst policy
possible. This forest is irreplaceable.
It even violates the Vatican¹s intentions to make itself carbon neutral.
All of the homes surrounding the site are experiencing flooding and there is
no drainage system that can compensate for this. Nor has Seton Hall Prep
endeavored to fix the drainage system they promised would alleviate flooding
in 1999.
Seton Hall Prep has a reputation that is valuable. Yet it seems to be
willing to risk that reputation by breaking the law repeatedly and expecting
special treatment.
How environmentally, socially and spiritually conscious has the
administration of Seton Hall Prep been? Here are the undisputed facts:
Seton Hall Prep Headmaster Kelly offered to meet with Sierra Club members to
discuss a collaboration. But over a two year period of correspondence, they
ignored requests to set a date and instead presented plans as finished, thus
betraying the community.
Despite local opposition, in 1999, Seton Hall Prep constructed athletic
fields on more than twenty acres of forest without an environmental impact
statement.
Between 2002 and 2006 Seton Hall Prep illegally cut over 4 acres of very
large trees including a 60² diameter Oak tree that was 300 years old without
a permit. They brought in hundreds of truckloads of fill containing asphalt
and received a summons by the NJDEP.
In April of 2007, Seton Hall Prep received an additional summons by the
Township of West Orange for constructing an athletic field without a permit.
There is a cease and desist order preventing the school from using the
field.
Presently, Seton Hall Prep has been discharging storm water onto the steep
slopes of its property out of conformity with the storm water system thereby
causing severe soil erosion and flooding of the neighborhood.
Time and again over these past years and more intensely in the 12 hearings
at the West Orange Township Zoning Board, the neighbors have demonstrated
that the administration of Seton Hall Prep has dismissed the neighborhood¹s
concerns.
We are asking you to reconsider your plans for the sports complex, find
another site where you can be free to do as you please without impinging on
the neighborhood with flooding, excessive noise, traffic, fumes, and loss of
the environment.
While sports are important, they should not take precedence over scientific
knowledge, the environment, or the quality of life of the neighborhood.
If you looked at this project from another perspective, The Seton Hall Prep
School is one of only two schools on the east coast with its own
ecologically rare forest for study. You have the opportunity to preserve The
McClellan Old Growth Forest for study and scientific opportunity. It is a
win-win solution that I hope you will consider.
I would appreciate hearing from you.
Sincerely,
