NOTICE: A local residents’ meeting to discuss the project had been scheduled for 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 2. at Mount Zion Baptist Church, 353 South New Road, Pleasantville, NJ. Due to Covid concerns, however, the meeting is being moved to a virtual format (by computer). Check this space tomorrow to learn how to join the meeting.

By Christopher Doyle Press of Atlantic City

The debris-waste transfer station planned for a lot in Pleasantville has driven disputes and controversy within the city — but it also has attracted attention from municipalities and stakeholders throughout Atlantic County.

Pleasantville Mayor Judy Ward, an advocate for the station, has said she believed the project would be a valuable ratable for the city while generating an estimated $400,000 in annual revenue via waste-transfer fees. Ward argues this revenue could be invested in other capital improvement projects that would be crucial to the city’s growth. The developer for the project also has pledged to give priority to Pleasantville residents in hiring.

“The city is trying to do what’s best for the residents,” Ward said.

The chief opponent of the station is the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, which has spearheaded a “Stop the Dump” campaign against the project. The ACUA says the planned facility would be too small to handle 100,000 tons of waste per year, as is planned. The authority argued the station would choke the neighborhood with incoming traffic and create noise pollution and offensive smells.

ACUA President Rick Dovey has stressed that the station is still awaiting review from several organizations at different levels of government, including the Atlantic County Solid Waste Advisory Council and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Dovey said Monday he was skeptical the project would receive DEP approval. He has said he wanted there to be a forum for residents who may be opposed to the project.

James DiNatale, the developer of the project, disputes that the site would be too small to handle 100,000 tons of waste per year. He also stressed that the facility would handle only construction and demolition debris waste. Also, the proximity of the planned station to a nearby rail line would actually reduce the trucks needed to ship waste in and out of the county, lessening the cost and traffic burden, DiNatale said. He argued the area around the facility was already industrial, so the new waste facility would not be out of place in the neighborhood.

Ward has called active opposition by the ACUA to the project offensive and maintained the authority should instead be focused on accelerating trash and recycling pickup.

“I find the whole campaign to be disrespectful to the city of Pleasantville,” Ward said.

The plan is for the trash-transfer station to handle about 100,000 tons of debris per year, shipping it via rail line to an Ohio landfill. The city will be paid a $4 per ton transfer fee, thus amounting to $400,000 in annual revenue for Pleasantville.

In preliminary planning phases, DiNatale had considered the Blue Heron Pines neighborhood of Galloway Township as a location, but he ultimately decided he preferred the Pleasantville site because the city’s rails were better situated to ship waste.

Bob Mueller, president of the Blue Heron Pines Homeowners Association, said he had expressed concerns about the project when he caught wind of it. The Township Council, Mueller said, took residents’ concerns into account and opposed the project.

“There’s got to be a holistic approach, it has to fit within the community, it has to be to the benefit of the people that reside in and around it,” Mueller said. “And that’s up for (Pleasantville residents) to decide.”

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