EnviroPolitics Blog

NJ State Senator Chris Brown is turning the page

By Michelle Brunetti , Atlantic City Press

State Sen. Chris Brown, R-Atlantic, will not seek reelection, he said Thursday.

Former Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian, who previously planned to run for Assembly in the 2nd District, will instead seek to replace Brown.

Brown, 56, who was expected to have a good shot at winning a second term, has been in the state Legislature for 10 years, including six as an assemblyman.

“This chapter in my life was a page-turner, particularly the story about our successful fight to defeat North Jersey casinos, which saved our industry and thousands of local jobs,” Brown said. “I’m grateful for those who helped me write all of the pages in this chapter.”

He said he has been realizing lately how short life is. His father died at 58, when Brown was 22. And Brown was activated to serve in Iraq at 26, when he was a third-year law student.

“Knowing the pages in the Book of Life turn quickly, I believe each chapter should be an adventure,” Brown said. “While this chapter of serving as a legislator is coming to an end, I am looking forward to the next chapter, which I’m sure will lead to another adventure for my family and me. I don’t know what that adventure will be, but I’m excited to find out.”

The unexpected opening means this year’s 2nd Legislative District race will be hard fought and expensive, predicted John Froonjian, executive director of the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.

“I would be surprised if Assemblyman (Vince) Mazzeo did not run. He has shown in the past he was interested in the Senate seat in 2017, and had been rumored to be considering it this time,” Froonjian said of the Democrat.

That would mean both the state Senate and an Assembly seat would be open and candidates on both sides would line up to compete, Froonjian said.

Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, said Thursday he will make a decision soon.

“I’m certainly interested. I have a family and close friends to talk to, as well as staff members who have been with me,” Mazzeo said. “I’ll make a decision sooner rather than later. I’ve been 18 years in public office and have learned to be a little more patient with my decision making.”

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson said no Democrat wanted to run against Brown.

“I will miss him. He served this area extraordinarily well,” Levinson said, citing Brown’s quiet demeanor and the respect everyone had for him. “We were lucky to have him as long as we did.”

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Remember when Philadelphia said it had stopped combining the disposal of trash and curbside recycling? Well, guess what?

A Philadelphian took a photo of recycling getting picked up with trash. The face of the city worker is obscured to protect their identity. (Jason Peters/Twitter)

By Hadriana Lowenkron, WHYY News

After months of issues surrounding trash and recycling pickup across Philadelphia, the city’s system is still not fully functioning — with an unknown percentage of recycling dumped into landfills along with trash pickup each day.

Following the 2019 discovery that Philadelphia deposited at least half of its recycling in an incinerator, the city pledged to continue recycling — even as the cost increased. But the pandemic added operational challenges to the economic ones.

Scott McGrath, the city’s environmental planning director, maintains that inconsistent recycling is not a money-saving strategy and that as soon as the Streets Department has the workers to consistently separate trash from recycling, it will revert to that practice.

“We have more than sufficient funds from a budget standpoint to handle the recycling,” McGrath told the Inquirer in November. “We’re going to do everything we can to keep collecting it.”

McGrath, on Wednesday, described the Sanitation Department as still struggling to regain its footing after the one-two punch of COVID-19, in which the pandemic both created a 30% increase in trash due to residents working from home and led to a decrease in personnel as some contracted the virus.

McGrath could not estimate how much recycling is getting mixed in with trash but confirmed anecdotal reports of a citywide problem without any geographical patterns.

He emphasized that everything collected separately as recycling gets processed at the Waste Management Recycling Plan in Northeast Philadelphia, but admitted that when trash and recycling are collected together, they both get deposited to landfills.

“We have had, more recently, some situations where to get the material off the street, they’ve had to combine the trash and recycling in some areas of the city,” he said. “As we move into the spring, we’re working very diligently to increase the size of our workforce and get our trash and recycling collections back on a stable, normal schedule.”

Related news:
Philly facing $450M budget shortfall; officials eye cuts, taxes, and privatization

On a recent morning, Hannah Kohut, a Fairmount resident, watched in shock as sanitation workers combined her trash and recycling onto one truck. Unaware whether this is a temporary move or a long-term policy change, she is calling for more transparency in the city’s decision-making processes. Shortly after submitting a 311 request to look into the matter further, she got a notification that it was resolved, despite noting that “it didn’t change anything.”

“You start to feel like, what’s the point of separating out my recyclables if they’re all just going to go in the trash,” Kohut said.

McGrath said that the city has created tools such as PickupPHL to ensure residents are able to see which routes are being collected and track impacts.

“One thing they tried to work hard to do is try to make sure that it doesn’t impact any particular area of the city more than another part of the city, so we’re trying to keep the service level as even as we can across the city,” he said.

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Edwina Davis, beloved gatekeeper in the NJ Statehouse, dies at 81

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

In his post yesterday breaking the sad news of her death, NJ Globe‘s David Wildstein called Edwina Davis “a beloved fixture in the New Jersey statehouse for nearly 30 years.” So true.

Edwina was the person who met generations of legislators, staffers, news people and lobbyists when they visited the governor’s counsel’s office to book or attend an appointment or just to say hello and catch up on a little gossip. She was perpetually pleasant and appeared to be honestly interested in everyone she met. I refuse to believe it was feigned.

The first time I met Edwina, I was a green-as-grass young lobbyist, looking to book an appointment with one of the governor’s lawyers to discuss a piece of legislation. I likely was struggling to look relaxed and Edwina must have guessed it. She asked me my name, offered a seat opposite her (and some candy) and immediately treated me like a statehouse veteran.

Whenever I called in the future, she always remembered my name (what a gift for anyone involved in politics) and inquired about things we discussed in the past. Beloved statehouse figure indeed. Like many others, I’m sure, I often poked my head in just to say hello and win one of her warm greetings.

There must be times when David Wildstein has to struggle to get a quote from those he interviews. Not so in this case. Check out his story here,

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With Bateman not running again, former congressman Mike Pappas will seek New Jersey Senate’s 16th district seat

Former NJ Congressman Mike Pappas

Update: Somerset County Republicans awarded the organization line for State Senate in the 16th district to former Rep. Michael Pappas. The Assembly candidates on the line will be Manville Councilman Joe Lukac and Hunterdon Central Regional Board of Education President Vincent Panico.

By David Wildstein, New Jersey Globe

Michael Pappas, a former one-term congressman from Somerset County, will be the Republican candidate for State Senate in the 16th legislative district.

Pappas has decided to run for the open seat of Republican State Sen. Christopher Bateman, who announced last month that he would not seek re-election to a fifth term.

He is now the presumptive nominee after two other candidates, former Rep. Dick Zimmer and former Montgomery Mayor Ted Maciag, withdrew from the race today, party officials told the New Jersey Globe.

Pappas will run with the endorsement of Tim Howes, the Somerset County Republican chairman.

The 60-year-old Pappas was a political boy wonder in the early 1980s.

He was elected to the Franklin Township Council at age 21, became mayor at 22, and a Somerset County freeholder at age 24.

His time in Congress ended abruptly in 1998 after he went on the House floor and sang “Twinkle, Twinkle, Kenneth Starr” in support of a special prosecutor investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton. The stunt backfired on Pappas, who lost 50%-47% to a virtually unknown Democrat, Rush Holt.

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Planting a green future, Longwood Gardens prepares for a $250 million makeover

Longwood Gardens is planning a $250 million makeover that will be its biggest ever

By Stephan Salisbury, Philadelphia Inquirer

Longwood Gardens, the 1,000-acre botanical garden and former du Pont estate that sprawls over meadows, woodlands, and rolling Chester County countryside in Kennett Square, has announced it is embarking on the largest makeover of grounds and buildings in its history, a $250 million project that will stretch through 2024 and transform the visitor experience.

The project, dubbed “Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience,” focuses on 17 acres at the heart of Longwood and involves, among other things, construction of a new West Conservatory near the popular East and Main Conservatories.

The new conservatory will consist of a 32,000-square-foot glass house rising in a series of asymmetrical peaks and seeming to float on a shimmering pool of water. The architect is Weiss/Manfredi, with gardens and pools designed by Reed Hilderbrand.

A Bonsai courtyard along the West Conservatory and a new restaurant and private event space are also part of the plan. Other elements include construction of a new education and administration building, renewal of the Waterlily Court, and preservation of six historic Lord & Burnham glass houses from the early 20th century, to be relocated at a later date and used for year-round garden displays.

The project will require demolition of the current West Conservatory and the Cascade Garden building. The Cascade Garden itself will be moved to a more central location in a new glass house of its own. The administration building next to the West Conservatory will be rebuilt from the foundation up.

A new West Conservatory — the glass-roofed building in the center of the rendering — is the centerpiece of Longwood Gardens’ construction and renovation project. WEISS/MANFRED

All structures are designed by Weiss/Manfredi, a New York firm perhaps best known for its design work for the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park and the Visitor Center at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In Philadelphia the firm’s work can be seen at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania.

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NJ Environment & Solid Waste Committee posts four bills for Feb. 22

The Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee will meet remotely at 3:15 P.M on Monday, Feb 22, 2021

Bills to be considered:

A-1976 Stanley/Pinkin/Benson	Authorizes NJ Infrastructure Bank to issue up to $20 million in bonds to finance cost-effective energy efficiency improvements in State, local, and school district buildings.
A-2863 Moen/Swain/Tully S-968 Singleton/Lagana	Requires public water systems to provide notice of elevated lead levels in drinking water to customers and local officials; requires landlords to notify tenants of elevated lead levels.
A-3352 Pinkin	Requires all newly constructed warehouses to be solar-ready buildings.
A-4899 Benson/Verrelli	Extends existing plug-in electric vehicle incentives to plug-in electric motorcycles.

Due to the public health emergency, the State House Annex remains closed to visitors. The public may not attend the Committee meeting in person but may view and participate in the meeting via the New Jersey Legislature home page at https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/.

The Committee will take oral testimony on bills, by telephone and video. If you are interested in registering your position with the Committee, please fill out the Registration Form located on the New Jersey Legislature Home Page under the applicable Committee heading.

For those individuals who wish to testify, please check the box “Do you wish to testify?” on the Registration Form. Instructions for testifying before the Committee will be forwarded to you after you submit your Registration Form. The form must be submitted by 3:00 PM on February 19, 2021.

The public may also submit written testimony electronically in lieu of oral testimony. Written testimony will be included in the Committee record and distributed to all the Committee members. Written testimony should be submitted to OLSAideAEN@njleg.org.

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