National parklands in imminent danger from plans of developer

This paper’s readers, as the nation’s taxpayers who have financed the purchase and maintenance of our national park lands, have the right to know of the National Park Service’s plans for our public lands.

As Save Sandy Hook’s (SSH) corresponding secretary, I am reaching out to all activists in an effort to gain their support and help, and ask they join our quest to thwart the NPS plans to privatize/commercialize Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook. The NPS is aggressively pursuing (under the guise of historic restoration) the 60-year leasing of Fort Hancock structures, at the north end of the Hook, to private speculators trading as Wassel Realty Development Group. The NPS intends to use this 60-year lease as a model for all they purvey, ultimately placing other public national parklands in private for-profit hands.

Save Sandy Hook has collected an estimated 2,000 signatures on petitions opposing and protesting the NPS plans to develop retail/commercial uses (estimated additional 1,600 cars/trips) on one of the last/only public access bay and oceanfront open spaces left in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area.

The Hook is an integral part of the northeast migratory flyway, provides nesting/breeding habitats for threatened/endangered species, and if the NPS plans come to fruition, is a unique ecosystem being unnecessarily placed in harm’s way.

SSH has done its research. Our procurement specialist was employed by the federal government for more than 25 years. He quotes chapter, page and verse to the irregularities and exceptions being made from the standard operating procedures all government departments must adhere to when issuing government contracts/leases.

From what can be learned by the limited information released by the NPS, Marie Rust (NPS northeast regional director) may be in the process of granting yet another extension in time for the developer to find the required financing for his project.

The NPS has amended, altered and edited the original RFP issued in 1999 to accommodate this particular developer’s proposal. Others presenting their proposals at that time have been unfairly deprived of and denied the same opportunities Wassel Realty has had to divert from the original RFP. This is only one example of the inequities and uneven playing field the NPS has created in its efforts to expedite the 60-year lease for Wassel Realty.

An internal investigation at the NPS has been undertaken regarding the unusual procedures/circumstances that have accompanied the Wassel application. SSH is contemplating its own legal alternatives and appeals to hold the NPS accountable for its actions.

If the NPS moves forward with this 60-year lease, none of our national parklands will be safe. Immediate action is required, for every day that passes is another nail in Sandy Hook’s coffin that will set precedent/reasons to bury other public lands in private for-profit pockets.

The nation’s taxpayers must write, call, fax and contact by any means possible their respective elected officials to object to and protest the unusual circumstances and procedures that continue to surround this proposed private for-profit use of our public lands. Please help to save Sandy Hook, and for any additional information, please give me a call at (732) 946-3307.

Carole Balmer

Holmdel