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On March 19, 2002, Wild Wilderness became actively engaged in trying to prevent the privatization and commercialization of Sandy Hook's Fort Hancock within the Gateway National Recreation Area of New Jersey — and we are still fighting.
It was on March 19, 2002 that the American public got it's first inkling of what the National Park Service was cooking up and it was that same day that I distributed the warning which can be read at here.
My first message on this issue was titled "Privatization of Sandy Hook National Park" and it ended with these words:
"It is through these private-development schemes that George Bush and Gale Norton intend to "fix" the National Park System. Bush, Norton and NPS Director Fran Mainella will, unless actively opposed, parcel out our shared heritage bit by bit and make it available to developers and to other commercial private interests. WHO WILL STOP THEM!!??"
Five years after asking "Who will stop them?" I may have a partial answer — one good for Sandy Hook New Jersey, but totally inadequate when it comes to addressing the larger question of "Who will stop the now so much more widespread privatization and commercialization of the entire National Park system?"
In the appended article from today's press you will read that New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone "has been granted his request that the U.S. Department of Interior's inspector general investigate the lease agreement between the National Park Service and a private developer who is seeking to redevelop a portion of Sandy Hook's Fort Hancock." You will read that Pallone says "the entire process had been a debacle" — and he speaks the truth.
I will just add that the U.S. Department of Interior is the most scandal plagued department within the Federal Government today. Its former Secretary, Gale Norton, is mercifully gone. Its former NPS Director, Fran Mainella, is mercifully gone as are so other disgraced DOI leaders — some of whom are now convicted felons.
The Department of Interior is still rotten to the core and scandals such as the ongoing one at Sandy Hook will continue until the PEOPLE rise up and stop the bastards who are "Stealing the People's Treasure".
Also be sure to visit the Save Sandy Hook website and the website of the developer whose arrangements with the NPS are currently under
investigation.
Scott
--- begin quoted ---
August 3, 2007
Inspector General To Investigate Sandy Hook Lease Agreement
By John Burton
SANDY HOOK - U.S. Representative Frank Pallone Jr. has been granted his
request that the U.S. Department of Interior's inspector general
investigate the lease agreement between the National Park Service and a
private developer who is seeking to redevelop a portion of Sandy Hook's
Fort Hancock.
Pallone in early July had asked Inspector General Earl Devaney to
investigate the agreement between the National Park Service (NPS) and
Sandy Hook Partners, LLC, which planned to rehabilitate 36 of the
fort's structures to be used purportedly for commercial endeavors and
for educational uses.
Pallone requested that the inspector general look into the agreement,
when the NPS again agreed in June to provide another lease extension to
Sandy Hook Partners, by some accounts the fourth and by others as many
as eight such extensions since the process first commenced in 2000.
Opponents of the lease agreement, including Pallone, have continued to
maintain that the development partnership, headed by Rumson resident
James Wassel, had continually failed to show its ability to provide the
needed financing to undertake the renovation of the fort buildings.
In a press statement released on Monday, Pallone said, "For three years
I have voiced serious concerns about why this agreement was signed when
SHP (Sandy Hook Partners) never demonstrated its ability to come up
with the necessary funding."
The agreement has been controversial since the outset. The NPS in 2004
entered into a 60-year lease agreement with Sandy Hook Partners, after
selecting that group's proposal from the 23 proposals submitted seeking
the ability to use the fort structures.
Fort Hancock is a former military installation situated on the tip of
Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook, a federal park located
in Middletown.
For many, the fort is historically significant, but over the years the
structures at the site have deteriorated. This partial privatization of
the fort's resources, the park service and others insisted, was a means
to preserve the site and structures given the lessening of available
federal dollars.
For others the plan amounted to the selling off and the
commercialization of public lands - as Pallone has consistently called
it - to the detriment of the public. Two groups, Save Sandy Hook and
the Monmouth County Friends of Clearwater, an environmental
organization, filed a federal lawsuit against the developer, the
Department of the Interior and the NPS.
Save Sandy Hook, a group consisting of area residents and those who use
Sandy Hook for recreation, say they are concerned that the development
would greatly impact on Sandy Hook's ecology and have a real effect on
the locals' quality of life.
Sandy Hook Partners, according to the lease agreement, intends to
renovate the aging and deteriorating buildings and then have them
occupied for office space, educational and not-for-profit uses, and for
restaurants, hospitality and entertainment businesses.
Pallone contended, "The entire process had been a debacle," he is quoted as saying in Monday's press release.
"I hope this investigation will shed some light on why the agreement
was signed in the first place and how SHP now plans to come up with the
financing to complete the plan," Pallone said in his statement. The NPS
has said previously the extensions were precipitated by the ongoing
lawsuit, which has impeded the developer's ability to obtain the
financing.
Last October, Wassel announced his group had struck a deal with
Palisades Financial, a Fort Lee-based investment group, to provide
funding for the project.
Since then no additional information has been made available about the agreement.
Pallone was not available for comment, but Andrew Souvall, the
Congressman's director of communication, said this week Pallone hopes
to talk to the inspector general about the scope of the investigation
and its length of time.
The inspector general had conducted an investigation approximately
three years ago and permitted the process to continue. This week in an
e-mail response to a request for a comment, Richard E. Wells,
superintendent for Gateway National Recreation Area at Sandy Hook,
said, "We're looking forward to the Inspector General's Investigation.
As with the last Inspector General's Investigation, we're confident
that the project will be found to be in compliance with all laws and
regulations."
"Somebody here has to give some accounting," of the lease agreement
this week remarked James Coleman, an officer with Save Sandy Hook.
But for Ed Dlugosz, Clearwater's president, having the Department of
the Interior (a named defendant in his Clearwater's lawsuit) in essence
investigate itself, is questionable. "It's not where I would have
gone," for an investigation, he said.
Dlugosz said the federal General Accountability Office, an independent federal entity, should take charge of the investigation.
When contacted on Tuesday, Wassel said it was an inopportune moment for
him to speak and he would call back. By press time on Wednesday he did
not call.
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- Privatization 
