Butterfly Rd. residents give their side of story

We are writing to inform the residents of Jackson the facts as we know them to be regarding the Butterfly Road access road into Johnson Park and to clarify a few points presented in a recent article in a local newspaper.

In the article it was stated, "Without the proper DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) approvals to work at the site, the town had no choice but to stop all activity, and remove the four truckloads worth of fill and all stone and cement piping installed to drain the deep puddles found at the work site."

First of all, the town didn't truck in four truckloads of materials, it was more like over 30. We know because we saw the trucks carting in the material from early in the morning until around 2 p.m. Unless they only had a shovel full of dirt per truck, we can't see how it could take all day to come up with only "four truckloads" of fill. We're sure this can be substantiated as the town had to get this fill from somewhere and there must be delivery receipts on file.

Also, they didn't dump this fill into or onto "deep puddles" found at the site; it was dumped into two running streams. The "deep puddles" were in fact freshwater wetlands - well over 15,000 square feet of freshwater wetlands.

You fill in the blank because the mayor changes his description of what is back there every time he speaks. The fact is these were wetlands and streams, not puddles, divots or pools. You can find all of this information regarding the Notice of Violation served on the township, as we did, on the DEP's Internet Web site.

When this whole situation was occurring on July 17, we (and other neighbors) called various offices at town hall to find out what was happening. The Department of Public Works staff weren't aware their trucks were even on Butterfly Road at first.

The township engineer, who was rude and arrogant, said there was no water at the site. Why would you need fill and piping if there was no water? Don't the materials have to be ordered in advance? We asked the engineer why we weren't informed about all of this and he told us that we didn't have to be informed of anything as this was public property.

That is untrue. If the township had followed the proper procedures, the residents would have had to have been informed, in writing with the chance to appeal what is being proposed, that there was a delineation of wetlands process occurring and they would be filing for permits and approvals.

We truly believe that certain township officials knew full well what they were doing was not on the up and up. Where was the township engineer and the township administrator when the mayor told the DPW to bulldoze that road through the streams and wetlands? Why do we pay these people only to have the mayor disregard their professional opinions? The workers at the DPW are not at fault in this situation as they were doing what they were instructed to do.

We don't have an engineering background, yet we can read the basics on a site survey - we find it very hard to believe that the powers that be missed the wetlands and streams on this one as they are clearly marked.

Whenever Mayor Mark Seda is caught in yet another one of his predicaments, his answer is, "I didn't know …" Is that the best you can come up with, Mr. Mayor?

Because of what Mayor Seda did, the water levels of these wetlands and streams is at the lowest level we have seen since we moved to Jackson 15 years ago.

Hopefully, nature will restore and repair itself to how things were before Mayor Seda bulldozed his "temporary emergency access road" through this area.

The DEP has fined Jackson $15,000 because of what the mayor did. The fine could have been as much as $250,000. Mayor Seda and all involved dodged a bullet on this one. He admitted he's responsible, so why are the taxpayers ultimately paying this fine? It should come out of the mayor's pocket. We may also be financing the appeal. Why appeal if you have already admitted wrongdoing; you did it and now you have to pay. Plain and simple.

It's too bad local newspapers never tried to contact us or any of our neighbors regarding this whole debacle. Maybe our fellow residents would have learned the other side of the story and not just Mayor Seda's tale of fiction for a change and will remember this in the event that he has the nerve to run for mayor again.

Joyce Cladek Christine Englehardt

Jackson