(rshsdepot) Dover, NJ (freight depot)

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From the Daily Record.
 
Photos available at: 
_http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081021/COMMUNITIES13/810210350/1005/NEWS01_ 
(http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081021/COMMUNITIES13/810210350/1005/NEWS01) 
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
NJ Transit cleaning up its depot in Dover, finally
 
Maintenance facility had been cited for violations by town
 
By Michael Daigle
Daily Record 
 
DOVER -- NJ Transit has started sprucing up its maintenance depot on  
Dickerson Street with fresh paint, weed trimming, roof repairs and other  work.
 
All it took was a summons from the town building code officer William  
Isselin outlining several violations, and a brief appearance in Dover Municipal  
Court on Oct. 7 by a state attorney representing the transit authority. The case  
was rescheduled.
 
NJ Transit spokesman Joe Dee said Monday that the agency has responded to  
Dover's summons and began last week to clean up the building and the site. The  
facility is an active maintenance center, he said.
 
The appearance of the maintenance facility -- a long, single-story brick  
building at the western end of the NJ Transit yard along Orchard Street  
surrounded by metal storage sheds, railroad cars and other material -- has been  a 
recurring issue.
 
In 2001, when Dover first discussed the development of the nearby Crescent  
Field parking lot into a transit village project, residents complained that the 
 maintenance facility would detract from any new development and suggested 
that  the operation be moved to the larger NJ Transit train yard to the east of 
the  main station.
 
Isselin said Monday that maintenance workers from NJ Transit appeared last  
week and began to make the cited repairs, cut the weeds and paint the facility  
that dates back to Dover's days as a railroad hub.
 
"The place is looking good now," he said. "It has been a good-faith  effort."
 
Isselin said the town began to receive complaints about the appearance of  
the maintenance yard in June when the Dover flea market was relocated from  
Blackwell Street to Crescent Field, south of downtown and the railroad  tracks.
 
The shift meant that more flea market patrons either drove or walked past  
the maintenance facility, he said.
 
At the same time, Dover began a building code enforcement effort aimed at  
getting the commercial building owners along Blackwell Street and Route 46 to  
make repairs and clean up their lots.
 
What seemed fair for the local business owners seemed fair for the state  
transit authority, he said.
 
Isselin said NJ Transit was cited for 3-foot-tall weeds, lack of yard  
cleanup, missing roof tiles, and the appearance of the building that badly  needed 
some minor repairs and paint.
 
After several phone calls and a couple of letters to the authority produced  
no action, Isselin on July 23 wrote a summons detailing the violations. NJ  
Transit had 30 days to respond. When no action was taken, the case was initially 
 scheduled for Sept. 9 in municipal court.
 
Workers now have trimmed the weeds, fixed the roof, painted doors and  
cleaned up the yard.
 
Yet to be determined, Isselin said, is what will happen to several rusting  
metal storage containers, and how the authority will store some items such as  
rails and transformers that are now stored on the ground.
 
NJ Transit community development and maintenance officials met with Isselin  
last week to outline the plan of action for the maintenance facility, Dee 
said.  The meeting helped establish open communications with the town officials, 
he  said.
 
"We want to be a good neighbor," Dee said.
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