New Jersey
Transportation Heritage Center

In making the announcement, Ken Miller, Vice President of the FNJTHC, a Heritage Center support group, cited two major reasons. First, Phillipsburg and specifically this historic site, was officially designated for the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center museum and its master plan approved by the NJ Legislature. Second, nearly 90 pieces of historic rail equipment and over 30 vintage buses and commercial vehicles are stored around the state waiting to occupy the Heritage Center site near Howard and Stockton Streets. Miller stressed that the Heritage Center site had been downsized for commercial purposes once already. He continued that 30-35 acres is the minimum space required for display, interpretation and operation of the State's collection of artifacts and equipment. Other such state and nationally affiliated transport museum properties are most often larger and include buffer zones.

Now that it appears that further statutory support in Trenton has faded under the current administration, Miller indicated his group is changing strategy and relying more on local and County organizations that reliably support the Heritage Center. He singled out the Warren Freeholder Board especially, for their record of sustained help. Consistent with efforts to increase local involvement in establishing the Heritage Center, Miller announced that the four newest directors on the board are from Phillipsburg and vicinity. For the first time, the majority of the FNJTHC board are local residents.

Miller expressed the frustration of the FNJTHC directorate, its over 500 direct members and thousands of Heritage Center affiliates with the lack of urgency by the State in assisting with statutory authority and site acquisition. He noted that FNJTHC has been active in promoting Phillipsburg and Warren County as the home for the Heritage Center for over a decade, but the effect of this promotion attracted interest and aggressive action by real estate developers rather than site the Heritage Center. Concurrently, the political and bureaucratic delays in Trenton have given these same developers critical time advantages to their speculative ventures.

Miller closed by calling for renewed cooperation between the Heritage Center forces, town officials and the developer in finding suitable places other than the Heritage Center site for residential development. He urged developers to support the Heritage Center as a Phillipsburg/Warren County asset rather than crowding it out of town and maybe out of existence.

Note: Friends of the NJ Transportation Heritage Center, Inc. (FNJTHC) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in 1989 in New Jersey with a mission to establish and support a NJ Transportation Heritage Center, preserve and interpret transport history and to attract visitation from New Jersey and neighboring states.

Contact: Kenneth C. Miller VP, FNJTHC Inc. (908) 689-0472

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