New Jersey
Transportation Heritage Center

Assembly Bill 2361 which provides for the formal establishment of the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center, a Board of Directors and a Foundation, incorporates no request for funding. It continues to languish in the NJ Assembly since May, 2002. The money to purchase the needed properties in Phillipsburg is available and waiting for this legislation.

A-2361 was introduced on May 16th and went to the Appropriations Committee on June 17th. We are extremely disappointed by the lack of action. The companion Bill in the Senate, S-1624, was introduced on May 30th and was passed 39 to 0 on June 20th.

This legislation is the culmination of a nearly 20 year effort by thousands of our members, volunteers and supporters. A-2361 is in a strategic critical path for the next steps in finally establishing the Heritage Center. We can't understand why the Legislature is procrastinating on a Bill requiring no funding, which will provide benefits to New Jersey's tourism and economy?

Please pick paragraphs from below, put in your own words, & send your personalized letters to the six individuals below. Kindly send copies of your letters to Editor, 103 Dogwood Lane, Berkeley Hts, NJ 07922.

We want Assembly Bill A-2361 to be released from the Assembly Appropriations Committee for full Assembly vote.

A-2361 does not obligate the State to fund the Transportation Heritage Center.

Heritage Center employees would not be employees of the state. Although A-2361 allows Heritage Center employees the opportunity to participate in the State benefits system, they and their employer would have to pay for those benefits.

We have the needed funds, thanks to Warren County, to move ahead and purchase the required properties for the Heritage Center in Phillipsburg. We need the Board of Directors and Foundation to be established by A-2361.

Recently Governor McGreevey indicated his interest in curbing "sprawl" in our state. The map produced by his office showed that Phillipsburg, where the Heritage Center will be located, is in a green or growth zone. The downtown district of Phillipsburg is in need of revitalization. The Transportation Heritage Center would create jobs and increase tourism locally as well as for the state.

Other states, especially Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, & Wyoming have railroad and transportation museums, but the New Jersey effort languishes, apparently due to party politics.

We participated in Governor McGreevey's Inaugural Parade with two immaculately restored antique trucks.

By holding up this legislation, and the Foundation it will establish, the Appropriations Committee deprives us of the ability to independently raise funds for the Heritage Center and stalls a nearly twenty-year effort by thousands of volunteers. The Heritage Center collections include 94 pieces of historic railroad rolling stock (24 locomotives); 34 vintage buses; 12 antique trucks; 6 trolley cars; over a mile of railroad track; two-hundred truckloads of artifacts, archives, materials, supplies and equipment which have been donated toward the Heritage Center. To disband the Heritage Center now would be extremely embarrassing for our state as we are an IRS designated 501(C)(3) organization and have received millions of dollars in tax-deductible donations & grants including those from TEA-21.

We took the initiative to meet with the McGreevey campaign staff in 2001 to explain the Transportation Heritage Center and advise them that it was a nonpartisan effort which would be good for all of New Jersey. At the present time that message has not filtered down to the Appropriations Committee Chair. We would be very disappointed if the passage of this Bill is not based solely on its merits. The Heritage Center Commission has now sunset and the Governor will be able to appoint the new directors under A-2361.

As you may well be aware, Phillipsburg is a Democratic town in a Republican county. Politically, supporting Phillipsburg would be smart for both Democrats and Republicans.

The state of Pennsylvania has eighty-seven railroad and transportation related museums, which draw a great volume of tourists from New Jersey. Five of them have "National" in their title and many receive Federal funding. New Jersey has one railroad "museum" - the small Whippany Railway Museum.

We want the New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center not for ourselves, but for all of the people of New Jersey and for future generations as well. The political structure of New Jersey is denying us the ability to preserve this transportation legacy for our children.

Please take the necessary action to release A-2361 for full assembly vote.

Please pick paragraphs from above, put in your own words, & send your personalized letters to the six individuals below. Kindly send copies of your letters to Editor, 103 Dogwood Lane, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922.;

• The Honorable James McGreevey, Governor of New Jersey
  The State House
  PO Box 001
  Trenton, NJ 08625
  
  
• James P. Fox, Chief of Staff
  The State House
  PO Box 001
  Trenton, NJ 08625
  
  
• The Honorable Albio Sires, Speaker of the Assembly
  303 58th Street
  West New York, NJ 07093
  
  
• The Honorable Bonnie Watson Coleman, Chair-Assembly Appropriations
  226 West State Street
  Trenton, NJ 08608
  
  
• The Honorable John S Wisniewski
  Chair-Assembly Transportation Committee
  3145 Bordentown Avenue
  Suite B
  Parlin, NJ 08859
  
  
• The (Honorable) Assembly person(s) who represent you in your district.
  (Check website: www.NJLEG.state.nj.us)
  
  Please send or fax a copy of your letter(s) to Editor, 103 Dogwood Lane, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922-2327 Fax: 908-464-9335

Please send or fax copies of your letters to: Editor, 103 Dogwood Lane, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922-2327
Without this legislation we are In Limbo - Dead in the Water.