usps no. 358940 serving salem county, n.j., …media.nj.com/salem_impact/other/tsfrontfeb7.pdfrate...
TRANSCRIPT
WeatherHigh 47
Details on Page A-2
Sports
Page B-1
The Pittsburgh Steelers took on the Green Bay Packers in a close-fought Super Bowl battle.
InsideAdopt-A-Pet............ A-2Classifieds...............B-8Class.Notes............. A-8Comics.....................B-6County..................... A-3Dear.Abby...............B-5Editorial.................. A-5
Firelog...................... A-3Entertainment.......B-5Lotteries.................. A-2Nation.&.World......B-7Obituaries............... A-2Sports.......................B-1State.&.Region.......B-4
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189th Year, No. 147 USPS No. 358940 SERVING SALEM COUNTY, N.J., SINCE 1819, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2011 © 2011 Today’s Sunbeam 50¢
For breaking news visit www.nj.com/south
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
Former first lady Nancy Reagan is helped on stage by Frederick J. Ryan Jr., center, Reagan Foundation Chair-man, as Marine Lt. Gen. George J. Flynn looks on after a wreath laying ceremony Sunday at the memorial of her husband, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, during the centennial birthday celebration at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, Calif. For more pictures and story, see Page B-7.
Remembering Ronald Reagan
Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger
Roses at Suburban Wholesale Florists in Chatham Borough. Owner Craig Core estimates that 95 percent of the Valentine’s Day roses his business ordered this year were grown in South America.
Rose-growing industry wilts in the U.S.
Staff photo by Britney Lillya
A bald eagle perches in the Hancocks Bridge section of Lower Alloways Creek, recently.
Staff photo by Cindy Hepner
Newly published writer Judith de Wilde will take part in a book signing at Dodge’s Market in Elmer.
An eagle-eye view
Egypt VP meets opposition, offers new concessions
Introduced too soon?
Republicans felt more work needed to be done on 2011 county budget
By Kelly Wolfgang
PENNSVILLE TWP. — The township will be able to improve one of its road-ways thanks to a recently received grant, township officials announced at a meeting recently.
The Highway Improve-
ment Grant was a sur-prise to town officials, as they didn’t receive any funding last year due to the budget, according to Mayor Richard Barnhart.
The $124,000 grant will be used to improve Riv-iera Drive here. Barnhart said that the town applied for more than $200,000
in state funding for road improvements, but were pleased with what they got.
“Two years ago, we got the grant and began improvements on Riv-iera Drive,” he said. “We replaced existing pave-ment with new on a por-tion of the road, but last
year we were denied the grant so we were unable to continue working there.”
Barnhart said that Riv-iera Drive was originally selected because it is a well-traveled main road-way in the township.
“All curves in the road
Pennsville receives road grant
(See.ROAD,.Page.A-4)
By Phil Dunn
SALEM — The Salem County Board of Chosen Freeholders continues to be split along party lines here over the recent deci-sion to introduce the 2011 budget.
The proposed budget is $72,119,253, down about $1 million from the 2010 budget, which totaled $73,134,935, but the three Republican on the board voted against its introduc-tion on Feb. 2.
“This whole budget pro-cess has been us working with a moving target,” said Republican Freeholder Julie Acton. “The last cou-ple weeks, we were still left with some unknowns like the ratables and health
insurance.”As the freeholders
worked to stabilize the bud-get, numbers did change rapidly and significantly.
The spending plan intro-duced includes a 1.4-cent increase in the county’s tax rate from the current 86 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 87.4 cents. However, the board will cut the additional 2-cent farmland and open space preservation tax to 1 cent in 2011. This 1-cent cut saves taxpayers $572,171.
This will make the net increase 0.4 cents per $100 of assessed property value or 88.4 cents, up just a fraction from the 2010 total rate of 88 cents.
“We are here to make the (See.SOON,.Page.A-4)
By Leslie Kwoh
The Star-Ledger
Tom Heyl gets that wist-ful feeling each February, as florists race to stock up on roses ahead of Valen-tine’s Day.
But it’s not nostalgia for an old flame. Before he became a real estate agent, Heyl was New Jersey’s last rose grower.
Heyl, now 44, remem-bers spending 16-hour days in his family’s Cha-tham Township green-house, the flower’s delicate
scent filling his nostrils as he worked to cut and wrap thousands of blossoms late into the night. Back then, he recalls, almost every rose you saw at the local florist was grown in New Jersey, which was known as the nation’s rose-grow-ing capital. Madison was even dubbed the “Rose City” for its flourishing industry.
“I miss it,” said Heyl, who eventually shuttered the business in 1999, seven decades after his great-grandfather opened it. “It was always what I wanted to do, but unfortunately
(See.U.S.,.Page.A-6)
By Lauren T. [email protected]
PITTSGROVE TWP. — The death of Judith de Wilde’s husband, Bob, left her a widow struggling to cope with her grief in November 2009.
“Bob and I had been married 50 years, and we were very, very, very close,” de Wilde said, going on to explain that after her hus-band suffered a catastroph-ic stroke, she became his caregiver at home for eight years until another series of strokes took his life.
“After being 24/7 caring
for the person you loved and then having him gone ... as you can imagine, I was just destroyed. I just didn’t know what to do.”
De Wilde followed the advice of well-meaning friends who suggested var-ious books and grief groups but found little comfort until she began writing in January 2010.
“I was not writing to write a book. I would pray, and these words would just come, and I would write them down. I wrote them on scrap paper, on
Author’s writings comfort others
(See.EVEN,.Page.A-6)
By Sarah El Deeb and Maggie Michael
Associated Press
CAIRO — Egypt’s vice president met with the outlawed Muslim Brother-hood and other opposition groups for the first time Sunday and offered sweep-ing concessions, including granting press freedom and rolling back police powers in the government’s latest attempt to try to end nearly two weeks of upheaval.
But the opposition lead-ers held firm to a demand the government rejects: that President Hosni Mubarak step down imme-diately. And the source of the opposition’s sudden power — the youthful pro-testers filling Cairo’s main square — said they weren’t
even represented at the talks and won’t negotiate until Mubarak is gone.
“None of those who attended represent us,” said Khaled Abdul-Hamid, one leader of a new coali-tion representing at least five youth movements that organized the 13-day-old protests. “We are deter-mined to press on until our number one demand is met” — the ouster of Mubarak.
“The regime is retreat-ing,” Abdul-Hamid told The Associated Press. “It is making more concessions every day.”
At the same time, there were signs that the paraly-sis gripping the country since the crisis began was easing Sunday, the first
(See.EGYPT,.Page.A-4)