A GREAT BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!  We had a great time yesterday!  Here is what the paper had to say about it.

10/18/04 - Posted from the Daily Record newsroom
Church plan foes hold drive for funds By Rob Jennings, Daily Record ROCKAWAY TWP. -- Children frolicked in a bounce house. A blacksmith discussed the township's mining origins.

A band named Frankie Goes to Englewood performed -- what else -- songs from the 1980s.

Sunday's party on a brisk fall afternoon mixed fun with a purpose -- finding a way to block a proposed mega-church from ever getting the chance to be built on Green Pond Road.

Lisa and Adam Salberg and Kim and John Jenkins, the two local couples who founded Voices of Rockaway Township last year in opposition to Christ Church of Montclair's controversial building plan, hosted the four-hour fundraiser at the Lake Telemark Country Club.

By 4 p.m., halfway through the event, more than 150 people had arrived at the country club, with many sampling food, drinks and desserts donated by several local businesses.

Greta Carey, who moved to Rockaway Township more than six decades ago, said her chief objection to the 5,000-member, evangelical Christian church was the traffic that she feared it would bring.

"They're going to be there constantly," Carey said of Christ Church, whose plans for the 107-acre, former Agilent Technologies site include a 2,512-seat sanctuary, a private K-5 school, a fellowship hall, a fitness center and outdoor playing fields.

Church spokesman Marc Weinstein declined to comment on the fundraiser.

The planning board will hold a 10th public hearing on the church building plan in December.

Tickets were $45 for a family of up to five, $25 for single-ticket sales and $20 for seniors. Some people kicked in a little extra but none surpassed the group's all-time largest gift -- $5,000 from a single donor who asked to remain anonymous, Lisa Salberg said.

Salberg did not immediately know how much money was raised on Sunday, but she said it would all go toward legal fees and other costs associated with the group's advocacy.

Voices of Rockaway Township's attorney, Michael Edelson, has questioned Christ Church pastor David Ireland at planning board hearings, and the group expects to commission additional environmental studies, Salberg said.

Salberg produced a Nov. 17 letter from the Upper Rockaway River Watershed Association asserting that wetlands had been improperly filled in on the proposed church site more than two decades ago.

"You can't change the past. You can only change the future," Salberg said.

Christ Church received a big boost three weeks ago when the state Department of Environmental Protection granted its request for an exemption from the two-month-old Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act. The legislation places strict new limits on development in a 395,000-acre preservation zone that includes the Agilent site.

In response, Voices of Rockaway Township sought the support of the New Jersey Sierra Club, which passed a resolution on Oct. 9 criticizing the exemption. A local Sierra Club chapter volunteer, Doug Williams of Montville, attended the fundraiser and was signing up new members.

The chairman of the township's environmental commission, Pat Matarazzo, also attended -- but he said he showed up only to lend a copy of the church's site plan and other materials.

Christ Church representatives testified before the environmental commission on Wednesday night.

Matarazzo, echoing comments by some planning board members, said Sunday that the church needed to provide additional information on drainage, runoff and other issues.

"These are all concerns. Are they dire? I don't know, but they need to be examined, and that's exactly what I told Christ Church," Matarazzo said.

Many at the fundraiser had attended at least one of the church hearings.

Township resident Sandra Goodson said she wished that a referendum could be placed on the November ballot asking residents to vote thumbs-up or thumbs-down on Christ Church.

While such a vote would be non-binding, Goodson claimed that Ireland had once said that he wouldn't build in Rockaway Township if people didn't want him there.

Weinstein, the church spokesman, said he could not confirm whether such a remark was ever made.

"I'd be curious if he sticks to his word," Goodson said.

"People say it's the same thing as Agilent. No, it's not at all. Agilent was 800 (employees) over two or three shifts," Goodson said.

Ireland has said that the traffic impact would be manageable. The church has agreed to pay for a traffic light mandated by the county engineering department at the site's entrance.

With the 1980s retro band performing classics such as Devo's "Whip It" and "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield in the background, Greta Carey's husband, Gene, said the concerns of residents were understandable.

"We love what we have here and we don't want to see it change," he said.

Salberg said that she, her husband and the Jenkins family decided some time ago to limit membership in Voices of Rockaway Township to themselves.

Since the group is represented by an attorney at planning board hearings, other residents who joined them would be barred from asking questions during the public portion of planning board hearings, she said.

Several local businesses offered support for the fundraiser, Adam Salberg said.

Charlie Brown's restaurant, the Good-to-Go Deli and Damon's Grill provided gift certificates. Torpedo Joe's donated pasta and sauce. Rockaway Bagel offered rolls and butter. Baker's Perfection supplied dessert.

One person at the fundraiser professed impartiality -- Lisa Salberg's brother-in-law, Kevin Perry of Jefferson, who was prevented from doing a blacksmith demonstration by high winds.

"I have no ax to grind, one way or the other," Perry said.