Pallone and The Asbury Park Press Miss The Mark Again

James Wassel's Sandy Hook Partners announced that they finally have the financing lined up to redevelope Fort Hankcock at Sandy Hook.

Congressman Frank Pallone and The Asbury Park Press want the details of the financing package made public in order that they may wreck havoc on the project again. Pallone and his allies have delayed the rehabilitation of the park for years, while the historic buildings have continued to decline and become more hazardous.

The Press says, "at the very least, assurances must be forthcoming that the private elements of the rehabilitation will not effectively bar public access to the site." You have to wonder if any of the editorial board members have visited the site lately. The buildings are hazardous. There is no public access. Here's an assurance; there will be more public access to Fort Hancock when Wassel's project is complete than there is now.

Pallone could have prevented the need for private development at the National Park if he had been an effective congressman. Bill Clinton was president when the Park Service put the Fort Hancock project out to bid. Pallone's protests that he couldn't get any money while Republicans were in power was weak but at least had a kernel of credibilty. But he should have been able to fund the project in the 90's. Now that his fellow Obamamaniacs are on a spending spree, he could have gotten the Sandy Hook Partners project funded on better terms than what Wassel probably got, or made it a public project, which would inevitably been more expensive even if the government didn't have to buy Wassel out.

Fort Hancock is falling down. Pallone can't save it. Let Wassel and his investors do it.