Daily Record from Morristown, New Jersey • Page 11

Daily Record, Morris County, N.J. Sunday, August 23, 1 992 oj na J'LSVi3 Opinion B2-4 Obituaries B13 I More cooperation urged by Morris chief of planning Towns take cookie-cutter approach Newsmakers lit uLJ I j), I i I ft i i Chit Chat's opened at the' Dover station in 1985 in TlM FARRELL Daily Record what used to be the railway terminal. etailers tack i p' 4 1 -Z I 1 TlM FARRELL Daily Record Patrons at Chit Chat's in Dover can watch from their barstools as trains come and go. In the booth where rail employees once sold tickets, a disc jockey now spins records. Ray Zabihach, 44 Morris Plains resident New director of the Morris County Planning Board What you see now is basically the cookie-cutter approach one-acre housing with the same 100-foot setbacks.

The growth occurring out in Washington Township is the same as the growth occurring in Morris Township and Hanover. Q. Would you support state legislation to give the county planning board more teeth, such as veto power over major developments? A. Sure, but I don't think we're ready for it. We could get into turf wars with towns.

For the county to come in and suddenly have a strong voice, it would take quite a transition period. Q. What are some of the projects on the horizon? A. We are in the midst of finishing a master plan for water supply. We will also soon start working on a master plan for housing.

Q. What attracted you to planning? A. I visited the planning director of Bethlehem, in the late 1960s. I noticed he drove a sports car and that people were casually dressed. I said, wow, this is the career for me.

Q. What do you like about it now? A. Planning covers everything. But it would be more exciting if we were able to be more pro-active. f.

I i I I I 'i i A i .1 track muters that NJ Transit is trying to upgrade those stations, many of which had been neglected. "You want to start to make the environment around the stations more attractive," Gordon said. "It can become more of a focal point of the community." One example is the bar and res taurant in the old Dover terminal, where patrons watch from their barstools as trains pull in and out of the station. Chit Chat's opened at the Dover station in 1985 in what used to be the railway terminal. In the booth where a railway employee once sold tickets, a disc jockey spins records for patrons on the dance floor.

The restaurant's manager said the atmosphere of the turn-of-the-century building attracts customers. "Old people come in and reminisce about the days when this was a terminal," manager Frank Azzoli-no said. "And the younger kids love to come in so they can see the trains." Having a restaurant next to the tracks doesn't hurt business either. Azzolino estimated that a quarter, of his customers are commuters. "You get a lot of business from people using the train," Azzolino said.

"You have people waiting fo a train who come in for a drink or a bite to eat" The waiting and ancillary rooms at many of the stations were closed when NJ Transit took over the sys tern from Conrail in 1983. The agency had always wanted to bring in businesses, but only recently ac- tively solicited proposals. Gordon said NJ Transit targeted the Morris Essex line as one prime for retail businesses. See TRAIN B1 2 ting his sights on the adventure of a lifetime. By Fred Snowflack Daily Record Ray Zabihach didn't exactly plan his career.

While flying home from college 25 years ago, Zabihach told the man sitting next to him on the plane that his future plans were undecided. The stranger suggested that Zabihach look into municipal planning. Zabihach took his advice. Armed with an undergraduate degree in political science from Hiram College in Ohio, Zabihach got a master's degree in urban and regional planning from New York University. Then he joined the office of the Morris County Planning Board as a summer intern in 1969 and has been there ever since.

Four months ago, Zabihach was appointed to the job of director of the county planning board, replacing Dudley Woodbridge, who had retired. He directs a staff of 16. The county planning board primarily is as an advisory body to municipal planning boards across the county. Q. Why is the county planning board needed? A.

We function as a regional agency. We try to put a regional perspective in our views and we try to create a county master plan. Each of the towns have master plans, but most of them only look at their own growth. Q. what are your chief goals? A.

I'd like to see more cooperation in the county family. We deal with a lot of different county agencies the MUA (municipal utilities authority) for water and the engineering department as part of the review process. Also, we need to improve municipal master plans. They are too much alike. Ideally, the town planning boards should spend more time working with their master plans.

Q. Is it a problem if they don't? A. Well, you get the type of development (in the county) you have now. Q. And what kind of development is that? A.

It's basically single-family development. There was an opportunity to develop PUD (planned unit developments, or small villages) but because it's such a complicated procedure, the towns have basically abandoned the idea. With PUDs, towns would have had more of a sayis to what things looked like. Fellowship By LlV OSBY Daily Record After living four years on a college campus, Morris Plains native Darron Collins will spend the next 12 months in an outdoor classroom, studying the rivers of Chile, Egypt and New Zealand. Large-scale irrigation along the Nile, the proposed damming of Chile's untamed Bio-Bio River and small hydroelectric plants in New Zealand are among the worldwide conservation issues Collins will be able to investigate thanks to receiving the Thomas J.

Watson fellowship. 1 Along the way, he hopes to find some time for his second love, white-water kayaking. Collins, 22, is a 1988 graduate of Parsippany Hills High School who completed his studies last spring at the College of the Atlantic, a small school in Bar Harbor, Me. He earned a degree in human ecology, an interdisciplinary program that stresses the importance of problem solving, while also studying environmental policy. "I'm interested in river conservation, issues on public lands such as management of national for NJ Transit lures stores to stations By Michael Valkys Daily Record adison resident David Anderson got off the 5:48 afternoon train from Hoboken, hurried down the statio'n stairs and picked up his dry cleaning.

The task took about three minutes and he was'on his way home. "It's good. It's convenient," Anderson said of Geronimo's Cleaners in Madison, which has operated out of the train station for the past year. "I drop my clothes off in the morning and pick them up at night. Now I don't have to schlep all over town on Saturday.

It's one less step you have to take and it saves time." Anderson is taking advantage of NJ Transit's push to get retail businesses into train stations as a way to boost ridership. On the Morris Essex Line, which runs from Netcong to Hoboken, the Dover station boasts a bar and restaurant, while Madison has the dry cleaner, and a newsstand and coffee shop. Morris Plains and Morristown sport newsstands and coffee shops. Chatham has a newsstand and a bank branch. Most of the businesses have opened over the past year as part of the cumbersomely named Adaptive Reuse program, which has upgraded 45 of NJ Transit's 160 stations statewide.

Of Morris County's 17 stations, six on the Morris Essex six dams along the Bio-Bio River they say could endanger the livelihood of Indians. "I want to see if public interest groups have had an effect on the project," he said. While in his first port of call, Collins will compare New Zealand's hydroelectric projects to those in the western United States. And in Egypt, he'll research changes in irrigation since the construction of the Aswan Dam. "I do have an itinerary," said Collins, who leaves Aug.

31. "But the fellowship is flexible so that if I see something else I want to investigate, I can." Collins was one of 70 graduating seniors chosen to receive the $13,000 Watson fellowships by the national private foundation established in 1961 as a charitable trust. The awards are given to students who demonstrate "integrity, strong ethical character, intelligence and a potential for humane and effective participation in the world community according to a Watson brochure. li newsstand, for example, can range from $400 to $900 a month. Businesses answer newspaper ads and then are judged by a three-member committee on the merits of their proposals and on the demand for their services, among other factors.

Last year NJ Transit made $10 million on the program. "We have taken a look in the last year and a half at assets we have as far as unique stations," said Mark Gordon, NJ Transit's senior director of real estate. "We want to provide more conveniences for our riders." "If a rider can take care of those errands at the station they are more likely to ride with us five times a week," he said. Gordon said putting retail businesses in stations also shows com And when he returns? Collins isn't sure whether he'll pursue a line and Gladstone branch have been adapted for retail use. Along the Boonton Line, an attempt was made in the 1970's to preserve much of Boonton's historical past thanks to Joe Marcello of Marcello Brothers Sporting Goods on Main Street.

But the effort, made before NJ Transit took over the line from Erie-Lackawanna, was not successful. The Division Street railroad station was converted to a railroad museum and restaurant. Old dining cars and cabooses were gathered at the station, along with the one at Myrtle Avenue, and converted into shops decorated with old railroad signs, gas lamps and other fixtures. Rents for the businesses at other stations today vary according to ridership and a station's proximity to a business center. Rent for a 1' offers river of travel FACES IN THE CROWD ests, parks and wilderness areas, but I'm also interested in economics and the jobs-versus-environ-ment debate," he said, adding that a sound economy doesn't have to be developed at the expense of a clean environment.

Collins said he inherited a love of the outdoors from his mother, Dee Sadauskas, but became seriously interested in environmental issues after spending a summer in Canada's Northwest Territory, where he studied the habits of wolves and bison. He's also worked for the Oregon Natural Resources Council "Biologists can only do so much to change poor environmental policies," he said. "Having that practical experience, I wanted to have more of an influence." Collins said he's not making any judgments about his observations of other cultures and their natural resources management policies. But he will be looking into the effectiveness of grass roots efforts by environmental activists in Chile who oppose construction of John Bell Daily Record Darron Collins, 22, is a 1988 graduate of Parsippany Hills High School who earned a degree from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Me. They allow recipients the chance coming home at all during his year career in the environment, jour-to live among other cultures for a abroad.

nalism or perhaps even natural re- vpar white mirsuin a creative sources law. But for now, he's set- I a project. That means Collins won't be.