Parents told truck facility will only be for storage

Parents told truck facility
will only be for storage
Concerns arise over
proximity to preschool
BY LARRY RAMER
Staff Writer

LARRY RAMER Linda Vaccaro is among a group of parents objecting to a plan to build a truck storage facility next to the Turtle Creek Learning Academy.

MARLBORO — The attorney representing a company that wants to build a six-truck storage facility next to a preschool tried to calm concerned parents during an impromptu meeting on Oct. 1.

Attorney Gerald Sonnenblick of Freehold Township, whose client, R.H. Ern and Sons, has applied to the Planning Board to build a 4,300-square-foot storage facility next to the Turtle Creek Learning Academy on Railroad Avenue, tried to reassure several parents of children who attend the school.

"It’s a permitted use on a very small piece of property. All we want to do is have six trucks leave in the morning and come back in the evening," Sonnenblick told a group of about a dozen tense par­ents outside of Town Hall. "There’s a very limited amount of movement on this site, whatever you may think."

Several parents of Turtle Creek pupils have said they are concerned about how the trucks will impact their children’s safety when the youngsters are picked up and dropped off at Turtle Creek.

Sonnenblick did not directly answer questions about that issue. However, he said the parents gen­erate much more traffic than the pro­posed facility would create.

Fifty-five students are usually dropped off and picked up at the school each day, Sonnenblick said, "If you want to talk about trips, you have 55 people coming in the morning, and then they would come back in and leave. That’s 220 trips, not counting employees. We’re talk­ing about six trips in and six trips out (by the trucks)."

Sonnenblick assured the parents that no mechanical work will take place at the truck storage facility. He asked the par­ents why they are so upset about the sit­uation. He noted that the property in question is zoned for light industry and said the owners of Turtle Creek had to apply for a variance to build the school.

Two or three parents expressed con­cern about the potential harm the trucks could cause to their children’s health.

"We’re not talking about idling trucks, or large numbers of refrigeration trucks for supermarkets that are right next to developments. We’re talking about [truck] storage," Sonnenblick said.

The attorney added that the truck drivers would take all safety precautions and told the parents they have the right to object to the facility.

Sonnenblick asked for the Oct. 1 hear­ing to be postponed so that the applicant’s experts can continue to examine the issue of two silos on the subject property.