BREAKING NEWS: “THE LUCK OF RINGWOOD!”
AFTER 20 YEARS, RINGWOOD WILL FINALLY RECEIVE MONEY FOR BEING STEWARDS OF THE WATER! LAW SIGNED ON MONDAY INCLUDES WATERSHED AID IN THE AMOUNT OF NEARLY 225K YEARLY!!
On Monday, Ringwood received a St. Patrick’s Day present, or I could also say an early St. Joseph’s Day present. It brings me great pride to announce that Senate Bill S3466 was signed into law. This new law requires that State aid be distributed each State fiscal year from the "Highlands Protection Fund" to each municipality within the Highlands Region that does not currently receive watershed moratorium offset aid, but which hosts watershed lands, as determined by the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council.
According to the Highlands Council, the Borough of Ringwood is due to receive almost $225,000 a year from the state for the protection of our watershed lands. This day is many years in the making. This law ensures that Ringwood will now be entitled to compensation for our preservation of the watershed land.
There are many thank you’s to go around for this truly collaborative effort. Starting in 2016, Mr. Heck began writing to the legislature, the governor, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Community Affairs, and anyone else in state government who he thought would listen. One of the only officials at that time who responded was the late Lt. Governor Sheila Oliver. Fast forward a few years later, Mr. Heck and I met with new Highlands Council Executive Director Ben Spinelli. Mr. Spinelli expressed interest in helping Ringwood and other Highlands towns receive watershed aid. Lou Crescitelli in his capacity as a longtime state legislative aid, who was already working on a Highlands open space funding bill for Mr. Spinelli, started drafting the watershed aid language which would become law. Once the bill was drafted, Mr. Spinelli recruited Democrat legislators to introduce the bill in each house while Mr. Crescitelli secured Republican legislators to support the bill.
This topic became personal for me as I dug into learning about the Highlands Preservation Act. I read testimony of the Senate Environmental Committee from twenty years ago and reached out to anyone who was involved and still living- seeking understanding as to why we were excluded from aid all those years ago. I then testified twice in front of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee at their public hearings on the Fiscal Year 2024 and 2025 budget in support of Ringwood receiving watershed aid. Last June, Senator Pennacchio submitted a budget resolution to grant Ringwood this aid, but it was unfortunately not accepted in the final state budget.
S3466 and A4627 were introduced in June of 2024. This council passed a resolution supporting enactment of S3466 in October 2024. The Senate passed S3466 on January 14, 2025, and the Assembly passed it on January 30th.
I would like to thank this Council, former Mayor Noonan and Mr. Heck for all the work we did together lobbying for this aid. I would like to thank Mr. Spinelli and the Highlands Council for advocating for Ringwood and the rest of the Highlands towns who will now receive aid for their sacrifice. A thank you to Mr. Crescitelli for all his work behind the scenes crafting the language and getting crucial support for this bill. I would also like to thank Senate President Scutari and Assembly Speaker Coughlin and the Chairmen of each house’s Environmental Committees, Senator Smith and Assemblyman Kennedy, for posting the bills for a vote and for Governor Murphy signing it into law. I would like to thank all the sponsors of S3466: Senators McKeon, Greenstein, Space, Steinhardt, Pennacchio, and Bucco and Assembly Members Collazos-Gill, DiMaio, Fantasia, Inganamort, Bergen, Barlas, Azzariti, Webber, Auth, Flynn, and Hall.
