Cassville at heart of Hovbilt application
Applicant studies historic, natural resources of area
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

The cultural and historic resources of the Cassville section of Jackson were discussed on Oct. 24 as representatives of Hovbilt continued their presentation for a development of 965 age-restricted homes known as Jackson Valley.

The development would be built on 650 acres in an area bordered by Perrine-ville Road, Cassville Road (Route 571), West Veterans Highway and Prospertown Road.

The application has already been the subject of several Jack-son Planning Board hearings and more testimony is expected to be presented on Nov. 6.

At the Oct. 24 meeting, William B. Liebeknecht, principal investigator, Hunter Research, Historical Research Consultant, Tren-ton, testified for Hovbilt regarding Cassville's historical and cultural resources, and Joel D. Gove, Habitat Management and Design, Trenton, presented an environmental inventory of the area and an impact statement.

"Phase One and Phase Two reports of the Cultural Resource Investigation of Jackson Valley were submitted to the Planning Board and the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)," Liebeknecht said. "DEP approved the report with the condition of mitigation, excavations of the Cassville prehistoric and historic sites in section four prior to construction."

Summarizing his findings, Liebeknecht said the Phase One investigation sought to identify the historical architectural, historical landscape and archeological resources in the area.

Liebeknecht used a PowerPoint presentation that included aerial maps of the vicinity to indicate the historical areas and the limits of the Hovbilt project.

"No historical architectural resources have been identified within the site limits," he said. "The [development] site does lie in close proximity to two designated historic districts, the Cass-ville Cross-roads Historic District and the Rova Farms Historic Dis-trict."

The Jackson Valley project as presently conceived will have no physical or visual effect on the two historic districts and the Cassville municipal resource area, Liebeknecht said.

"A total of 4,905 shovel tests and 23 excavation units were manually excavated within the project limits," he said. "In areas where artifacts were discovered, tight noble testing was employed. Five significant archeological resources were identified within these limits."

The investigator said they include the Cassville prehistoric site, a late archaic base camp dating to circa 1000 B.C. The site had 238 prehistoric artifacts and the Cassville historic site which overlaps the Cassville prehistoric site dates from the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century.

"At this site 1,022 historic artifacts were recovered," the investigator said.

Discussing other historical resources, Liebeknecht noted the Cassville cranberry bog complex which dated from the mid-1860s through the mid-1920s and the Cassville charcoal kiln groups, which were represented by circular patches of charcoal in the Colliers Mill wildlife refuge area.

"These were used to produce charcoal in local forges and furnaces," said Liebeknecht.

The last resource is the Prospertown-Cassville Road, he said, explaining that the sand road dates from at least the early 1830s. It was an historic road that allowed for the transport of lumber, charcoal and cranberries.

"No artifacts were recovered from the last three sites," the investigator said.

Attorney Donald Daines, representing Hovbilt, said the applicant is suggesting that vehicular traffic, even if Prospertown Road is a public right of way, should be restricted to emergency vehicles only.

Liebeknecht said unrestricted access on a road of this nature can cause a loss of historic character and integrity.

Responding to a question from Daines regarding sanitary sewers in the vicinity of St. Vladimir's Church, Liebeknecht said the sanitary sewer along Perrineville Road should have no impact.

"It should have no visual impact," he said. "It is a subsurface instillation."

Planning Board Chairman Kenneth Bressi wanted to know how the church foundation will be protected from vibration.

"You're dealing with very sandy soil which absorbs the vibration," Liebeknecht responded. "If it were clay then that vibration would be transferred. It's such a sandy soil that there shouldn't be any problem with that."

Township Engineer Douglas Klee wanted to know the nature of the artifacts that were unearthed. He was told that 238 were prehistoric, two were projectile points (one arrowhead and one spear) and there were also tools and artifacts to manufacture tools.

It was stated that the artifacts are presently housed at Hunter Research and will eventually be turned over to the state museum.

The Rev. Phillip Petrovsky of St. Vladimir's Memorial Church reviewed the history of the Russian people in the Cassville section of Jackson.

"Our roots are deep here," he said. "They don't pull out easy and they're not superficial. We will not allow, in any way, anything to occur to that church. Remember that our church outside of Russia is universal and we have hundreds of thousands of people who are watching what is going to happen to our church. I am afraid that the builder's assurances today [regarding] any disturbances with sewer lines or any projection of disturbances on the road probably will not affect our church is not good enough for us. The bottom church goes down to road level, so whatever you're going to be doing down there, 'probably not' is not a good enough answer."

Daines said all of these concerns are shared.

Arthur Havighorst, vice president and general counsel for Hovbilt, said the applicant will make certain that the appropriate testing will be done once the sewer alignment for Jackson Valley is determined by the Jackson Township Municipal Utilities Authority.

Havighorst said Hovbilt will be willing to assure the church it is committed to making certain there is absolutely no damage to the church's structural integrity during the construction process.

Gove followed with his testimony and stated that "Habitat Management and Design has been retained, along with other firms, to perform threatened and endangered species studies throughout the site. We also did habitat evaluations as part of that work."

He described the wetlands areas on the site using an aerial map.

"Our study dealt with avian species," said Gove. "We found a breeding pair of Barred Owls on site in the center of the site and a second pair off-site.

Gove also noted that a red-silver fox was reported. A Cooper hawk was also seen and was scared away by nesting crows.

Swamp pink plants were discovered in the western portion of the development site in 2001 and 2006, Gove said. Also found were Pine Barrens tree frogs and a pine snake.