Newark Watershed Commission dissolved

[Art Berkman]

I just picked up my fishing permit.

The clerk who sold me the permit told me that the end of May there will be Lots of lay offs !

As far as other changes time will tell !

[acabtp]

i stopped into the echo lake office today to pick up my permit and talk to them about what they knew of any changes.

of the dissolution, they said that it's basically just a name change and some money is moving around down in newark. they have been told that the new organization will be at the same location, there will be the same access for fishing and hunting, the same protections against development in the watershed are still in place, and probably the same workers but they haven't made that 100% sure yet. it might be one of those things where they technically are "laid off" but then rehired by the new agency immediately for their same jobs. they didn't seem too worried. the people at the office said that there have been a lot of folks coming in for permits that were worried about the future access to the reservoirs and that the newspaper article (star ledger/nj.com) got people all worked up for nothing.