blog.cuyler.com

I started here as an 22 year old, fresh-faced college grad about to embark on law school, who thought it was time to drop my tennis racquet (my previous summer jobs involved teaching tennis and being a country club tennis pro) and enter the “real world” to work at a law firm to prepare for the rigors of a life in law. At least a million document reviews later (sadly not an exaggeration) I may not have had much of a summer lesson in the finer points of the law, but I did know that CB was a group of great people who treated even the lowest person on the totem pole (undoubtedly me) with respect and dignity.

We’ve changed offices, seen some old friends go and new friends come, had a party or two (and maybe the occasional drink), won many cases (and admittedly lost some cases), won a lot of softball games, had babies, got married, got divorced, and above all learned a lot. But, fifteen plus years later it is remarkable to note, especially in the intervening years of widespread nationwide law firm mergers, defections, closings and the like, that the core of the people at the Firm in 1992 are largely unchanged today. CB is still a place that trades on its people. Whether it is in the way it treats employees and their families, its fellow members of the bar, be it friend or foe, and of course its clients.

In this space, I will post my thoughts on things that touch CB or the profession in general, and provide links to interesting (mostly humorous!) stories about our profession. Hopefully, it will be an enjoyable read, not too serious, and something worth coming back for.

HILLSBOROUGH & MANVILLE – Somerset County officials’ vision for a winding, contiguous greenway along the scenic Raritan River corridor has received a significant boost with the acquisition of 197 acres straddling these two municipalities.

The county closed last week on the Maverick Construction Co. tract that includes the former landfill used by Johns-Manville Corp.

The landfill section of the property has been capped, as required by state regulations, and will not be used. But the remainder of the property is envisioned for passive recreation as part of the Raritan River Greenway, Freeholder Director Robert Zaborowski said.

“We already have acquired several hundred acres as part of this greenway,” he said. “The addition of almost 200 more is a tremendous asset to our preservation efforts in this area.” He noted that the Maverick property acquisition brings the total of preserved open space in Somerset County to just over 10,000 acres, or half the county’s ultimate preservation goal.

Purchase price for the land was $700,000. Maverick Construction Co., based in Hillsborough, was owned by Frank A. Marchello, who died in 2002. The landfill portion of the tract is just under half the total acreage.

The county has agreed to allow continued use of a ball field and clubhouse on the property by the Manville Youth Athletic League which will be guaranteed through a long-term lease agreement with the Borough of Manville.

Freeholder Director Zaborowski commended the Somerset County Park Commission, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and consultants Cuyler-Burk of Parsippany and Kleinfelder of Hamilton for bringing the purchase to fruition.

He credited Somerset County Parks Directory Raymond Brown and Planning and Land Acquisition Manager Tom Boccino; attorneys Ed Collins, Andrew Craig and Richard A. Crooker of Cuyler Burk; professional engineer Donald W. Richardson of Kleinfelder; NJDEP Assistant Commissioner of Site Remediation Irene Kropp; and Ken Kloo and Ian Curtis of the NJDEP Office of Brownfields Reuse.