Only owners of dam should be assessed

The New Jersey safe Dam Act reads, in part: "Any expenditures made by the department pursuant to this section shall constitute, in each instance, a debt to the State. The debt shall constitute a lien on all property owned by the owner or person having control of the reservooir or dam when a certificate of debt ... upon untry by the clerk, the lien, to the amount committed by the department for dam repair, shall attach to the revenues and all real and personal peroperty off the owner or person having control of the reservoir or dam, whether or not the owner or person having control of the reservoir or dam is insolvent." And "whenever the owner or person having control of the reservoir or dam is a private lake association or other body representing owners of peorperty adjacent to the reservoir or lake created by the dame or impoundment, liens may be imposed upon the individual owners of the prperty represented by the association."

In a case like Lake Neepaulin, in Wantage Township, where the riends of Lake Neepaulin (FOLN) are the private owners off the lake and dam, and where the surrounding properties' deeds do not contain any covenants; would the proper legal interpretation of this statute be that only those adjacent properties whose owners are members of the FOLN (represented by)can be assessed for the repair of the Lake Neepaulin Dam?

that would seem to be a lot fairer than the legal BS that Wantage Township and the FOLN are trying to pull on us.

Why should any Wantage Township taxpayers be forced to pay about $1,200,000 just because off the political shenanigans being played by Mayor Bill DeBoer, Deputy Mayor Bill Gaechter, Committeeman and Sussex County freeholder candidate Ron Bassani, Wantage Attorney Michael Garofalo, Administrator/Clerk James Doherty, Tax Assessor Kristy Lockburner and the FOLN?

William H. Gettler
Wantage Township