Acupuncture in Wharton, NJ

We’ve gotten very spoiled with all that New Jersey grocery stores have to offer lately. Grocery shopping is no longer about simply picking out apples with no bruises and checking out which cereal is on sale.

Modern grocery shopping in NJ has become a vastly different experience and all of the new grocery stores popping up all over the place have only served to make competitors up their games.

It’s not enough anymore just to be a great supermarket that carries a lot of stuff and has good customer service. Today you’ve got to be all things to all people.

You’ve got to keep up on the latest food trends and make sure you’re satisfying every culinary curiosity. So many of the aforementioned new stores have come to town and have accomplished that goal. But up until now, a lot of New Jersey’s classic grocery stores, the ones even your grandma shopped at, have fallen behind.

Enter ShopRite of Wharton, NJ.

ShopRite of Wharton recently debuted a concept called Fresh to Table, which customers have already been experiencing at ShopRites in Bloomfield, Greenwich, Burlington, Newton, Sparta, Byram, Mansfield and Succasunna, among other locations.

With Fresh to Table, customers can find easy-to-prepare ingredients that will make you say goodbye to your meal subscription boxes. The unique, on-trend foods you’ll find there are the ones you’re looking for today.

And the best part is that these fresh-to-table items are available in grab-and-go formats to accommodate the needs of busy New Jerseyans.

ShopRite is calling this a “store within a store” concept. It’s so important now to make things both fresh and easy because it will make for great convenience, too.

Busy because they have ready-to-cook items, ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat meals with prepped ingredients. It’s perfect for people who want to eat and also feed their families, fresh and healthy food but don’t have as much time to plan meals, and to execute them, as perhaps cooks did a generation ago. It’s a one-stop shop.

And of course, if you don’t want to stop, its fresh produce meals, and snacks, can be ordered through ShopRite’s online grocery store.

Let’s hope that this debut marks just the beginning of a trend like this across more supermarkets.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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NOTE: This article was updated to include photographs of the fire, plus additional information about its size and the effort to control it.

A wildfire broke out Sunday at Wharton State Forrest along the Mullica River, consuming 600 acres by the late evening, state officials said.

“WILDFIRE ALERT: Wharton State Forest – Washington Township,” the New Jersey Forest Fire Service tweeted at 12:24 p.m. Sunday. The fire service was, “responding to an active wildfire in a remote section of Wharton State Forest along the Mullica River.”

“Avoid the area.”

At about 7:30 p.m., the Forest Fire Service updated its Twitter and Facebook pages to reflect the size of the fire and its continued spread.

“The New Jersey Forest Fire Service continues to fight a wildfire fueled by dry and breezy conditions in Wharton State Forest - Washington, Shamong, Hammonton & Mullica Townships - which has reached 600 acres in size and is 10% contained,” the Forest Fire Service posted on Facebook. “Crews have begun a backfiring operation to aid in containment.”

The Mullica River Campground, Mullica River Trail and boat launches along the river were closed until further notice from the Atsion Recreation Area to the historic Batsto Village bog ore smelting site. Batsto Village and all associated hiking and mountain bike trails were closed to visitors

Six structures are threatened in the Paradise Lakes Campground which was evacuated by crews.

A spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Protection, which includes the Forest Fire Service, said no further information was available and referred to the Twitter and Facebook pages for any updates.

Sunday’s weather in the area was sunny and dry, with temperatures in the mid-70′s and wind speeds in the mid-to-high teens, according to Weather.com.

Wharton is the state’s largest state park, occupying 122,800 acres of pine forest, meadows, lakes and rivers within the Pinelands National Reserve in Burlington and Atlantic counties.

An average of 1,500 spontaneous blazes damage or destroy about 7,000 acres of state forrest land every year, according to the state Forest Fire Service.

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WHARTON, NJ - A section of the Morris Canal situated about eight miles west of Denville will be the scene in August of a fanfare-filled ribbon-cutting celebrating the completion of a 16-year-long restoration project, Morris County announced today.

The ceremony will take place Aug. 20 at the 47^th Annual “Canal Day Music & Craft Festival” in Wharton.

"The site at Wharton’s Hugh Force Canal Park is one of the remaining and best-preserved watered sections of the historic Morris Canal, which was responsible for the economic development of not only the Borough but the entire region 175 years ago," said Morris County spokesman Brian Murray in a press release.

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He said the restoration project, developed with $4.7 million in state and county grants, involves a quarter-mile stretch of the old 102-mile long canal that once linked Phillipsburg and Jersey City.

"A lock, by which boats were once elevated or lowered during their journey through sections of the uniquely engineered canal, is being fully restored, along with an adjacent, stone “lock tender’s” house that will become a new museum," Murray explained.

“The Morris Canal Lock 2 East restoration project was sixteen years in the making," added John Manna, president of the Canal Day Association and project coordinator for Wharton. "The plan was to make Wharton Borough a destination utilizing remnants from its past glory, and just as this 19th Century waterway was revolutionary with its engineering achievements, the canal site today will produce economic vitality for the Borough nearly 200 years later.”

He said the project “focused federal, state, and municipal governments to this end, and we hope to have busloads of school children visit daily to learn about this legacy," adding, "You know it's not every day that a piece of history is brought back to life from the past.”

It was a multi-year, multi-phase plan funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (more than $4 million) the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund (more than $658,000) and the New Jersey Historic Trust (more than $88,000), Murray noted.

“This is absolutely unique,"said Morris County Commissioner Stephen Shaw, liaison to the county’s Office of Planning and Preservation. "Wharton now has a beautifully restored, quarter-mile segment of the historic Morris Canal, as well as the only operational canal lock on what remains of the entire 102 miles of the old canal."

He noted the project also restored one of the few remaining lock-tender houses on the canal.

"Due to the diligence and hard work of everyone involved from the start, this project is a major success,” said Shaw.

“Wharton wanted this project for many years because it would make Wharton a destination point," said Wharton Mayor William Chegwidden, who also is a high school history teacher. "Every town council over the years supported the restoration. The Morris Canal created Wharton’s early economy. It built the economy of the entire area. This is about our history, and with the help of so many, we have finally restored a stretch of the canal that includes a working lock, the tender house, a quarter mile of the canal, and we even have the pond where boats would float and wait to go through the lock.”

The Mayor also credited John Manna with initiating the project and spearheading efforts over the past 20 years to get it completed.

Hugh Force Canal Park is also part of the Morris County Park Commission’s West Morris Greenway, a trail system that remains under development and in planning stages, but eventually will extend into Jefferson Township, noted Murray.

"Because of its historical significance and unique features, the canal restoration at Hugh Force Canal Park is expected to become an attraction for educational programs, school visits and tourists," he said. "The lock, also historically known as Bird’s Lock, had been buried long ago when the development of railroads prompted the state to abandon the Morris Canal in 1924. No one was certain what remained of the lock, as so many other locks, prisms and inclines along the 102-mile stretch had been destroyed, repurposed or left to decay over the past century. However, the project revealed not only that the stone walls remained remarkably intact, but the original Mitre gate doors also were found buried at the site so that it was possible to reconstruct exact replicas of the originals, which will be placed on display."

Explore the Canal Day Website for More Information

Project History, Cost and Funding Sources

2006 - NJ Historic Trust and Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund provided grant funding of $87,000. The funds were utilized to create an historic site master plan and feasibility study. Funds were also utilized for determining the condition of the buried lock in which 64 shovel tests and large trenches were made, during which 731 artifacts were retrieved.

2007 - Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund provided a grant of $100,000 to assist with professional services towards the restoration of the lock. The funds were utilized to acquire DEP permitting and approvals.

2008 - NJ Historic Trust granted an award of $50,000 for the preparation of restoration documents for the lock, canal basin, and lock tender’s house. This work included site analysis, environmental permitting, and schematic design, as well as archaeological monitoring.

2010 - The project received Department of Environmental Protection permitting approvals to begin work.

2010 – N.J. Department of Transportation provided a grant totaling $582,000 to excavate Lock 2E and restore the stone walls to grade level.

2011 - Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund provided a construction grant of

$286,450 for the fabrication of wood lock gates, control mechanism, and funding for the construction of the lock walls to their historic elevation.

2015 - Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund provided funding of $117,995 for Mitre Gates.

2016 - Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund provided $27,852 for construction documents.

2017 - Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund provided a grant of $38,790 for design and contract administration for the lock tender’s house construction.

2018 - Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund provided a grant of $38,250 for design and contract administration for the lock construction.

2019 - New Jersey Department of Transportation provided funding of $3,424,800 through their Transportation Alternative Grant Program

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The world's largest beverage bottler has been fined $49,724 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for "serious violations" that could endanger employees at their plant in Wharton.

Employees of the Refresco bottling factory and community groups rallied outside the facility on Nov. 15 to demand better working conditions and recognition of their union. A week later, OSHA began a series of inspections at the plant that continued through last week.

An OSHA citation and notification dated May 19 lists four "serious violations" including wet walking surfaces on four occasions, employee exposure to continuous noise levels at 217% of the permissible action level exposure limit, failing to document the basis for determining that all hazards in a permit space had been eliminated, and failure to certify that propane-powered forklift and electric pallet jack operators had been trained and evaluated.

Refresco claims to be the world’s largest independent bottler for retailers and branded beverage companies in Europe and North America, producing more than 30 million liters of drinks per day. It employs about 4,000 workers in 31 facilities, 26 located in the United States,

Workers at Refresco in Wharton bottle and ship beverages such as BodyArmor Sports Drink for Coca-Cola, Gatorade by Pepsi, Juice Bowl, Arizona Iced Tea and Tropicana juices.

A majority of the 250 workers there voted in June to join the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America union. The majority Latino workforce cited unsafe working conditions, treatment by supervisors, low wages and long hours as reasons for starting the union.

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"Refresco is committed to the health and safety of its employees," a Refresco spokesperson stated. "As part of these efforts, the company continues its cooperation with OSHA. Refresco welcomes this opportunity to further review and enhance workplace health and safety at its Wharton facility."

In 2015, OSHA cited the plant for eight serious violations, including two "willful violations" for not providing hearing tests for workers exposed to prolonged noise.

The company has until June 13 to abate the current violations and June 19 to pay the fines, or risk incurring additional penalties, interest and administrative costs.

At the November rally, Anthony Sanchez, a machine operator at Refresco for the last 15 years, said employees were "working in unsafe conditions, with low salaries."

"It's been four months since we had our union election," Sanchez said. "Refresco ran an aggressive anti-union campaign to intimidate and try to silence us and now is refusing to negotiate with our union.”

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven

WASHINGTON – Firefighters have about 70% of a massive fire in Wharton State Forest burning since Sunday afternoon contained as of Monday afternoon, according to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, but officials said they expect it to grow considerably.

The wildfire has spread to 12,000 acres in portions of Wharton State Forest in Washington, Shamong, Hammonton and Mullica townships in Burlington, Gloucester and Atlantic counties.

The fire was expected to more than double in size, according to the fire service. If so, that would make it the largest forest fire in New Jersey since 2007, officials said.

Fifty people have been evacuated from the Paradise Lake and state campgrounds, a fire service spokesperson said at a press conference in Shamong.

There were no reported injuries as of Monday afternoon.

The fire was fueled by Sunday's dry and windy conditions.

“Boy, it’s the baddest one I’ve ever seen," said Spike Wells, 71, who lives and operates a sawmill about 2 miles from where officials have blocked off Route 206.

Fire map:Wharton State Forest fire map shows where blaze is burning

"We’ve seen a lot of them," he said. "Every year they’ve got some forest fires but not like this. It’s terrible.”

His wife, Michele, 68, who's worked as an EMT in the area for 30 years, said she'd also never seen a fire "quite as bad as this."

"It's a little too close for us," she said.

They both said that they should be fine unless the winds change. If the winds do, though, they fear it could ignite their sawmill and the Pic-A-Lilli Inn, which is just down the road from them.

The state Department of Environmental Protection said the fire is impacting an area of woodlands between Atsion Village and Batsto Village. Crews from the fire service are working to prevent the spread and are working with local fire departments to protect Batsto Village and campgrounds.

The crews will continue conducting backfiring operations throughout the day to aid in containment.

Gov. Phil Murphy took to Twitter this morning to advise residents to "stay safe" and tune in for local traffic updates.

As of Monday afternoon, Route 206 from Chew Road to Atsion Road and Route 542 from Green Bank Road to Columbia Road were closed, the fire service said.

Batsto Village and all associated hiking and mountain bike trails were closed to visitors. The Atsion Recreation Area was also closed. The Mullica River Campground, Lower Forde Campground, Mullica River Trail and boat launches along the Mullica River are closed from the Atsion Recreation Area to Batsto Village.

These closures will remain in effect until further notice. Pinelands Adventures has suspended kayak and canoe trips.

Wildfire: Burlington County forest fire burns 600 acres, smoke seen from Long Beach Island

Eighteen structures were threatened, the fire service said. Structure protection is in place and provided by local volunteer fire departments from Atlantic, Burlington and Ocean counties.

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"Certainly, there are animals that are fleeing these fires," said John Cecil, assistant commissioner of state parks, forests and historic sites with the NJ DEP.

It's hard to quantify the number plants, animals and trees threatened by the fire, he said.

Asbury Park Press staff writer Erik Larsen contributed to this article.

When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; [email protected].