Chiropractor in Wharton, NJ

A new outdoor museum will highlight New Jersey's history of innovation by unearthing its once-great conduit of commerce.

Set to open in August during Wharton's Canal Day, Lock 2 East and its tender’s house share the story of the equine-powered Morris Canal. The predecessor to North Jersey's railroad network has been out of use for nearly a century but was nonetheless instrumental in shaping the region, said John Manna, a community volunteer who helped oversee the historical site's renovation

"It helped the development in nearly all of northern New Jersey by transporting coal to the iron smelting areas," Manna said of the canal. "The plan is to put Wharton on the map by bringing it back."

Manna means bringing the canal all of the way back. A mechanism is being cast in Poland to finish the upstream gate. Permits from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection are also needed due to the lock's potential impact on nearby wetlands. The plan nonetheless remains to use the lock to raise canal boats 8 feet to permit mule-towed rides from the canal to the pond beyond the lock, Manna said.

Lock 2 East was a lock on the canal that ran between North Jersey and the Newark area and is one of a few sections of the canal that retained its historic appearance. Locks, or basins, were used to raise or lower the water level in the canal as needed.

William Chegwidden, the borough's mayor since 2002, credits Manna as well as state and local officials for their commitment to the project over two decades. A history teacher at Morris Knolls High School in Rockaway, Chegwidden said the restored canal lock could become a regional destination, much as it was nearly two centuries ago.

"The Erie Canal was big, but the Morris Canal was just as important," said Chegwidden. "The canal was our main street."

The restoration of Lock 2 East in Wharton to its present, still-unfinished state took roughly 16 years. Designed to help revitalize Main Street Wharton's business district, the newly restored lock provides a glimpse of a 2-square-mile town that once drew the spoils of a massive iron lode that stretches over the highest point in Morris County.

In use from 1831 to 1924, the roughly 100-mile canal capitalized on the success of New Jersey iron mining and manufacturing. It also fueled their growth by linking Pennsylvania coal with New Jersey furnaces via a system of 23 lift locks and 23 inclined planes linked by a shallow canal.

Lock 2 East in Wharton was filled to raise boats heading west and lower those heading east. It and its kin were basically built as square-sided bathtubs. Instead of a drain, however, they had gates for mule-pulled canal boats to pass through.

Towns along the route, especially those in proximity to iron mines, depended on the canal. Railroads later traced its path to allow easier transport in winter and faster transit overall. The railbed that traces the canal through Hugh Force Park is now part of the local trail network.

The canal today exists as merely a slight depression in some areas. Sporadic roadside markers confirm its path. The exceptions, such as Waterloo Village in Stanhope, Canal Park in Ledgewood and Wharton’s Hugh Force Park, show sure signs.

Wharton borough officials purchased the canal path and its surrounds from the state in 1926. Some 50 years later, excavation started to restore the canal prism, or trench, and its adjacent equine towpath. Today, that path leads visitors from the parking lot to the lock. Manna hopes to see mules one day return.

In the early 2000s, visitors saw little but a mound of dirt when the flat equine trail turned uphill near Stephens Brook. Only a few lock wall stones protruded from an otherwise grassy expanse, Manna said. The lock's capstones and even its iron mechanisms were pushed into the chasm to ease infilling of what local officials once deemed a somewhat dangerous chasm. The excavation was an eye-opening process, said Manna.

The work started with a feasibility study funded in 2006 with $87,000 in contributions from the state and county historic preservation trust funds. More grants funded further studies, plans and permit applications. It was "grant, after grant, after grant," said Chegwidden, including a 2011 grant from the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund for new wooden lock gates and a control mechanism.

Other key grants came from the New Jersey Department of Transportation, who recognized the site's rarity and potential, said Chegwidden. In 2010, the department chipped in $582,000 to help build the coffer dam between the lock and the canal for excavation and to start the reconstruction of the lock's stone walls and oak cladding. The department returned with a $3.4 million grant in 2019 to begin the final leg.

The money is helping to restore the lock tender's house using original stones found on site. Built by the canal company in the 1830s and sold for $200 soon after its dissolution, the two-story home became vacant in 1970 and nearly fell following a fire. The rebuilt house will be staged to look like it did during the canal's heyday with the help of the Canal Society of New Jersey, Manna said. The canal-side shack where the lock tender would sit during his shifts will also be rebuilt, he added.

The house is set to officially open for public view on Aug. 20, during Wharton's Canal Day Music & Craft Festival. The annual town fair organized by Manna is set to bring standards such as food and fireworks. Other planned offerings include boat tours, kayak excursions, period blacksmithing and firearms demonstrations by the 27th Regiment of New Jersey Volunteer Infantry Company. For more information on the event, visit canalday.org.

A wildfire in South Jersey’s Wharton State Forest spread to 12,000 acres Monday, as officials said it was on track to become the largest wildfire in the state in 15 years.

First spotted Sunday morning along a remote section of the Mullica River, and fueled by dry and breezy forest conditions, the blaze quickly reached townships in Gloucester, Burlington, and Atlantic Counties. No injures have been reported.

The fire, 70% contained as of Monday afternoon, is expected to be completely under control later this week — but could consume about 15,000 acres before then, New Jersey Forest Fire Service Chief Greg McLaughlin said at a news briefing Monday afternoon.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but McLaughlin said officials have ruled out natural causes.

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“The majority of our forest fires are human caused and it’s important to recognize that because it places it within our power to avoid circumstances like this,” said Shawn LaTourette, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

McLaughlin said there was “really extreme fire intensity” throughout the day Sunday due to dry conditions and high winds. The fire moved back and forth across the Mullica River. Firefighters were unable to make a direct attack on the fire and instead had to start backfires to burn vegetation around the perimeter.

“The fire moved in different directions. It spread quickly and with high intensity,” McLaughlin said.

Officials shut down the Mullica River Campground, its trail, and related water activities, such as boating. Pinelands Adventures suspended all its canoe and kayak operations and by late Sunday night, the Paradise Lakes Campground had been evacuated.

There were 18 structures threatened by the fire, McLaughlin said, at state and private campgrounds and several farms, including blueberry and cranberry farms. Firefighters have created barriers with backfires around those structures to protect them.

By Monday, authorities shut down sections of Routes 206 and 542.

Batsto Village and all its trails, the Atsion Recreation Area, and the Lower Forde Campground were all added to the list of closures.

McLaughlin said there wasn’t any threat as of Monday afternoon that residential areas would need to be evacuated.

The smell of smoke from the fire traveled as far as the Jersey Shore, reaching Ventnor and Ocean City.

Local volunteer fire departments from Atlantic, Burlington, and Ocean Counties have been providing protection to the 18 structures threatened by the fire.

Fire authorities said they would continue with backfire operations to contain the fire and asked the public to steer clear and not fly drones in the area.

McLaughlin said the fire could be mostly contained by late Monday night, and he expected it could be 100% contained Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on whether it rains.

Staff writers Amy S. Rosenberg and Kasturi Pananjady contributed to this article.

Ribbon-Cutting to Mark Completion of 16-Year Preservation Mission

With some fanfare and a ribbon cutting, Wharton Borough will officially complete a 16-year mission to restore one of the most remarkably preserved and unique sections of the famous Morris Canal – and of course, the festivities will be held at the 47^th Annual “Canal Day Music & Craft Festival” in Wharton Borough on Aug. 20.

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. 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.

Join the Ribbon Cutting & Fun on August 20, 10:00 a.m.

Hugh Force Canal Park, 180 West Central Ave., Wharton, NJ 07885

The Music & Craft Festival Runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The Morris Canal Lock 2 East restoration project was sixteen years in the making. 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,” said John Manna, President of the Canal Day Association and project coordinator for Wharton.

“This 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. You know it's not every day that a piece of history is brought back to life from the past,” Manna added.

“You know it's not every day that a piece of history is brought back to life from the past,” John Manna, President of the Canal Day Association.

It was a multi-year, multi-phase plan funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation (over $4 million) the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund

(over $658,000) and the New Jersey Historic Trust (over $88,000). Also key to its success were the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority, the Morris County Board of County Commissioners, the Morris County Park Commission, Wharton Borough’s mayors and council members over two decades, and the Canal Society of New Jersey.

“This is absolutely unique. 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. 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 Morris County Commissioner Stephen Shaw, liaison to the county’s Office of Planning and Preservation.

“Wharton wanted this project for many years because it would make Wharton a destination point. 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,” said Wharton Mayor William Chegwidden, who also is a high school history teacher.

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. 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.

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

PHOTOS

Top Right: Bird's Lock and the "lock tender's" house on the Morris Canal in Wharton as it appears today, with restoration work about finished.

Top Left: The same view of Bird's Lock and the "lock tender's" house on the Morris Canal circa 1900.

Center Right: Bird's Lock and the "lock tender's" house on the Morris Canal today, looking east over the lock.

Center Left: The same eastward view of Bird's Lock, which had remained buried prior to restoration work beginning, and the "lock tender's" house in ruins prior to its restoration.

Center Right: A 1904 photograph of Bird's Lock in action, 20 years before the Morris Canal was decommissioned by the State of New Jersey.

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

WHARTON — Employees of the Refresco bottling factory and community groups rallied outside the facility on Monday night to demand better working conditions and recognition of their union.

Refresco factory workers also filed a series of federal complaints with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to report health and safety violations at the plant. After the workers voted to form a union, the company filed a legal appeal against the move.

"We are working in unsafe conditions, with low salaries," said Anthony Sanchez, a machine operator for the last 15 years. "It's been four months since we had our union election. Refresco ran an aggressive anti-union campaign to intimidate and try to silence us and now is refusing to negotiate with our union.”

On Monday night, Refresco workers along with immigrant rights group Wind of the Spirit and community residents held signs outside the factory and called on the company to start negotiations with their union.

Cesar Moreira, one of the employees and a union organizer, joined colleagues at the rally after his evening shift. Moreira said they braved the cold because Refresco "continues to put excuses" in the way of beginning negotiations and recognizing the union.

"This was a demonstration to put pressure on the company to sit down at the table with us," Moreira said in Spanish. "The lawyers are not letting us have a dialogue with Refresco and reach an agreement with them. We're not asking for 100% or 80% of the company's earnings, we're asking for basic things."

The workers are primarily Latin American immigrants who state in a complaint to OSHA that they have been "getting injured and maimed by dangerous machinery." They often find themselves standing in pools of chemical water and around loud machines, causing hearing loss for some workers, the OSHA complaint says. The complaint also includes reports by employees who said they saw sewage on the floor during a shift, little to no time off, understaffing issues and a lack of adequate training on machine operation.

Nearly 250 workers at the factory reported issues with the plant, according to a letter sent to OSHA by union attorneys.

“We are treated like animals," said Nelva Castellanos, a lead machine operator.

Refresco workers, after a year and a half of organizing, voted to form a union in June. They said the treatment by supervisors, low wages, minimal benefits, sexual harassment, inhumane long hours and an attendance system that penalized workers for getting sick during the pandemic prompted them to start a union.

Refresco representatives did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

Employees' union representatives said two fires occurred at the plant in September and October. No fire alarms went off and the fire department was not called, read a statement from United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 115. The union is asking OSHA to perform an inspection at the Refresco Wharton plant with union representatives present.

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"Refresco is the largest bottling company in the world. They need to accept that Latinos have won a union here at Refresco, and we need to sit down at the table now," Moreira said.

Refresco is a Dutch-based transnational company with production facilities in Europe, the United States, Canada and Mexico. It is the world’s largest independent bottling corporation, with a combined production volume of more than 12 billion liters per year. 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.

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