By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
The headquarters for South Jersey Gas occupies a spacious campus in western Atlantic County, famous for its blueberry fields and pinelands. But the utility company just told two local mayors it’s moving to Atlantic City, and taking 167 good-paying jobs with it. Why?
“They referred to the Hammonton/Folsom area as ‘the middle of nowhere’ which is insulting. They claim they’re a good neighbor, but a good neighbor would not say that,” said Folsom Mayor Louis DeStefano.
“That’s very discouraging and disheartening. It’s on the backs of John Q Public, and it’s not fair for big business to do this,” said Hammonton Mayor Steve DiDonato.
The mayors of Folsom and Hammonton say they also feel betrayed. South Jersey Gas plans to build a new headquarters in Atlantic City’s Chelsea section — part of the $203 million Gateway project that also includes an island campus for Stockton University. It’s all part of an effort to develop and rescue the casino town from its economic death spiral.
“And they’re poaching the western end of the county to try and save Atlantic City, which is probably beyond saving,” DeStefano said.
“With the energy company they’ve become, I think there’s a lot of staffing and there’s room for both towns to succeed, as part of Atlantic City development for Atlantic City certainly don’t want to hurt the western part of our county. And we don’t have to,” said Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian.
“In a field of emerging technology, our being able to attract the best and the brightest talent is very important to us, which is a little bit difficult in an area like this. We think that the opportunity of having a location in Atlantic City, with beach front access certainly a premiere location dining options and education. There are a lot of attractive reasons to locate a site there,” said Marissa Travaline the Director of Stakeholder Relations at South Jersey Industries.
The utility claims the Folsom building, for which it pays a $140,000 local tax bills, will remain open as a satellite. The company want to consolidate smaller offices into one location in Atlantic City. The mayor’s are unpersuaded.
“That’s our largest ratable. We have two union halls, a cannery and a gas company. That’s all we have here,” DeStefano said. “We don’t need any more homes with ‘For Sale’ signs on them, here.”
Small businesses in Hammonton will also bleed revenue, officials say. The angry West Atlantic County mayors launched a new Facebook page to fight the utility’s move. They’re particularly galled that New Jersey’s EDA sweetened the deal by promising South Jersey Gas $12 million in tax credits.
The mayors say yes, they’re out in the country but it’s not the middle of nowhere. They’ve got a special, multiple-town meeting for Thursday at Borough Hall to fight South Jersey Gas’ move.