Community Corner
Eagle Scout Candidate Looks to Improve Cataract Park
Young Jeff Garry wishes to install kiosk, sign at former site of Mineral Spring.
The Washington Township Committee meeting, held Monday, Feb. 21, was a special occasion for young Washington Township resident Jeff Garry.
Garry, a boy scout who lives in Washington Township, is in the stages of beginning his project to become an Eagle Scout after a presentation he made to the Township Committee on Monday night.
Garry looks to design a wooden information kiosk at Cataract Park, which sits along Schooley’s Mountain Road. After the kiosk is designed, it will be built and installed at the park. Garry will then look to install an aluminum sign which will give a description of the nearby, historic Mineral Spring that once existed there.
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While the spring is no longer in existence due to the road widening and township growth of the 1930s, Garry aims to preserve the memory of a spring that was believed by Native Americans to have . The spring was later enjoyed by famous visitors to Long Valley, including the famous Vanderbilt, Astor, and Roosevelt families, as well as former Presidents of the United States Ulysses S. Grant and Benjamin Harrison.
The information kiosk is estimated to cost around $500. Although Garry has not obtained the funds for the kiosk itself yet, the $1,500 manufacturing cost of the site’s proposed aluminum sign is expected to be covered by Mrs. Millicent Palmer, which eliminates a crucial cost hurdle for the project.
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Township Committee members seemed to be impressed with the fact that Garry, despite his youth, came up with such a well-thought out and communicated idea for his Eagle Project; Garry is one of the youngest Eagle Scout candidates in the history of Boy Scout Troop 236.
“I think your scoutmaster claims you will be the next president of the United States at the rate you’re going,” said township Vice Mayor James Harmon.
It isn’t the first time an Eagle Scout candidate has pledged to improve the Cataract Park area. Access to the park was restored when Phillip Salvatore, an Eagle Scout candidate from Washington Township, gathered 20 of his fellow West Morris Central students to reconstruct a foot bridge over Schooley’s Mountain Brook a few years back.
