For years the Township talked about moving an antique train car to the downtown area and use it for a visitors center. Sweet Jenny's did what Barnegat Township could not, and quickly found and moved 3 trains cars to their property at a cost of more than $40,000. Time and time again it is business-owners like the good people at Sweet Jenny's who are the real reason our town gets better. It is because of their actions...their ideas...their investments...that we all benefit. What Sweet Jenny's has already done at their site is such an incredible improvement -- it's a pleasure to support their business...not just for good food and fun, but for their committment to improve Barnegat.

Township officials were quick to not take responsibility for the train project being scrapped. We at DowntownBarnegat.com have first-hand experience with the Township mis-representing their involvement in killing projects like our town's Heritage Day celebration. We have no idea what the Township's involvement was in this case, but we will wait for any official comment from Sweet Jenny's as to why the project was really stopped.

Let's say the Township did everything it could to help make this project become a reality. Then why didn't Barnegat Township take at least one of the train cars and use it in our downtown area. The paper stated that Sweet Jenny's couldn't find anyone to take the cars. This great piece of history could have been preserved. We could have moved and restored the train with a program similar to the one that brought our town clock to reality. Yes -- the people and the businesses could have once again stepped up to make a visible improvement to our town. It would have been a fitting tribute to all the hard work and expense that Sweet Jenny's already put forth for our town.

So did the Township do all it could to help this project? No, they did not. They allowed the trains to be destroyed instead of taking the opportunity to preserve them as a tourist attraction in our downtown area. This is a tremendous failure for our Township officials and our Economic Development Committee, and they should be held accountable. They were asleep at the switch as the worst train wreck in Barnegat's history happened. For now this is the real question. Will a reporter ask the Township why they allowed this project to fail, and then not take the trains themselves. Let's wait and see.