Piles of dirt at the pond
BY LOUISE EASTON

SUMMIT - Briant Pond is in the news again, happily and unhappily.

Residents who use the County Park can rejoice over the fact that the Union County Park Commission is removing the silt that seeps into the pond and is drying up the springs.

However, residents in the area are disturbed over the 11 "mounds of dirt" piled along the edges of the pond.

According to Bob Schaefer of the County Park Commission, the larger mounds of dirt will be carted away as they usually are each year. This dirt is from the digging for the silt removal.

Mr. Schaefer explained the Commission's projects. The first is the removal of silt that is washing down from both the Houdaille quarry and from the "uplands of Summit". Although they are "trying to get a corrective program going with the quarry", they must continually dig deep into the pond until the silt is removed. The large mounds of dirt through the pond ditching will be carted away, assured Mr. Schaefer.

However, there is another phase to the Commission's program. Since the end of the droughts in the late sixty, a number of springs have been continually cropping up along the playing fields in the park. The Commission is now in the process of doing some extensive ditching "to dry up the wetness of the spring activities". While the silt removal project is just about concluded, this phase of the reclamation continues and the piles of dirt deposited along the edges of the pond will remain to hold back the banks of the pond.

The wetness that has feathered into the woods and playing area has been a breeding spot for mosquitoes, and the Commission is trying to "lick all of these problems."

Mr. Schaefer assures residents in the area that the trees will be protected. Residents maintain that the piles of dirt are pushing up against trees, fearing that they will lead to their eventual destruction.