Widow Gets Life Estate

Cape widow won't lose golf-course home
By RICHARD DEGENERStaff Writer, (609) 463-6711
Published: Saturday, February 25, 2006
Updated: Saturday, February 25, 2006

— Helen Fergoli will get to stay in her house, but the township and the county may lose control of Ponderlodge Golf Course.

Those are the two newest developments in the continuing saga of the bankrupt golf course known informally as Beerworld because it was built by Schmidt's beer baron Billy Pflaumer.

A few weeks ago as the state, county and township tried to put together a funding package to purchase and preserve the 235-acre course the main concern was Fergoli. The 89-year-old widow, Pflaumer's aunt, owns a house at the golf course but does not hold title to the land. Bankruptcy attorney Arthur Abramowitz said she would have to leave.

Fergoli said the house was all she had left and she wanted to live out her days there with her dogs Spunky and Buddy.

“They better not put me out,” Fergoli had said.

On Thursday John Flynn, administrator of the state Green Acres Program, said Fergoli will be allowed to stay as long as she wants.

“We're going to offer her a life estate so she can stay there for the rest of her life. We're working on that,” Flynn said.

That news was met warmly by the township and the county. Mayor Walt Craig said he was glad to hear the news. Deputy County Administrator Steve Hampton said the news was very exciting.

Fergoli would be responsible for property taxes and repairs to the house but nothing else. The property the house sits on would be owned by the state and it would take full use of it upon Fergoli's passing.

The fact that the property would be owned by the state is the second major development. Flynn said the bankruptcy court wants the deal settled by the end of the month, which is Tuesday, so there is no time to work out a partnership deal. Developers are ready to step in if the state effort fails. The county and township applications for Green Acres grants and low-interest loans will not be acted on. Instead, Flynn said the state is going to buy Ponderlodge. It will pay the entire $8.45 million cost and hold title to the land.

“We're going to pay all of it, 100 percent purchased by the state of New Jersey with no grants or loan element. There just wasn't time,” Flynn said.

Green Acres only acquires land. It then gives it to one of two state Department of Environmental Protection divisions to manage. If it goes to Parks and Forestry it is managed as a park. If it goes to Fish and Wildlife it is managed for wildlife. Flynn said it will go to Fish and Wildlife.

This concerns Craig because Fish and Wildlife is not likely to allow the public golf course he was hoping to use to generate sorely needed revenue for township govenment. Craig hoped to lease out the golf course operation and make around $200,000 a year to balance a budget already facing a 10-percent tax rate hike this year.

The new deal means the township loses the existing ratable from Ponderlodge Golf Club, never got a ratable from the housing development proposed for the property before the state stepped in, and now with the public purchase gets no money from leasing the golf course. It may end up with a state payment in lieu of taxes, but that remains to be seen.

“To give it up for no benefit to the township at all, I don't think that's in our best interest,” Craig said.

Craig did not know of the new development until told by a reporter from The Press of Atlantic City.

“We were told everything was in place for the township to get it. It seems like the state set up its own set of playing rules,” Craig said.

Hampton said Craig has a right to be miffed but he said the county is happy the land is being preserved.

“The county interest was in preserving the land, whether we bought it or Green Acres bought it,” Hampton said.

That being said, the county is pushing for some local control. Freeholder Director Daniel Beyel wrote DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson a recent letter asking that Lower Township be allowed to manage and use the site “within the Green Acres Program guidelines.” The county also pledged money to the project. Acquisition doesn't take into account other costs, such as repairing or demolishing all the buildings on the site.

“Cape May County wants Lower Township to have an opportunity to operate it. They're there and the state isn't,” Hampton said.

Flynn said Fish and Wildlife is not equipped to operate a golf course but is “excited about making it a destination for eco-tourism.” Even with recreational uses allowed, he noted it is a great opportunity to “enhance habitat” in the southern end of Cape May County that is internationally important for migrating birds. He said the division's Endangered and Nongame Species Program is very interested in the property but the final decision on how it is managed is up to DEP Commissioner Jackson.

Township Councilman Mike Beck said he doesn't mind losing the golf course and the ratable.

“I'm fine with that. You can't have everything. I'm all for a nature preserve as long as people can access it to bird watch and enjoy nature,” Beck said.

Managing Ponderlodge for wildlife could come with a big carrot. Flynn said there could be grant money available to also restore heavily degraded Cox Hall Creek, which has been taken over by the invasive marsh reed phragmites.

There remains another issue as pollution has been discovered from old underground oil tanks on the property. A company has been hired to clean this up. Flynn is hoping it will not stop the deal.