Solebury hopes to have Christopher Garges as its a new manager after Dennis H. Carney, who has led the municipality for 12 years, retires June 30. The board of supervisors plans to formally vote on the appointment at its Thursday, May 19, meeting when Garges plans to attend with his family, said Chair Mark Baum Baicker at Wednesday’s board meeting. Garges recently resigned after two and a half years as township manager of North Whitehall Township. Before that he was township manager and zoning officer for 20 months for Hanover Township, Lehigh County, and for 13 years was the zoning officer and building code official for Lower Saucon Township. The candidate is also a USA Track and Field Level 1 coach with “15 years experience with 29 marathon finishes included nine Boston Marathons,” according to his website where he also lists membership on the board of directors of the HCM Foundation which “provides opportunities and financial support to cancer patients, survivors and their families.” A Penn State University graduate with a B.S. in civil engineering, Garges was among the six to eight finalists out of 20 to 25 semi-finalists for the Solebury job, said Supervisor John Francis. Lamenting he has been working since the tender age of 16, the 68-year-old Township Manager Carney said he is looking forward to retiring to his 10-acre farm in Worcester, Montgomery County, and plans to travel the country and Europe with his wife. In other business, the supervisors heard from Stephen Freeman of the Devil’s Tea Table Alliance (DTTA). The group started in 2021 and has more than 600 participants. The Devil’s Tea Table is a rock formation high above the Delaware River in Hunterdon County, N.J., part of the view from Solebury, Tinicum and Plumstead townships. The arguments around the Devil’s Tea Table are growing more tense as Route 29 municipalities and some Bucks County residents on the other side of the river fight N.J. Department of Transportation (NJDOT) plans to encase the cliffs along the road in wire to protect drivers from falling rocks. The NJDOT project would cost $20 million for the Lambertville-West Amwell section and $33 million mostly in federal funds for the Kingwood area, Freeman said. But a recent Open Public Records request revealed “NJDOT has no records of accident or injuries from rockfall incidents in the impacted area to justify the project” along the 3 miles of Route 29 in Kingwood, including the Devil’s Tea Table area, Freeman reported. DTTA is requesting river communities, including Solebury, to oppose the venture in hopes state and federal legislators will take note. Baum Baicker said Solebury will discuss the issue with its solicitor, Mark Freed, before issuing a statement. So far, those issuing resolutions against the project are Kingwood Township, Hunterdon County, Frenchtown, Tinicum Township in Bucks County, Stockton and Plumstead. Issuing letters of concern are the Lower Delaware Wild and Scenic Partnership and the Tribal Council of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania. The DTTA’s stated goal is to get New Jersey and the federal government “to pause the current project and more meaningfully involve local elected officials...in evaluating the best and least destructive options to reasonably minimize any real rockfall risks . And to assure that thorough independent environmental, historical and archeological impact studies are conducted. All things not done to date.” The group lists the NJDOT undertaking to include: widespread tree removal, blasting much of the rockface, rock removal, installing metal mesh or draping materials to the rockface, create a new barrier or a “catchment ditch,” apply concrete (shotcrete) to the smoothed rockface around and including the Devil’s Tea Table geologic structure, and disrupt the flow of three stream tributaries to the Delaware River. The supervisors also voted to advertise an addition to its AirBnB ordinance that would require that a property proposed as an AirBnB be a residence, but not the owner’s primary residence. The current ordinance allows a situation, Baum Baicker said, where someone can come in and buy the property with no intention to use it as a residence, but has a purely commercial intent. “I think this amendment reflects the residents’ preference not to make Solebury a community with a significant number of absentee property owners,” said Supervisor Kevin Morrissey. “I believe it is important for property owners to view this township as their home and not simply an investment or guests who have a very temporary interest in this community. “ I believe we are just starting the B&B amendment process. One aspect that needs to be addressed is regulation of the additional noise that is created by some of these temporary lodgings. I hope soon we will be able to address this troubling by-product.” In other business, the board waived a requirement for the Heritage Senior Living and New Cartwheel Partners to plant 105 replacement trees on the 5.28-acre tract it is donating to the township next to its proposed project adjacent to the Giant Market on Route 202.

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