|
Group Seeks Help To Reopen Novins Planetarium
By Bill McLaughlin
A move to rehabilitate and reopen the Robert J. Novins Planetarium on the campus of Ocean County College got underway at the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders meeting last Wednesday afternoon.
A new website - www.savetheplanetarium.org - has been set up to plead for private and corporate donations and disseminate information, announced Richard Gamba, vice president of the Astronomical Society of Toms River (ASTR), the group which staffed the now-closed planetarium.
Speaking before the freeholders, Gamba displayed a $15 T-shirt
emblazoned with a color shot of the planetarium and the words "I'm Helping to Save the Planetarium" on its front. The shirts
would be one way to raise money to fix the site, said Gamba, noting the planetarium needs a replacement star projector, valued between $600,000 and $1 million, while numerous other physical plant issues must still be addressed..
The Toms River resident said his group presented petitions a year ago with over 1,000 signatures asking the freeholders to keep the planetarium open. The site, named for founding trustee Robert J. Novins, has been closed since September.
"The citizens of Ocean County want their planetarium open," Gamba said. "There are over 30,000 visitors each year. Over half are school children. They can't wait to go on their favorite school outing of the year."
Meeting at 8 p.m. on the second Friday of each month on the college campus, the ASTR participates in school outreach programs and sends lecturers to schools and Scout troops to keep youngsters up on astronomy.
Gamba noted the freeholders were budgeting some $14.1 million in aid this year to Ocean County College, which also receives state aid.
"You plan $51 million in construction (to OCC) over the next few years," he added. "Couldn't some portion of that money go to Novins?"
The freeholders should find whatever money they can to restore the site to its former glory, said county resident J. Randolph Walton, pointing to a declaration of more than $1 million in donations made last year by a Berkeley trucking company owner turned out to be bogus, leaving the planetarium restoration effort derailed ever since. Walton believes the college trustees relied too heavily on one pledge that now will never be redeemed.
"I do not feel the trustees were serious about restoring it," said Walton. "Other than one person - a hoaxer, it turns out - they haven't made serious solicitations."
"They want the planetarium to be self-sufficient, but they don't ask that of libraries or computer labs," he said. "They haven't applied for any grants in the past year."
The Novins Planetarium deserves to be saved because it's the only one of its kind in Central New Jersey, Walton told the Freeholders. Although the planetarium was a popular field trip destination for schools throughout the region, Walton said a little marketing wouldn't hurt.
"It could be promoted more in the schools and county libraries," he said. "I know they had brochures made up but I never saw them at the public libraries."
After listening to concerns, the freeholders made no commitment regarding any potential funding.
| 
