Posted on 02/07/2003 6:44:51 PM PST by marshmallow
SPRINGFIELD - It came in with a bang.
It's going out with a flush.
Commuters on Interstate 295 will have to hold their bladders a little longer when state officials close down New Jersey's most infamous rest stop restrooms this summer.
Making good on a joking campaign promise to potty-mouthed talk-show host Howard Stern, Gov. Christie Whitman in 1995 named the Burlington County pit stop in his honor.
The rest areas on either side of I-295, two miles east of Burlington City, will shut their bathroom doors in July, victims of New Jersey's multibillion-dollar budget crunch. The areas will remain open to those looking to rest or stretch their legs.
The southbound stop gained notoriety when Whitman honored a 1993 pledge to the New York-based, nationally syndicated shock jock. Stern endorsed the Republican and granted her a lot of airtime during her hard-fought campaign against then-Gov. Jim Florio.
Stern was thrilled with the gift he got in return: a $1,000 plaque at the southbound stop, bearing his name and likeness peering out from an outhouse.
But many, including the New Jersey chapter of the National Organization for Women, did not see the humor in honoring a man whose on-air views of the opposite sex came down to: the more scantily clad, the better.
His name, after all, was being etched in New Jersey rest-stop history alongside such greats as Walt Whitman and Thomas Edison.
In the end, the honor clearly was not meant to be.
The plaque, paid for by the state Republican Committee, was stolen days after going up. It later showed up in Stern's mail.
And now the state wants to close shop altogether.
But Stern, whose agent did not return calls for comment, should not take it personally.
It's a matter of economics, state officials say. Gov. McGreevey's administration estimates that closing the restrooms, which employ 23, will inch the cash-strapped state $1 million closer to filling a $5 billion gap.
"We had to make some tough choices," acting Transportation Commissioner Jack Lettiere said.
The three remaining state-run rest stops - on Interstates 80, 287 and 295 - will remain open.
Elizabeth Volz, president of NOW's New Jersey chapter, said she did not see closing the facility as any real loss.
"It wasn't much of a rest stop in the first place," she said. "Maybe when the state is in the black again, they can build a nice rest stop and name it after someone who has actually made a contribution."
Leave it to a liberal state like New Jersey to hire *23* full time employees to run one rest room.
Those broads never see the humor in anything.
It worked for Dave Barry!
My point being - if a flaming a** like Howard can change his tune - how is the rest of NYC feeling ?
Dems are now a fringe party - watch the indepent ranks swell
This is the type of thing that just chaps my hide. You so-called "legislators" want to close a $5 billion gap? You sure as hell aren't going to do it by closing restrooms in rest stops (arguably a legitimate use of tazpayer funds). Why not start goring some of those sacred-cow social programs? Get back to what you're supposed to be doing as a government and you'll find it FAR easier to cut $5 billion.
I know I know..........who'm I kiddin'???
Damned well said BUMP!
It was a safe closure, and after all --- "we have to save money to ease the budget-crunch!!!! It's a difficult job, but someone has to do it!!"
Idiocy!
As an aside, I spoke with a friend who still works there this weekend and he made it sound like the state workers are starting to turn on McGreevey. Regrardless of what you think about state workers, that's a good thing for 2003 and 2005.
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