Petty's Island past on film, future up in air

Activist groups on Tuesday showed off a new weapon in their fight against redevelopment of Petty's Island: a film that focuses on the Pennsauken site's past. The project's foes also launched a petition drive that asks Gov. Jon Corzine to designate the Delaware River island as a "state historic site, nature preserve and environmental education center."

"The most important thing about this island is to not give it away to a developer who will annihilate its history," said Roy Jones of the South Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance.

The group co-produced the 15-minute film with the Camden City African American Commission. The film says the island was, among other things, an early settlement for Native Americans and a slave-trade depot in the 17th century.

Pennsauken officials have unveiled a $1.3 billion plan to put 1,000 homes and a golf course on the island, which now holds a defunct oil terminal and an active shipping firm. Township officials could not be reached Tuesday night.

Citgo Petroleum, which owns the island of 300-plus acres, has vowed to fight any effort to force a sale through eminent domain. Company spokesman Jack McCrossin said the firm wants to give the site to the state, after an environmental clean-up, for use as a nature preserve.

"The conversations we've been having with the state are encouraging," McCrossin told about 60 people at the screening in the Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Center. "The way things are starting to move right now, I think we'll all be pretty pleased."

He gave no details about the talks with the state.

The film, Petty's Island: A Sacred Part of America's Story, was made with help from a Philadelphia nonprofit group, Scribe Video Center.

Reach Jim Walsh at (856) 486-2646 or jwalsh@courierpostonline.com
Published: February 21. 2007 3:10AM