Industrial Park

Mention the Corell Steel property to township officials and their faces invariably screw up in a mixture of irritation and exasperation. It's a reaction to their multiyear crusade to get the owners to create a clean, safe operation. The township, however, is close to reining in the renegade industrial park, said Zoning Officer D.J. Sheridan. Township attorneys are looking into legal action against the current owners, he said. The Corell dossier - a phone-book-size pile of citations, cease-and-desist orders and search warrants - has a prominent place on Sheridan's desk.

It is the quick route out of town that has attracted businesses to the William C. Haines Industrial Center on Route 130. With no municipal tax incentives to offer and no completed buildings to display, developers depended on a new turnpike interchange and plans to revitalize a depressed highway corridor to lure tenants to this 700-acre industrial park in northern Burlington County. "If somebody wants to be at our site, they really want to be there," said Richard J. Cureton, executive vice president of Whitesell Construction Co., the Delran company that owns the land straddling the border of Florence and Burlington Townships.

Goodwill wants your stuff: old sneaks, designer dresses, even that wine-stained tablecloth. In this downsizing economy, Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia is expanding its stores and drop-off centers, and has started the area's first regional outlet in Bellmawr, Camden County. The nonprofit also is hiring workers. Tuesday, local politicians joined Goodwill executives to open the outlet in an industrial park on Benigno Boulevard, off the Black Horse Pike.

A 50-year-old Gloucester County man died Monday when he fell through the roof of a recycling center in a Camden industrial park. The victim, of Franklinville, was cleaning the roof of the building on the 2200 block of Mount Ephraim Avenue when he fell to an elevated platform several feet off the floor shortly before 8:30 a.m., the Camden County Prosecutor's Office said. His identity was not released. The medical examiner ruled the death an accident. Authorities said the man died at the scene of multiple injuries.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Philadelphia has already staked its claim as a player in the national craft beer movement, with dozens of local brewers producing top-notch beer. Could the newest wave in artisan drink rolling our way from the West Coast - the craft spirit movement - be the next obsession to slake Philly's thirst with potent shots of white corn "Shine" and "Petty's Island Rum"? It just might, if Rob Cassell of Philadelphia Distilling and James Yoakum of Cooper River Distillers realize their dreams.

Four hundred fish have taken up temporary residence in an industrial park in North Camden. They are waiting to be transported this fall to the new $52 million New Jersey State Aquarium on Camden's waterfront. Next on agenda: The North Camden "halfway house" as home to the aquarium's first shark.

The Lindenwold Borough Council has authorized its engineer and funding officer to plan the development of the borough's 25-acre industrial park. Andrew Weber, the borough's funding officer, told the council Wednesday that a South Jersey land developer wants to acquire part of the industrial park to build facilities for one or two light industries. The park was begun in 1982 when the borough received $240,000 in federal funds to acquire land and build an access into the tract, a wooded section off United States Avenue in the Lucaston section.

Dennis Flanagan was a skinny, long-haired 17-year-old when he pleaded guilty to the 1981 murder of a gay man in a Bensalem industrial park. But in July, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted him a new trial, and Flanagan, now a graying 41-year-old, returned to Bucks County Court this week to resume his bid for freedom. Witnesses had died and scattered. Evidence had been lost. Memories had faded. But Flanagan's murder retrial ultimately changed nothing. He still will serve life in prison.

Following its neighbor's lead, Sharon Hill Borough Council has unanimously given the green light for development of the Bonsall Tract. Ninety-five percent of the parcel is in neighboring Darby Township, but the developers were required to seek Sharon Hill's approval for an industrial park proposed for the 23-acre site. Darby Township already has approved the proposal. Although the Sharon Hill portion of the tract is vacant land zoned for residential use, the developers, Henderson-Coyle, needed the council to approve a change in zoning to an industrial designation, and also for the borough to relinquish rights to Olive Street.

A housing development and an office park, both on historic sites, have been proposed in West Whiteland. During the Planning Commission's meeting Wednesday, Blair & Son of Bryn Mawr submitted a sketch plan for a 170,000-square-foot industrial park on the site of the Thomas Marble Quarry, which was built in 1833 and supplied marble used in such buildings as Girard College in Philadelphia. The commission made several suggestions for the industrial park proposed for the northeast section of Whitford and National Roads, which would include warehouse space and light-industrial firms such as a painting contractor.