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The Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission was actually created in 1995 with broad powers to coordinate and implement planning for the site, which has informally been run as a public/private partnership since 1939 when the Steuben House first opened to the public. Previous to the 2007 flood, this State Historic Site displayed museum collections of the Bergen County Historical Society, a 107-year-old non-profit group that purchased the adjoining 7 acres in 1944 to protect and enhance the small state-owned property. It was the Society that donated a right-of-way in 1955 to move a proposed highway bridge away from the Steuben House; it was also the Society that donated land to the state of NJ to build a parking lot for visitors. The Society has funded all programming at the site since its opening. It also provided volunteers to supplement the single state interpreter on the site---a position vacant for the past year and a half. The new legislation simply transfers administration of the state-owned parcels, including the Steuben House, to the commission, which is an administrative entity within the DEP. So this is technically an internal transfer of jurisdiction, much like a piece of public land being transferred from the jurisdiction of Fish & Wildlife to Parks & Forestry. The new law does not relieve the state of the cost of running the state-owned lands and buildings, it simply transfers the administration of all funding and appropriations relating to the Steuben House to the commission's control. It therefore does not take any funding away from any other park or historic site; on the contrary, it will extract the budget for the Steuben House from the budget for Ringwood State Park, where it has been lost and undervalued for many years. The new law also redefines the jurisdictional boundaries of the commission to protect this last fragment of the Jersey Dutch countryside and a significant Revolutionary War battleground from inappropriate intrusions. Lastly, please note that this bipartisan legislation passed both houses of the NJ Legislature unanimously! The Governor and legislators of both parties deserve credit for recognizing the significance of this sacred ground, where Americans soldiers fought and died. I would also note that it was the Commission---not the DEP---which secured a $1.1 million Federal grant to acquire and cleanup the old auto salvage yard. Once this project is finished, the historic park will finally be visible from the 40,000 vehicles that pass daily on Hackensack Avenue-New Bridge Road. The sad reality is that the State Historic Sites have been poorly treated under unqualified management since the Historic Sites Commission was abolished in 1945 and its responsibilities transferred to the predecessor of the Division of Parks & Forestry in the DEP. No one qualified by experience or education in the administration or interpretation of historic sites can rise to any management level in the DEP and the Office of Historic Sites, actually empowered by existing state law to administer the state-owned Historic Sites, has been ignored for many years. I also understand why bureaucrats who make a good living off administering the State Historic Sites might now feel queasy by change. To begin to protect and appropriately administer the state-owned Historic Sites, which not only hold intrinsic cultural value but also great potential to attract the economic benefits of heritage tourism to surrounding communities, I suggest we create a volunteer Historic Sites Commission of individuals truly qualified by experience and education to administer the State Historic Sites through the Office of Historic Sites, as presently sanctioned by law. All State Historic Sites---and not simply the Steuben House at Historic New Bridge Landing---deserve better than they have gotten in being misplaced within an environmental regulatory agency that is generally clueless as to their cultural and economic value. It's time we Make History, not quibble over the crumbs that have been begrudgingly tossed our way for too many years, in good and bad times.