Hi all!

[Joe M]

My name is Joe Madjeski, and I grew lived in Tabernacle from 1980 to 1987. I loved growing up in the Pines area, and the beauty, silence, and sugar sand remain some of my best memories to this day.

My dad used to take me out exploring the Barrens just about every weekend, an I remember places like Applepie Hill, Mt. Misery, and places where we just had fun getting lost, stumbling over a little stream or an old iron ore village.

Well, as it turns out, I stand a chance of moving back home and raising my kids there, and the anticipation is killing me! All I have to do is sell a house, find a house, and find a job in the area, all should be easy and pain free! :rofl:

Anyways, I just wanted to introduce myself to this fine community before I start reading all the archives!

 

[Boyd]

Hi Joe and welcome aboard! Hope you can make it work out.

 

[Chrisr]

Hi Joe and welcome to the site!!

So, all you have to do is sell a house, find & buy a house and get a job?? Sounds like a piece of cake!!! :rofl:

Seriously though, the best of luck to you in moving back "Home".

 

[Joe M]

Thanks, all!

We're actually driving up on Saturday to poke around and so I can introduce the family to the area. I've shown my wife, Meg, some pics of the area and she started talking about what we need to do to sell this place. Something tells me she may be on board!

 

[bobpbx]

One of the things we all have to do is to guard our freedom of access to all the sand roads like pit bulls. Everytime I travel to another nearby state I marvel at the restricted access. I don't ever want to live like that.

 

[Joe M]

I had no idea other states did that. Here in DE, they sacrifice good schools for paving every inch of exposed ground...

 

[46er]

Here in DE, they sacrifice good schools for paving every inch of exposed ground...

How about sending the schools to be sacrifice here to NJ. We have the honor of building themost expensive schools in the country; regional avg is $60 million, NJ is $100+ million, and no one knows why

 

[woodjin]

Welcome aboard Joe! I am sure you will find this site extremely useful and extremely informative. Best of luck on finding a place, hope it all works out. I'm living in Tabernacle now. Just get ready for the tax shock (you coming from DE and all)

Jeff

 

[Joe M]

Yeah, we're looking at about a 5x increase of property taxes, but that will be more than offset by the fact that we won't have to pay for a private school.

If you're wondering what the benefit is to those expensive schools, compare your graduation and college entry rates to those in Delaware

 

[piker56]

Joe, sent you a PM.

 

[Boyd]

There are some very good schools here in New Jersey, including the Lenape Regional School District, which includes the Tabernacle area. My daughter graduated from Shawnee High School in Medford and it was a great experience for her.

I lived in Medford, Medford Lakes and Shamong for about 10 years. When I moved from my home in Medford almost 3 years ago I was paying about $7,000 in property taxes. I now live in Estell Manor in a place I bought for the same price. My property taxes are now about $3,200 for a home with 3 times the acreage.

So it is possible to live affordably in NJ if you shop around. But since I no longer have school aged children, that makes things a lot simpler.

Best wishes and happy house hunting!

 

[Teegate]

There are some very good schools here in New Jersey, including the Lenape Regional School District,

I went to Lenape and have to agree.

Guy

 

[gipsie]

Welcome Joe and I hope you get to move here real soon. I am sending you a PM regarding work....

 

[Joe M]

Well, we took our trip up today and, despite the rain, had a very nice time. We met up with an old friend of mine from Tabernacle at Ironstone Village and after a great time catching up, we went into Tabernacle to check out the old neighborhood.

It was great to see how little the area had changed. Nixon's market is fixed up, Sandy's Market on 206 is gone, Russo's farm has expanded exponentially, they took up half the back yard in my old house for a swimming pool *sigh*

From there, we met another friend for lunch at Pic-A-Lilly, and I overindulged in spicy chicken parts and a Guinness. We had planned to drop by Batsto after lunch, but the rain prevented that, so we wound up kicking around Sooy Place Road, Vincentown, and Medford Lakes to look at more neighborhoods.

We dropped by the new High School in 'Nacle, Seneca, and I was amazed by the size of it. I took us down Hawkins Road, remember that the Carranza Memorial was around there, but I must have misremembered the location, or just passed it by.

We finally made it back to DE by around 5PM, exhausted by all the driving. Though, seeing all these places that have been little more than a memory for over a decade carried a great amount of excitement for me!

 

[Joe M]

Joe, sent you a PM.

Responded, Uncle Greg

 

[Joe M]

Welcome Joe and I hope you get to move here real soon. I am sending you a PM regarding work....

Thanks, gipsie! I've sent you an email

 

[Teegate]

Glad the neighborhood hasn't changed too much.

Guy

 

[Joe M]

I am too. The biggest thing was the new school on Carranza. As my friend said, it looked like a castle in the middle of a sod farm.

 

[Teegate]

There was quite a conflict over that being built, and the Feds were even brought into it. Many people were opposed to it because it was on Pinelands restricted land.


Guy

 

[Joe M]

I didn't hear that it was on Pinelands restricted, but I heard there was an uproar due to the amount of truck traffic that barrels down that road. This was exacerbated by the fact that they had a perfect alternative location out on 206.

I could have sworn there was a sod farm at that location, but it's been many years, and my memory is probably at fault.