Marconi Park Refurbishment Stopped; Needed Permissions Never Granted

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Work has been stopped on the refurbishment of the Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Park on John F. Kennedy Boulevard after it was discovered that Somerset County had not approved the project, nor had any of the necessary Township permits been issued.

The County needs to approve the project because the park borders Easton Avenue and is located on County property.

The failure to secure permits has resulted in three violation citations issued against the Franklin Township Marconi Foundation for not getting building, plumbing and electrical work permits, according to Township Manager Robert Vornlocker.

Each of those permits carries a fine of up to $2,000, he said.

The citations and stop work order were issued on December 7, he said. The work has been ongoing for several weeks.

The fact that Somerset County did not approve the work was confirmed by County spokesman Brad Fay.

Guglielmo Marconi is credited as being the “father of modern radio,” although his history is not without controversy, as he was a member of Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party in the 1920s and 1930s. The site where the park is now located once held one of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co.’s transmitters.

Vornlocker said the work came to his attention about two weeks ago, after which he conducted an inspection and found that no Township permits had been issued. He said that at about the same time, he received a call from a County official concerning the work at the park.

Vornlocker said he then notified the Township’s construction department and the violations and stop work order were issued.

“The County Administrator and County council have informed me that the matter is under review by the County,” Vornlocker said.

Brush has apparently been cleared from the property, and there exists the beginning of a brick structure.

According to an April 4, 2023 letter to the Somerset County Commissioners Director Shanel Robinson from Alexander Kucsma, president of the Franklin Township Marconi Foundation, the work would also entail the installation of a bust of Marconi.

Noting that the park has stood “as a historical landmark in Franklin Township” for more than 30 years, Kucsma wrote that the work “will serve as a prelude to a rededication of the park and the renewal of the Marconi Foundation Award Dinner,” the letter reads.

Of the dinner, Kucsma wrote, “Three awards will he given at the rededication dinner: An outstanding county employee or official, suggested by the County Commissioners; an outstanding municipal township employee or official recommended by the Mayor and township committee; and a community-at-large candidate selected by the Marconi Executive Board.”

The letter asks that any objections to the plan be sent in writing to the Foundation by June 19, 2023.

In January 2023, Kucsma asked for Somerset County Democratic Chairwoman Peg Schaffer’s help in bringing about a meeting among Foundation representatives and County Commission representatives to talk about the bust.

The request came in the form of a comment on a story written about Schaffer in the online publication, InsiderNJ.

“I am contacting you because I would like to have you arrange a meeting between the County Commissioners and a few members of the Executive Committee of the Marconi Foundation to discuss any reservation the County Commissioners would have about the placement of a bust of Marconi in the park,” Kucsma wrote. “The members of the Marconi Board asked me to set up the meeting. The Marconi Foundation has clearance from the Franklin Township Council to install the bust but we need the County Commissioners to sign off on the project.”

“Our project involves no expenses to the county,” he wrote. “We need nothing but their permission to move forward on the project.”

The controversy around Marconi stems from his joining the Italian Fascist Party in 1923, and his appointment by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini as his “goodwill ambassador” and president of the Royal Academy of Italy, which was the country’s scientific academy during Mussolini’s rule.

In 2002, documents were discovered showing that while academy president, Marconi marked the applications of Jews to the academy with an “E”, symbolizing “ebreo,” the Italian word for Jew. During his time as president, no Jews were admitted to the academy.

Marconi also publicly supported the leading proponent of the Nuremberg Race Laws, a series of laws passed in Germany in 1935 which stripped German Jews of their legal rights because they were not considered Germans, and expressed no reservation about the laws’ tenets.

The laws “were an important step in the Nazi regime’s process of isolating and excluding Jews from the rest of German society,” according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia.

Requests for comment were emailed to members of the Foundation’s board, but were not immediately answered.

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