An unofficial New Jersey town landmark that had been slated for implosion in a week and a half has gotten a reprieve.
The Nabisco plant in Fair Lawn, which filled the air with the delectable smell of baked cookies for 60 years before it was shut down in 2021, was scheduled to be imploded on Saturday, April 15. That is no longer the case, officials say.
They don't have a new date set for the implosion, either, though Fair Lawn officials indicated the change was merely a postponement. The nearly 40-acre site was expected to be razed to build a warehouse, NorthJersey.com reported.
Why the delay? It's unclear, but the mayor of Fair Lawn said that the controversy surrounding the implosion was not a factor in the decision to postpone.
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According to Fair Lawn, the contractor performing the implosion said a state regulation prevents demolitions if the impact would be exacerbated by certain meteorological conditions that create "a low ceiling," like fog or cloud cover. It said it would track the weather five days in advance, flag any potential concerns and reschedule if necessary.
The owner of Greek Development, which bought the 40-acre site, said that the safety of workers and surrounding community are of utmost concern. Residents will be notified two weeks prior before the implosion is rescheduled.
All that said, Fair Lawn announced the sudden postponement on Wednesday, a full 10 days before the planned blast on April 15 at 8 a.m. blast. No other details were immediately provided.
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The massive site on Route 208 has been a part of the landscape for as long as some folks can remember.
Hundreds of people working for the company were out of a job when it closed a few years back. The demolition started last fall, according to NJ.com, but this big boom was expected to be among the more disruptive components.
The tower over the factory with the giant red NABISCO letters was supposed to be part of the implosion, which drew extensive public interest for multiple reasons. Some people just wanted to watch.
Police said Thursday that won't happen, whenever a new date is set. Construction crews have been dismantling the tower for several weeks now and have made considerable progress, so much so that the mayor of Fair Lawn told NBC New York by phone that the size of the implosion could be scaled back some.
The general public is asked to avoid the area surrounding the property on the yet-to-be-determined new implosion date. Road closures will be in place that day.
In the lead-up, residents had expressed concerns about air quality and potential soil and water contamination, and one school district had planned to close the following Monday out of an abundance of caution. Several hundred people who live nearby signed a petition demanding more information about the potential health, safety and environmental impacts of the implosion.
The contractor says air monitoring is part of its protocol. It said it also follows state rules around waste removal and hazardous material and has noise and seismic monitoring in place for additional protective measures.
Fair Lawn officials say more information will be released as it becomes available.
