In Camden, salvation sprouts in unlikely location

The first time I saw Camden's Harrison Avenue landfill, it had been closed for years. It was also on fire.

I'd been dispatched by an editor to check on a report that the grass atop the toxic tundra of buried trash was ablaze again. And so it was, on a hot afternoon in the late 1970s.

Last week, I returned to Harrison Avenue to tour the $68 million Salvation Army Kroc Center, which is on schedule for an Oct. 4 ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The project's cost includes $21 million for 34 acres of site remediation work by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Of the $59 million provided by the estate of Ray and Joan Kroc, of McDonald's fame, $27 million has been set aside to endow the center and help pay operating costs.

But clichs are boring. Besides, if I had a buck for every Camden project I've heard proclaimed as a game-changer for the city, I'd have enough cash to change my own game, and then some.

"The hardest thing has been to get people to believe it's happening," says Salvation Army Maj. Paul Cain, the center's administrator.

Nevertheless, many have come to believe: Campbell Soup, Subaru, Wells Fargo, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and New Jersey American Water have helped raise $9.2 million, and counting, of the $10 million local match required by the Krocs.

The water company alone has contributed $1.2 million, including, just last week, a $175,000 advance on a future refund of connection fees.

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In Camden, salvation sprouts in unlikely location