Ice, Ice Baby!

February 26, 2026

By Ray DeGraw

It was the spring of 1989. There was an enormous thunderclap that woke us out of our sleep. My father, half awake and dazed, came into my bedroom, the clock read 5:00a.m. He asked if that was me, and rubbed his eyes. Then the second blast happened. The house shook so violently that the dust on top of the bedroom door fell on his head. He rushed over and grabbed me, ushering me out of the room.

My sisters soon rushed in too. Terrified, we all sat on my parent's bed while my father looked out the window. This was, after all, during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. My mother, calm as always, told us all to go to bed and that it was just thunder. My father replied, "That was no thunder!" As the words left his mouth the third and biggest explosion happened. This time, producing a mushroom cloud off in the distance.

My father rushed us down to the basement, fearing that the Russians had launched nuclear missiles and this was indeed the end. He picked up the phone and it was dead. He turned on the basement television and the cable was out. After a tense 10 or 15 minutes, we looked out the basement windows to see our neighbors, one by one, coming out of their front doors. The scene was surreal. All the mothers were in their nightgowns, the children in their pajamas and the men in their skivvies.

People were hugging each other and saying their goodbyes, as we all thought this was the end of days. I can remember tears running down the face of my neighbor's mother. Her face was pale, and she was visibly shaking with fear. It was then that one of the volunteer firefighters who lived on our street began running up and down the sidewalks yelling, "It's not the Russians, Hercules has exploded!" The relief was nothing short of euphoric. We were on death's door; we had thought the world was ending. But no, it was just the munitions factory on the far side of town. Static electricity had built up on a conveyor belt and caused a massive chain reaction, blowing up three buildings and leaving three enormous craters in its wake.

Thankfully, the accident had not killed anybody. But the damage caused on the far side of town was devastating to say the least. My father and I drove over later that morning to see the after effects. I can remember the sky having this weird sepia-toned color to it. The dust in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. As we traveled along the highway, we could see all the shop owners sweeping up glass, as the shockwave blew out every single window on that side of town.

None of the traffic lights were working. There were police and first responders everywhere, screaming at the looky-loos to get the hell out of there. My dad, turned to me and said, "This was a bad idea, let's go home!" I still think of that day, from time to time, the morning we thought the world had ended. It's amazing to think, after all these years, that side of town is still half empty. Derelict buildings still line the Route 46 corridor, big empty overgrown fields where the Hercules row houses once stood, remind us of a part of town that once flourished.

There have been attempts over the years to bring this area back. But most of them have been half baked ideas, or had the kibosh put on them by government red tape brought on by our town council. Residents have spoken up about it over the years, clamoring for the use of Eminent Domain to reclaim the properties that have sat dormant for 40 some-odd years. The voices get loud, then go quiet, then stagnant, until all is forgotten. This dilapidated stretch of Route 46 becomes background noise and blends into the scenery like an old Coca-Cola Advertisement.

But then there was hope. The "Munitions Mile" was about to be revitalized. No longer would be we flanked by two go-go bars, two shady motels with a halfway house in the middle and a half a dozen totally up-and-up massage parlors...no sir! Good old Roxbury, New Jersey was about to be put back on the map with suburban renewal project so large and so grandiose that it would make this town the envy of all those around it.

Hartz Mountain had purchased the Hercules property and had plans to build warehouses on the old site. Warehouses that would be built so deep into the woods that nobody would ever even know they were there. The facility would eventually employ over 1,500 people and bring an estimated six million dollars in tax revenue alone...not to mention a new flow of customers to all the local eateries and shops. They promised to build sports facilities and donate them to the town and add nature trails to the 1,200 acre property as a thank you for welcoming them in. As a lifelong resident who lived through the blast of 1989, I was stoked at the possibilities. After all, the land has been fenced in and guarded tightly for all of my life.

Hercules, at one time, was a self contained city that most of the residents here were never able to see. That is, unless you actually worked there. The buildings have since been demolished. The site was "supposed" to be cleaned up by a private company. Word had it, that the Federal Government had offered to make it a Superfund Site, but the town council had turned it down and used a private enterprise instead. Whether that is true or not, I can not attest. But if it is, it certainly raises the old eyebrow for sure. Of course, putting all this aside, there was still a buzz around town that the eyesore that is the Munitions Mile, would soon be a boomtown.

Then came the nonsense.

As stated before, every time somebody tries to do something on the Munitions Mile, the town council fights it tooth and nail. It's a complete mystery to most of us who have lived here all of our lives. It's a mystery to those of us who remember our parents going nuts when Hercules went out of business, the rateable lost, and the property taxes doubled in one fell swoop. It's a mystery to all of us who see the school budget short on money and teachers about to lose their jobs that the council would be so steadfast on turning away business. A town council that consists entirely of Republicans, a political party that supposedly prides themselves as friends of big business.

The first obstacle, oddly enough, was the environmental impact of the site. Afterall, it was a factory that made TNT for well over a hundred years. The same political party that fights environmental protections tooth and nail was all of a sudden worried about Mother Nature. This, the same group of people who allowed the opening of a capped landfill a few years earlier to appease former Governor Chris Christie. The Jersey Shore had been devastated by Hurricane Sandy and by gosh we needed a place to bury all that debris. No worries, Gov! The Roxbury town council has your back! Soon truck after truck after truck drove through town on a daily basis to dump the materials. What was once a beautiful wooded mountain top was now a landfill again. Those of us who live here remember the slogan, "What's that smell?"

The opening of the capped landfill and the decomposition of the new materials being added created a sulfur smell that made our town smell like farts. It was awesome! Now, after the landfill has been recapped, we see a large empty field atop the mountain with a constant methane plume floating in the wind. It sure is picturesque! But not to worry, they add perfume to it, so it's all good! Of course in twenty years we'll all be dying horrible deaths from the exposure. Or maybe with a little luck, the mountain just decides to spontaneously explode, making it a quick easy death for all of us! Perhaps the town council learned its collective lesson from allowing such an idiotic thing to happen in the first place? Maybe they have become a little more sensitive to the environmental impacts of let's say, opening up an old landfill? I wish I could give them such credit! But alas, my spidey sense tells me something nefarious is afoot here.

The folks at Hartz Mountain accounted for the environmental impacts the buildings would have on the property and their plans to remediate such impacts. They relayed that information back to the town council. Phew, we dodged a bullet there! But then, out of left field, there was the ordinance that states that 25% of each warehouse must be used as office space. Wait, what? Why? Who the hell cares what percentage of the building is used for office space versus warehouse space?! What the heck does it matter in the grand scheme of things? It's a warehouse! A big building for storing stuff. As the lawyers went back and forth on this, they then started droning on about the traffic the new facility would cause. I don't know about you, but traffic means money! Money means infrastructure, infrastructure means tax revenue, tax revenue pays for the town budget. The more rateables, the less our property taxes! Again, why are we fighting this? Republican town council? Friends of big business?

So, long story short, after a couple of years of battling over percentages, environmental impacts and traffic, Hartz Mountain pulled out of the deal. They gave a big middle finger to the town and are planning legal action for being given the runaround. Something that will probably cost the residents a shit ton of money in lost taxpayer money. And now, because this land is not being used, it has been added to our open land percentages for the state of New Jersey, which will now require us to build thousands of low-income housing units to appease the state requirements. All would have been peachy had the warehouses, which nobody would have ever seen, were allowed to be constructed. Nice job, Roxbury! You folks on the town council really put in some solid overtime on this one!

But now, here is the best kicker of them all...recently in the news, the Federal Government has decided to purchase a warehouse in Roxbury to house an Ice Facility! This mystery warehouse, which was built in the Landing section of Roxbury, was built during Covid. It's in the middle of the woods and has little-to-no access. (No traffic concerns, though!) Very few residents in town even knew this facility existed in the first place. But the best part is, the town council waved the ordinance about the building having 25% office space. Wait, what?! No ordinance about what the space is used for? Hartz Mountain was run out of town on this issue, while a mystery warehouse built in the dark of night during Covid gets a free and clear pass?! My eyebrow is up again!

The town council has claimed ignorance about the Federal Government's interest in the warehouse to be used for an Ice facility. Only to see it come to fruition. They have said they oppose such a place being opened in a residential area of town. Hmmm, curious. But at the same time, take no stand against the atrocities of Ice itself. In fact, applauding the rounding up of immigrants...whether they be criminals (which of course everybody wants gone), but also neighbors who live and work with us whose only crime is that they have overstayed their visas. The once quiet town council meetings are now a raucous circus. We have had two organized protests already...all of this costing the town even more money to provide security. Good for the policemen's wallets, not great for ours.

I saw our sleepy little town blow up once before, and it was terrifying. But now between Methane Mountain, The Munitions Mile, the Ice Goons and the fine people at Hartz Mountain getting ready to ream our collective asses in court...I fear the town is about to blow up again. I have lived here all my life and I love this town with all my heart. And for the first time, I kind of just don't want to be here anymore. And I know people will probably get in my face if they read this and say, "If you don't like it, then get the fuck out!" Well, maybe, just maybe, I might listen up and take your advice. Because quite frankly, I don't see this thing having a happy ending any time soon.

Money in the bank! Unless you're in Roxbury.