TINA MARKOE/Courier-Post Township Administrator Kenneth Carruth holds plans for the proposed boat ramp.

The first step in the plan will be the purchase of 43 acres of unused land from the Texaco Co. Pennsauken also wants to acquire about 100 acres of undeveloped land from Amerada Hess, or to enter into a joint venture with the oil company to create ballfields, cultural and entertainment centers, housing, a marina and parking. The complex would be situated near DeRousse Avenue, one of two streets in Pennsauken … the other is Cove Road … that offers public access to the river. It also is talking to CITGO Co. about buying land on Petty's Island.

"I could sell that Texaco property for warehousing in a New York minute, but we're committed to reinventing our Waterfront," says Carruth.

While officials wait for the the big pieces to come together, they are working on a smaller project that is as symbolic as it is practical. With about

800,000 from local and state sources, they are expanding a boat ramp on DeRousse Avenue, between the Delair and Betsy Ross bridges, so residents won't have to cross a toll bridge into Philadelphia to get on the water.

Despite South Jersey's proximity to the Delaware, there is no public boat ramp from Westville to Burlington City, other than the remains of one at DeRousse Avenue, which now looks more like an abandoned dump site than a recreational area. The state also has agreed to build boat ramps in Pennsville and West Deptford.

With luck, the expanded ramp will be finished this summer, and next spring, a 300-foot wooden walkway and public bathrooms on the site will be completed.

In the future, the township expects to increase the walkway up to a mile and dot it with picturesque fishing piers. It will extend under the Betsy Ross Bridge to Pennsauken Creek and house a berth for the A.J. Meerwald, a 115-foot schooner operated by a non-profit organization as a floating environmental classroom.

"For decades, the Waterfront in Pennsauken and surrounding towns belonged exclusively to those who worked it," says Carruth. "If you didn't, you never saw it or cared about it. That's definitely changing now."

Amerada Hess Corp., which has multiple storage tanks for petroleum products next door to the proposed recreational site, has agreed to sell the township 1.5 acres of land for $1 to be used for public parking. Hess employs 1,200 people in New Jersey.

Fred Snyder coordinates federal aid for state projects for the Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife, within the Department of Environmental Protection. He says increasing access to the Delaware is a top priority. Only four public boat ramps exist from Trenton to Delaware Bay.

"The Delaware is a wonderful resource and yet it is the most under-accessed major body of water in the state," he says. "Pennsauken is a terrific site because it is full of striped bass, shad and catfish, and because it's not near a residential neighborhood. The river is wide there, and there's no reason why recreational and commercial boats can't co-exist."

"I can't wait for the township to fix this place up," says Maple Shade resident Mark Engell, standing at the river's edge on DeRousse Avenue recently with his wife, Maria, as they struggled to slip their 16-foot speedboat into the river.

"I'm 43 and I've been boating and fishing, even swimming here, since I was 12. For years it was a cesspool. Now it's amazingly clean. I catch plenty of fish, but they're still too polluted to eat. Maybe in 10 years or so, we'll be able to eat them." What a great gift to the next generation."