The Asbury Park Press
August 22, 2002

   WALL - A compromise has been reached on replacing the sewers needed to re-open the historic buildings at Camp Evans as part of a preservation project proposed by         INFOAGE Inc., a nonprofit corporation.
     INFOAGE is looking to preserve the memory of the events at the site that made technological history.
     "We have to work out the details," said Fred Carl, director of INFOAGE. "But it is very good news."
     In 1999, as part of the effort to clean up Camp Evans for conversion to civilian use, the Army found that mercury had contaminated parts of the sewer system at the former research site. The sewers were removed the following year.
     However, after removing the sewers, it was revealed that the sewers could not be replaced using federal funds dedicated to closing military installations.
     But Rep. Chris Smith, R-Monmouth, helped convince Pentagon officials that replacing at least some of the sewers that serve the historic buildings, such as the Marconi Hotel, would help save the structures, Carl said.
     According to the agreement, Carl said, the Army will likely replace the sewers that directly serve the historic buildings, while INFOAGE and Wall will likely replace other sewers on the site.
     "The Pentagon is stepping in to help out in order to preserve the history from World War II and the Cold War Signal Corps heroes who worked at the site," Carl said.
     Camp Evans was once among the nation's most guarded and secret sites, a place where radar was devel-oped for use by America's mili-tary just before World War II.
     Carl said INFOAGE wants to preserve the history of what happened at Camp Evans and use the grounds as a science history center.
     The members of INFOAGE have been busy gathering artifacts to put on display. The group's collection includes parts from the first computer and hundreds of other examples of technology improvements over the past 40 years.
     Guglielmo Marconi, the Ital-ian electrical-engineering pioneer who invented the wireless telegraph, and his company,  Marconi American Wireless Co., later acquired the site for use as a wireless station.
     The Army acquired the site in 1941, and Fort Monmouth's radar laboratories were moved there.