By Sandy Stuart

BEDMINSTER TWP. – A Trump National Golf Club proposal that could have redefined the phrase “going to the chapel” has been buried. Real estate mogul Donald Trump has dropped plans to build a “chapel” containing burial vaults along the first fairway of his golf club off Lamington Road. At a township Planning Board meeting last Thursday, March 1, Trump National project manager Edward Russo said his 61-year-old boss isn’t interested at this time in constructing a Trump family mausoleum.

“Mr. Trump is going to be alive and around for a long, long time,” Russo told the planners. “He does not want to think about it, and we’ll be withdrawing it.”

Russo added that a proposal for burial vaults could potentially be raised in the future, “at the right time and place, when it’s appropriate.”

Plans had called for a small cut-stone building with a “Trump” placard above an embossed metal door. The structure would have been surrounding by a low courtyard wall with obelisks at the four corners.

In an interview with this newspaper in February, Trump said he chose Bedminster as his final resting place for its beauty and serenity.

“This, to me, is a very special piece of land,” said Trump, who purchased the Bedminster estate of the late automaker John Z. DeLorean in 2002 and is in the process of constructing his second 18-hole course there.

“I have 525 acres and it’s so beautiful,” Trump added. “Of everything I have, it’s so scenic, such a lovely place.”

The mausoleum proposal had been submitted to the township as part of a package of amendments to the golf club’s site plan.

Other proposed changes which have been kept include the construction of an additional “golf cottage” along Lamington Road to provide overnight lodgings for members and guests, the removal of a planned skeet shooting range, and the relocation of a fountain at the rear of the manor house. The planners deemed the amended Trump application complete, clearing the way for a public hearing on Thursday, April 5.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18057057&BRD=1918&PAG=461&dept_id=506492&rfi=6