MILLSTONE — Last week’s Township Committee meeting was heavy with resolutions authorizing performance guarantee reductions and releases.

Performance guarantees are bonds developers take out as a guarantee that they will finish the work included in their plans. If the developer fails to perform the required work, the township uses the bond money to complete the job.

The committee approved a reduction of performance guarantees for the Season World and Foxburrow Hunt subdivisions and 33 Commercial Realty’s retail shopping center, but tabled a resolution to release performance guarantees for the Millstone Meadows development after former Committeeman William Kastning, who said he lived on Mount Drive in the Millstone Meadows subdivision, complained that sinkholes are a recurring problem.

As it turned out, they were discussing the wrong development. The performance guarantee under discussion was for the development on David Court called Millstone Meadows and not the development that Kastning lives in.

The committee passed the resolution to release the performance guarantee during a public budget meeting two days later.

In a related matter, a motion was passed to declare Dr. George Kneisser and Gladys Adrain Kneisser, the developers of the Woodville Manor subdivision, in default. The motion also authorized the township to institute litigation.

According to the resolution, the developer received final major subdivision approval on Feb. 8, 1989, for a residential development project known as Woodville Manor (formerly Hampstead Hills).

As a condition of approval, certain public improvements were to be installed but they were not.

Three performance guarantee bonds totaling $285,753 were issued with First Indemnity of American Insurance Co. as surety for the Kneisser development. The developers posted another $34,442 with the township, making the surety jointly liable with the developers.

The developers have been repeatedly noticed, but have failed to submit the requested schedule or to make the improvements. They did not attend a hearing on Oct. 17, 2001, nor did they appear at a hearing scheduled for Feb. 6.

According to the resolution, a formal demand is made upon the surety to remit to the township the sum necessary to complete the improvements, less the cash held by the township, or to immediately make provisions for the completion of the development.

Deputy Mayor Cory Wingerter explained the process. "In the past four years, the Township Committee has aggressively been going after developers to finish their projects; specifically, developments that have problems like unfinished roads, landscaping, signage and drainage, etc.," he said."We have had public default hearings allowing the developers to plead their case. After the hearing, the Township Committee determines whether to allow the developer to continue, or the township decides to go after the developer’s bond and force the work to be finished."