Blaming Upper Freehold and Allentown's middle school delays and cost overruns on unforeseen and unpredicted problems isn't fooling anyone.

The deputy commissioner of the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) came to our community long before the site was ever chosen and told the school district at that time if it wanted to avoid wastewater permitting delays, it should build the school in a sewer service area. Failing to heed advice that we now understand was invaluable doesn't qualify as unforeseen or unpredicted.

Far more than one danger signal was ignored. It got to the point that one of the district's own professionals began writing warnings to file in 2004 and 2005. Memos to file are red flags that someone wasn't listening, or didn't even want the chance. He warned that the major concern in attempting to build outside a sewer service area would be obtaining the Wastewater Management Plan amendment that now has us so hopelessly stalled. He also indicated we didn't know whether tying into another wastewater plant was feasible. And he wrote that each stalled permit would prevent a next step from being completed. Don't take my word for it - the memos are all on file at the board offices.

Still another missed red flag came in the form of two sets of soil tests taken before the election. The first tests were taken about eight weeks before the election. The identified contamination was enough of a concern that a second set of tests was ordered and completed four weeks later. The decision to go back out for that second round of tests is pretty much the smoking gun here - whenever that happened was the appropriate time to clue people into the problem.

The new construction manager says the bulk of the millions of dollars in cost overruns were caused by the contamination and wastewater delays. The reality is that both these delays and overruns were avoidable, foreseeable and predictable.

Unfortunately, none of it changes that we are now left holding the bag, and we have an even more expensive school to build. I would respectfully suggest to those who bungled this project so badly that it is time for them to get out of the way and let us, as a community, roll up our sleeves and fix it. And make no mistake, we can and we will - if we do not allow the very same people to succeed in yet more endless delay tactics.

Former school board president Jeanette Bressi offered a few months ago to hold a public debate to defend her role in leading the terribly mismanaged site selection process. As someone who has invested a fair amount of time reviewing the project, I would very gladly volunteer to fill the opposite seat for such a debate, in the public interest of, once and for all, getting to the bottom of how this happened, so that it never does again.

Micah Rasmussen

Upper Freehold