BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

ALLENTOWN - No matter where the new middle school is located, students probably won't occupy it until September 2010.

That was the conclusion the preconstruction manager for the proposed middle school provided to the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education on Jan. 31.

Although the board planned to vote on scheduling a new referendum for the middle school project at the meeting, it decided to wait until Feb. 7 so it could review additional information about the potential Breza Road tract. The board wanted to know land costs, soil testing issues, and the location of a former dump in that area.

Voters allocated $36.8 million for a new middle school on Ellisdale Road in a December 2004 referendum. However, the Ellisdale Road site has soil remediation and wastewater management issues.

Paul D'Alto, of Hill International in Marlton, the project management and construction company in charge of the project, told the board at its Jan. 17 meeting that the middle school project is already overbudget by $10.7 million without having put a shovel in the ground.

Since the 2004 referendum was site-specific, the school's bond counsel, Tony Pannella, said the board would need additional voter authorization to change anything regarding the school project.

At the Jan. 24 meeting, the board voted to authorize a sum not to exceed $25,000 for further investigation of the Breza Road site.

On Jan. 31, D'Alto said the total project cost would be about $47.6 for Ellisdale Road and would be about $49.3 million for Breza Road. However, D'Alto was estimating a cost of $40,000 per acre for the Breza Road site, which board President Joseph Stampe announced at the beginning of the meeting was the option price the New York City-based Rockefeller Group, a developer, recently had the property under contract for with Somerset Golf Development Corp., the current owner of the parcel.

The Rockefeller Group planned to build a 1.8 million-square-foot warehouse complex on 254 acres of the tract, but the application met with a great deal of public opposition and was withdrawn in November of last year. The Rockefeller Group did not return messages left inquiring about its former contract price for the property.

Interim Superintendent of Schools Robert Smith said he was informed that the Breza Road landowner rejected an offer of $40,000 per acre from the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.

Stampe said he had received a fax that day from the Department of Education regarding the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) review status of a Wastewater Management Plan (WMP) amendment for the Ellisdale Road site.

According to Stampe, the information in the fax came from Terry Pilawski, who is responsible for reviewing WMPs, New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems (NJPDES) permits, and Treatment Works Approval (TWA) applications for the DEP. He said that the DEP is in the process of completing its review of the WMP. However, given the need for appearance in the New Jersey Register, review of public comments, and possible public hearings if there are a significant number of comments, a decision on the WMP amendment is not anticipated until October.

Stampe said that because the Breza Road site is in a sewer service location, it would not need a WMP amendment but would need a WMP revision, which is not subject to public comment. He said the DEP did not make any guarantee that the Ellisdale Road WMP would be approved. Ellisdale Road is designated as a Planning Area 4 in the State Development and Redevelopment Plan. Such a designation does not permit wastewater management plants.

Township Committeeman Stephen Alexander later said he thought the Board of Education should bring DEP and Smart Growth officials in to explain to parents and residents why there has been such a delay in the WMP amendment process for the Ellisdale Road site. He noted that neighboring Millstone also had a 2004 referendum for a new middle school, which is now nearing completion. Millstone is building its new school in a Planning Area 4. However, Millstone is not following strict Smart Growth policies, which Mayor Nancy Grbelja referred to as a "gimmick to increase development at any cost."

D'Alto said the proposed location for the new middle school on Breza Road is at the far western edge of the site, and would consist of 68.7 acres. Of these, 48.1 acres are suitable for development, he said. The building would be the same as that designed for Ellisdale Road, but there would be a different layout of the athletic fields, he said.

Access to a school on Breza Road would come off Route 524. A small bridge would have to be constructed in order for traffic to cross a creek, he said. D'Alto described the bridge as a culvert-type bridge, and said its construction would add an additional cost to the project. He said he did not know the length of the bridge.

Although a future road was listed on the plans for access to the Breza Road site if another school is eventually built there, at this time there would only be one way to access the site without going onto a neighboring property, D'Alto said. He suggested contacting property owners on Potts Road to see if they would permit school access. D'Alto said a second means of access would entail a second bridge toward Breza Road.

The Breza Road site would not need the $800,000 to $ 1 million in soil remediation costs required for Ellisdale Road, according to D'Alto.

The completion schedule for both sites would be similar, he said.

If WMP approval is given to Ellisdale Road, the construction award could be given in 2008 between April and mid-June, he said. For Breza Road, the construction award could be given between January and mid-July, 2008, he said.

The estimated completion date for Ellisdale Road would be 2010 between May and July, while the completion date for a Breza Road school would be between February and August, 2010. In either case, the occupancy date would be September 2010, he said.

Comparing the two sites, D'Alto said there is uncertainty of WMP approval, uncertainty of expansion, and soil remediation issues at the Ellisdale site. For Breza Road, there is difficult construction access to the site, sidewalks needed along Route 524, and only one driveway to access the school property.