BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

Upper Freehold UPPER FREEHOLD - Several residents commented on whether or not they would support the April 17 referendum to spend an additional $13.2 million to put the new middle school on Breza Road.

John Nanni, a resident of the Four Seasons active-adult community, which is located across the street from the Ellisdale Road school site, said he is happy that the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education made a decision to go to referendum to propose changing the site of the new school from Ellisdale Road to a tract on Breza Road.

"I would hope that the entire community can move forward without trying to pin the blame on anyone for past mistakes," Nanni said.

Nanni believes that the school district would have a much better opportunity to move forward with construction on Breza Road.

"Unless, of course, the YES Committee becomes the NO Committee," he said, referring to a group of concerned citizens who publicly pushed for yes votes in the original December 2004 referendum for the construction of the school on Ellisdale Road.

Nanni applauded all the members of the Board of Education for their hard work and effort to move forward.

"We, the public, certainly know more about the issues facing Breza Road going into the referendum than we knew about the Ellisdale Road site," he said.

Dr. Joanne Bicknese, of Upper Freehold, said she would not support the new referendum. She feels the board should have done a more thorough job evaluating the Ellisdale Road site before making the decision to go to referendum.

"There needs to be accountability to the budget that was already approved," she said. "One can't keep asking for more and more money because a mistake was made."

Upper Freehold resident Lori Horsnall Mount said she thinks the entire situation is extremely unfortunate.

"The fact that a project is already approximately 30 percent over budget before a shovel has been put in the ground should not be accepted," she said. "This type of cost overrun would result in major accountability issues in business."

Continued growth and associated costs will further compound the final price of the project, Mount said.

"The big picture - the direct and indirect costs of this project and future development - needs to be seen and understood by everyone before it is too late," she said. "The site for this new school based upon all of the factual information presented thus far should be the Ellisdale Road site."

Rich Levine, of Allentown, believes that Breza Road is a far better site for the school for several reasons. He noted that the school would probably be built sooner because the site is located in a sewer service area and has fewer environmental issues than the Ellisdale Road site.

Levine also believes that Breza Road is a better location in terms of access.

"I'd support the referendum," he said. "It's in the best interest of the schoolchildren that this move forward as quickly as possible, and if we wait for the Ellisdale Road site, the costs will most likely continue to increase."

Elaine McMinn, an Ellisdale Road resident, also supports the new referendum but questioned why the board did not propose building the new school on the campus with the existing schools. In addition, she wondered why the board did not consider building a new high school instead of a new middle school.

While she realizes that building a new high school would cost more money, she said that rather than wait for prices to go up even further, "let's bite the bullet now and take care of the problem before it becomes one again."

"Our community is growing and will continue to grow," she said. "Let's be proactive and take care of the issue before it becomes another like the one we have now."

Bryan Scheff, of Upper Freehold, said it is time for people on both sides of the middle school issue to heal and move forward.

"We need to build a school for our children, and the next challenge is getting the referendum passed," he said. "We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope that some of the 'unknowns' don't come back to haunt us later in the form of any additional delays."

For Upper Freehold resident Walter Helfrecht, the new referendum provides more questions than answers.

"The aggregate additional cost of $13,238,000 I hope is inclusive of a realistic anticipated purchase price of the land at Breza," he said, "because if it isn't, someone is making a very poor judgment call."

According to Helfrecht, the Jan. 31 presentation by Hill International comparing the two potential locations for the school was "very hasty." Hill International is the construction company in charge of the project.

"All they did was lift the entire Ellisdale Road footprint and drop it onto the westernmost portion of the Breza Road tract and then drew in proposed access road(s)," he said.

Helfrecht said the Board of Education would have to make an access easement arrangement with one or more Breza Road landowners to access the back of the school property.

"The property is landlocked," he said. "Therefore, it would appear that the main access is really Breza Road and, as we all know, that will be the beginning of a de facto westerly bypass."

Helfrecht also believes there will be issues with putting a bridge over Doctors Creek.

"The type of bridge that should go in would be large enough to allow canoeists or kayakers to float unimpeded on the waterway as part of the greenway's plan for creek access and recreation, and it would have to be wide enough to allow two-way vehicular traffic (cars and substantial delivery trucks and fire equipment trucks) into and out of the school property," he said.

Bridges of this type are not cheap to build, according to Helfrecht.

Helfrecht also noted that any impervious surfaces in the development would send runoff into Doctors Creek. That flow and an impaired Allentown Sewage Treatment Plant could cause major troubles at the site and downstream as well, he said.

"Do we want to run that risk?" he asked.

According to Helfrecht, placing the school at the far western side of the Breza Road tract would not favor easy connections with the Allentown Water Co. or the Allentown Sewage Treatment Plant. He said piping for both utilities must traverse a long distance to get to the school site under Breza Road.

If the school district does not use the Allentown Sewage Treatment Plant, the Board of Education would wind up in what Helfrecht considers "the unenviable and expensive, both short- and long-term job of being in the wastewater management business with an on-site treatment facility."

"And guess where the outflow from that goes?" he said. "Right into the Doctors Creek. Does this make any logical sense?"

Karen Deets, of Allentown, said she would rather see the Breza Road tract preserved as a county or local park with an improved road that would provide an alternative route into town.

"We will be in deep trouble when the bridge is out and ambulance and fire-fighting services are unavailable or have to go a nine-mile detour by way of Sharon Road to service a significant population of the town in addition to the obvious need to decrease traffic in the borough," she said.

Deets said she feels that New Jersey school budgets are extravagant and wasteful in general, which is why she would vote no on the referendum.

She said, "I will vote no on the principle that it's all just too much money."

Cox's Corner developer Doug Walsh, a resident of Upper Freehold, noted that in the beginning, the acquisition of the Ellisdale property was highly contested.

"Now that the crops have been bulldozed and the alarms have been sounded on the seriousness of dieldrin, what is the taxpayers' liability?" he said. "How much did the taxpayers spend, and will there be residual costs from vacating this property?"

Walsh said that no one argues that a new school is not needed, "although in light of the past, we do question the process."

Upper Freehold resident Joe Mauer said that since Millstone students share the high school, purchasing property for a new school near or in Millstone could have a positive financial impact.

"It would definitely reduce the volume of cars going through Allentown since the seniors and a portion of juniors would be heading toward Millstone," he said.

Nick DeMauro, of Upper Freehold, said he believes the average township resident will have serious concerns with the new referendum.

"An over 30 percent increase from the prior referendum is eye-opening," he said. "Personally, as a major supporter of the school district, I have many questions that need to be answered before I can make an educated vote on this matter."

DeMauro is also a proponent of building a high school instead of a middle school.

"The question I would raise," he said, "is why plan to build two new schools when it would seem obvious that a new high school would be the obvious solution."

Maryann Frisbie said she has a lot of concerns about the proposed Breza Road site and that there are too many unanswered questions to have another referendum vote in April.

"At this point, I cannot support it," she said.

Frisbie said she thinks the board is underestimating the final cost of the land on Breza Road.

"The public needs to be informed about the exact cost per acre before deciding on a site change," she said.

Frisbie said she would also like to know what would have to be cut from the building's design in order to pay more for the acreage on Breza Road.

"I don't think our middle school children should have to sacrifice essentials so that we can gamble on a site change at this point," she said. "We also need to know who will maintain the bridges, roads and utilities that would have to be constructed there and who would bear the costs."

Frisbie is also concerned about the possibility of the school district losing money as a result of a lawsuit for abandoning the Ellisdale Road site contract.

Frisbie partly blames the township for the stall in getting a new middle school constructed.

"Unfortunately, I believe that the township dropped the ball on this school project by delaying the submission of applications and not giving the board real support during the approvals process of the last two years since referendum," she said. "Although they claim to be supportive, in reality they have provided almost no help, not on the land search, subdivision, remediation or wastewater."

Frisbie said the township could have helped the board by supporting the school site's connection to the Beacon Hill wastewater management facility, which she believes would have reduced project costs.

"A full explanation was never really given on why this option was abandoned," she said.

Frisbie said that although unfortunate, she has a lack of trust in the school board and the Township Committee to do the right thing and to help get any school constructed.

"I think it is very unlikely that a new referendum will pass because of this and the extra burden on taxpayers," she said.