BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - Should Upper Freehold Regional School District taxpayers be solely responsible for the cost overruns of the proposed middle school project?

The topic of who should take responsibility for the $10.7 million additional funds needed to complete the middle school project came up at the April 4 Economic Development Committee (EDC) meeting. Board of Education members were at the meeting seeking endorsement for the new referendum for the middle school project.

Voters will take to the polls on April 17 to decide whether to transfer the middle school portion of the voter-approved 2004 referendum to an approximately 118-acre site on Breza Road at a cost not to exceed $13.2 million more than what was originally authorized for the project. The amount would be in addition to the $36.8 million referendum approved by voters in 2004 for a proposed middle school on Ellisdale Road. The Ellisdale Road site has wastewater and contamination issues.

EDC member Thomas Frascella said the Board of Education appeared before the EDC three years ago. He said the board was well aware that the construction of the middle school is the largest municipal project the school district has ever taken on and that it would have a substantial tax impact.

"We were promised then that a very thorough search of the area had been undertaken and that Ellisdale Road was the best site, and that a wastewater facility could be engaged," he said. "That referendum was a hard sell, but it sold."

Frascella said that since then the board has spent a lot of money only to find out that the Ellisdale Road site has contamination and wastewater management issues. He said he is not blaming the Board of Education, since it did not have the expertise to move the project forward.

"[Board members] had to rely on professionals who said they could do it," he said.

Frascella said he is concerned that taxpayers would have to come up with the additional money for the project.

"I'm not hearing that the people who made the mistake should pay for it," he said.

Frascella, an attorney, said all professionals should carry liability insurance. He said the Board of Education now has a credibility issue that could affect the new referendum.

"No one is saying kids don't need an education," Frascella said. "[But] why are we paying for someone else's mistake?

"Give someone a free ride on that," he added, "and they'll screw this project up."

Board of Education President Joseph Stampe said the board has had some discussions with its attorney about recovering some costs from its professionals but that he could not go into detail because the matter is a legal issue.

If the Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education decided that its professionals gave the school district bad advice on the Ellisdale Road project, it could have to sue Van Cleef Engineering Associates in Robbinsville, which served as the board's engineer for the Ellisdale Road site. The Breza Road site the board is seeking to purchase for the middle school project is owned by Neil Van Cleef, a principal in the engineering firm. However, his company is not doing the engineering work for the Breza Road parcel.

Board of Education member Bill Borkowski told the EDC that the most critical mistake the board made with the project was applying for a wastewater management plan for the Ellisdale Road site using information from the company that runs the sewer plant at the nearby Hovnanian housing developments, Heritage Green and Four Seasons. He said the company, Aqua New Jersey, told the board that it had excess capacity at the sewage treatment plant, so the school district could use the plant for a school on the Ellisdale Road site. However, he said the board did not get a feasibility study from Aqua New Jersey until after the first referendum.

Frascella said, "The Board of Education asked for a $36 million referendum based on a phone call that turned out to be incorrect. That's a problem." Borkowski said that most of the additional costs for the project are due to the escalating price of construction material. He also said that "the opportunity to sue for $10 million doesn't exist."

Robert Cheff, of Allentown, who was on the Board of Education when the Ellisdale site was chosen, said that some culpability lies with the architect, who made suggestions and recommendations that got the board into its present situation. The same architect is advising the board about the Breza Road site, he said.

"My concern is that the architect is suggesting you can put an elementary school on 26 acres [at the Breza site]," Cheff said. "This is the same man who told us the contamination remediation was relatively straightforward."

Cheff said the new referendum asks for $2 million for land that cannot be built on at Breza.

"That's a huge amount for the township," he said. "I would like to see more investigation and give the public more answers on what the options are."

According to Stampe, the cost to purchase the Breza Road property is $5.1 million, which amounts to $43,257 per acre. He said the cost is about $10,000 less per acre than the cost of the 46 acres at the Ellisdale Road site at $54,000 per acre.

Borkowski said that only 80 acres of the 118-acre Breza Road property the board is purchasing could be utilized.

Stampe said that 15.5 acres of the property is wetlands. He said the remainder of the 38 acres consists of wetland buffers that could not be developed with buildings but could be used for athletic fields and/or recreational areas.

"The architect said there was enough room on the site for an elementary [school] and a middle school," Stampe said.

EDC Chairman Tim Lizura asked if the Board of Education's contract with the owners of the Ellisdale Road site, Crosswicks Farms, has provisions for termination. Stampe said that as a contractual issue, the Board of Education's land use attorney asked him not to discuss it. He said the attorney has discussed with Crosswicks the conditions needed to terminate the contract.

In an earlier interview, Princeton Nurseries President Ivan Olinsky, whose company leases the property, said that the company had to remove all of its tree stock from the Ellisdale Road site. He said if the school district is not going to take the property, Princeton Nurseries needs to start replanting there so the company would not lose another growing season. Olinsky expected to know whether planting could resume at the site by the end of September 2006.

With regard to the possibility of the EDC endorsing the new referendum for the project, Lizura noted that the entire parcel on Breza Road, which the school board would only purchase a part of, measures 254 acres.

"The balance of the site is zoned for commercial development," he said. "The compatibility of uses gives me concern."

Lizura said the EDC does not want to see commercial land taken off the roster, given that there is so little of it in the township.

Stampe said that if the referendum passes, he would lobby the EDC and the Planning Board to make sure that what goes next to the school is compatible. He said that if the referendum passes, the Ellisdale Road property would be released, since the money in the 2004 referendum would need to be freed up to purchase the Breza Road site.

Stampe said the current middle school is overcrowded. He added that not having a new middle school would have an economic effect on the area in that it would affect property values.

Allentown resident Ann Garrison said that ratables could increase on Route 524 from a school on Breza Road. She said she would like the balance of the Breza Road tract to be preserved for educational use.

Garrison said she knows of a private donor who would contribute $1 million to buy the rest of the Breza Road parcel. Allentown could contribute funding, she said, because even though the property is not located in the town, it is listed as part of the borough's greenbelt.

Upper Freehold resident Keith Becker also supported preservation of the rest of the tract, saying that residents would have to pay more if businesses went there because they would need services. He asked the EDC to show why commercialization of Breza Road is a benefit to the town.

Micah Rasmussen, of Allentown, said the landowner of the Breza Road site looked at the marketplace and decided that the best use of his land is for the middle school.