ROOSEVELT - The Borough Council has called for another inspection of the town's 70-year-old water tower.

The Borough Council voted 4-0 at its Sept. 24 meeting to have a firm of structural engineers re-inspect the tower. Council members Pat Moser and Daniel Hoffman abstained from the vote.

In January, Borough Engineer Carmela Roberts said the tower, which supplies water to the entire town, was inspected and found to be in poor condition. At the council's January meeting, Roberts said the tower should be repaired or replaced immediately, because its parts are no longer functioning as designed. Due to the aged condition of the tower, Roberts recommended replacing it.

"In my opinion, repair is not the best way to proceed," she said at that time, adding that the tower's interior is in worse condition than its exterior.

Last week, Councilman Jeff Ellentuck said he believes the inspection report is inconclusive and incomplete in a number of respects. He said the council had commissioned Liquid Engineering, a firm suggested by Roberts, to perform the inspection.

Ellentuck said the firm's report does not compare current tank measurements and specifications with those in the original design.

"It states the current thicknesses of the tank, but fails to specify how those thicknesses compare to the original design and whether there is, in fact, real degradation," he said.

Ellentuck said the report is also inconclusive as to the condition of the tank's support structure.

"Liquid Engineering does not specialize in structural issues, and Ms. Roberts has stated that she is not a structural engineer," he said.

Ellentuck said he found a local firm of engineers that specializes in structural engineering and asked for the motion to approve a tank inspection by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates.

"This firm has performed structural surveys of the Battery Tunnel in New York, the post-9/11 World Trade Center, and countless other high-profile projects," he said. "They are eminently qualified for this work, and I am gratified that they are willing to take on this smaller project at a reasonable rate," he said.

Ellentuck said he could not conceive why the town would not spend the extra money for an independent inspection and conclusion as to whether it needs a tank renovation estimated to cost $1.8 million before cost overruns. He added that he does not believe Roosevelt would get "an independent study" from a federal engineer who questions at the outset why anyone would want to save a 70-year-old water tank.

"The tank has significant historical and emotional meaning to the borough," Ellentuck said, "and the borough is ill equipped to take on more debt than it absolutely needs."

Ellentuck said Borough Administrator William Schmeling had sent him an e-mail stating that Roberts' firm needs $12,000 to complete a grant application for the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust Fund (NJEITF), and $40,000 for design plans. Ellentuck said the costs would bring the amount Roosevelt has paid to Roberts' firm this year to $92,000.

"This approaches the amount we have paid three law firms to handle both our general and our litigation matters," he said.

Ellentuck said Roberts' firm is not on NJEITF's approved list of engineers to design water tanks or on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) list of grant consultants. He said this would affect funding for the project and would most likely mean that costs for engineering the proposed tank and relining of pipes would come from residents' pockets. In Ellentuck's estimation, the proposed project would entail pre-inflation and preconstruction overruns in the amount of $3.5 million, of which the DEP estimates $554,000 would be paid in engineering fees.

Ellentuck considers paying $554,000 to Roberts' firm "quite an expenditure," considering that he met with the NJEITF and the DEP in March and was told the borough is likely to receive the engineering gratis if it uses a state-approved firm of engineers. He said free engineering services are available to the borough because of the size of its water system.

"We are under a thousand people paying a very substantial water and sewer budget," he said.

Ellentuck also said that Roosevelt is a historic district in its entirety, including the water tower.

"This allows us certain latitude with DEP and with the NJEITF that is unavailable to most municipalities," he said.

Ellentuck said that at the March meeting with NJEITF and the DEP that he attended along with Roberts and the borough's chief financial officer, George Lang, he was advised that if the borough submitted a notice of intent to be funded, it would very likely be entitled to funding and state engineer services at discounted rates.

"Based on the DEP figures, that could result in a savings of over half a million dollars in engineering, plus at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest costs," he said.

Because Roberts' firm is not on the state-approved list, the borough would have to pay the firm's fees if it chooses to use that firm, Ellentuck said.

Ellentuck said Roberts agreed to file the required notice to reserve a place for Roosevelt on the funding list, but no action was taken, and filing had to be completed by Oct. 1.

Ellentuck said he is "deeply disturbed" that he was thwarted in his attempts to have an independent review of the structural integrity of the water tower. He said documents he had requested in order to obtain the independent review were not delivered to him for many weeks.

"I am disturbed that we are being asked to pay $52,000 to complete a grant request and to draw up plans for a water tower that we have not yet determined that we need," he said. "Mostly, I am disturbed by the fact that we are being asked to authorize these funds almost six months after this process should have been started."

He said the timing puts the town in a position where it may be faced with a Hobson's choice of either using borough engineer services at a very substantial cost or waiting a full year in order to obtain free engineering services.

Ellentuck said he spoke to representatives from the NJEITF and DEP, who said he can complete a form that would be sufficient to keep Roosevelt on the list of potential grantees.

"While we are not guaranteed funding, regardless of what we do at this date, and while we may have to amend in the future, this may at least keep us in the running," he said. "Unfortunately, the state has made it clear that it is possible that the time during which we could have qualified for free engineering services is over."