Emotions ran high — and political alliances were tested — at the July 8 West Windsor Town Council Meeting, as the public braced for council to vote on whether to demolish the Grover Farmstead and outlying buildings. The result: 3-2 in favor of demolition. Council President George Borek and members Linda Geevers and Kamal Khanna voted to allow the administration to demolish the buildings; Vice President Kristina Samonte and member Bryan Maher — who ran for council on opposing slates in the most recent election — voted against demolition.
The farmstead, consisting of the main farmhouse and several outbuildings, will not be demolished immediately. Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, after meeting with several department managers on July 9, said that they had “come to the realization that because of several environmental and other issues, the Township public works department does not have the necessary expertise to handle the demolition of Grover Farmstead. In order to maintain full compliance with state law, we will have to hire outside contractors through a competitive open-bid process to handle the work.”
The mayor added that he had hoped to do some of the work “in-house, to save the taxpayers some money, but that will not be possible. Accordingly, because a year has passed since the last estimates, this project may now cost more than the $60,000 originally estimated,” he said.
That news will make those opposed to the demolition even less happy than they were at the July 8 meeting. As Maher said, preparing to cast his vote, “I am the single biggest supporter of preserving the Grover Farmstead up here. The mayor is in charge of the township assets; it is part of his fiduciary duty. Do you want to have someone in charge who is willing to have a building worth in the area of $400,000 be gutted while on his watch? There was a lease written up when the previous council voted to demolish the building, and yet no action was taken on that lease, even though at that time the house was in good condition and had just been upgraded. Where is the outrage over this?
“There is no bigger, more visible farm in West Windsor than Grover Farm. Why are we destroying part of our heritage that is represented on our town seal? Should we change our seal now? We could spend the $53,000 [recommended by the Grover restoration committee] to seal up the house, restore the windows and doors, and give the committee a year to come up with a solution. What is the harm in that? I vote no demolition.”
Khanna spoke next, saying, “I wish to thank the Grover Committee for all of their hard work and dedication, as well as township residents too, for all of their work on this issue. We have been listening to this debate for over a year, and we still don’t have answers to fundamental questions, such as what mechanisms are in place for fundraising to secure the funds needed to restore the building beyond the $53,000? Also, no analysis has been done as to how the building will be fixed up to bring it into compliance with government standards for public buildings; the condition of the well water; how to ameliorate the asbestos, black mold, and lead paint present in the house; what to do with the non-functioning septic system; how to address the animal and insect infestations, and, most importantly, whether or not the building is even structurally safe?”
“Without answers to these questions after over one year,” Khanna said, “I am voting to demolish the building.”
Geevers also thanked the committee for its hard work. “I have talked to many people in the community, and most people I have talked to do not want to spend any taxpayer money on this project, and do not want the township to get involved with renting out the building. I just did not hear enough support from the community.
“Also, there are too many open-ended questions: how they will be doing the fundraising, whether or not they will become an official nonprofit organization, and what will happen if they can’t raise the money. Will they then be coming back to the governing body for the needed money? So I am voting to demolish the building.”
Geevers, who had served as one of two council liaisons to the committee, suggested one addition to the resolution: “To erect a flagpole, with backlighting, and a monument to Thomas Grover’s memory. It can be placed wherever is most appropriate on the property, and will be a lasting, permanently lit memorial to our celebrated veteran.”
This language was added to the original resolution and was included in the final vote.
Vice President Samonte then spoke about the resolution. “The issue here is that we have to weigh the preservation of local history versus fiscal responsibility. Lots of towns are facing this same issue, and I believe we need to apply strict standards of diligence and fair process,” she said.
“On the one hand, we do not have a historical report or multi-source professional estimates for expenses and revenue, which is problematic. In the future, if this type of issue comes up again, we need to make sure these are in place. On the other hand, West Windsor has transformed from our agrarian roots, and we have a real opportunity to save a piece of our rapidly disappearing history. This is similar to the situation faced by Princeton with regard to the Updike Farm, and, despite the impediments, they were able to come together and save the farm.”
Samonte ultimately voted not to demolish the building.
Finally, Council President Borek explained his position. “Whatever actions we take today do not take away from what Thomas Grover did for our country, and I want to make that clear. However, we have given the Grover Restoration Committee almost a year and a half after our original vote to demolish the building to come up with a plan. I didn’t have a fundamental problem with spending the $53,000 to replace the windows and doors but wanted to see a definite plan for the building. But there is no plan. Where is the plan?”
Borek said he had reached out to Rocky Procaccini, the chair of the Grover Committee “and gave him suggestions on groups to contact who might be willing to renovate and refurbish the building. I had hoped he would reach out to them, get firm commitments, and come back with a definite plan. But where is the plan? Who is going to rebuild the house?
“If groups had been on board, for the financing, and the building and refurbishing, then I think all five council members, as well as the administration, would support the effort and agree not to demolish the building. But without a plan in place, I am voting to demolish the building.”
As expected, community opinion was divided, and quite vocal, after the council members cast their votes. Grover Restoration Committee member John Church, visibly upset, stated, “Today is a day that will live in infamy in West Windsor. Just like the battle of Pearl Harbor, we may have lost the battle but we will win the war. I became involved with the committee because I thought it had a chance of working. It turns out that it didn’t. Maybe next time I will think twice about putting so much time into something for this town.”
Fellow committee members Pete Weale, Jim Solloway, and Debbie Hepler (who is running for Town Council), all spoke out in favor of preservation, and also expressed disappointment and even outrage over the vote, noting that the committee had compiled a huge amount of information that had been available for review.
Hepler thanked council members Maher and Samonte for their votes. Weale stated that those who opposed demolition were heroes, and those who supported it were cowards, invoking the ire of such residents as Al Lerner and Paul Pitluk, both veterans, who spoke in favor of demolition and denounced Weale’s use of the term “coward.”
Resident Martin Whitfield, who is also running for council, said, “I love this town but I see a lot of division here and a lot of issues which are not being addressed. There is a lot of failed leadership here. I am a huge fan of history, because if you don’t follow history’s lessons, you are doomed to repeat them. It is no less than a crime to destroy a home that stood silently over such events as the Civil War. We owe this piece of history to future generations.”
Resident Andy Bromberg also commented at the meeting. “I took no part in this issue and just listened to the debate back and forth to learn about it. It was a good debate. Both sides had good points. But after hearing all of the sides, I have to conclude that it is a good business decision to demolish the house and not use taxpayer money to restore it. I do have a question for some of those who wish to save the house — if the mayor had wanted to save it, would you still be in favor of saving it or would you oppose it as a poor business decision?”
Former West Windsor Mayor Bob Murray also spoke at the meeting, prior to the vote. “I was involved in the original negotiations with the Grover Family. It was agreed by everyone that we were preserving the farm, not the house. I am very proud of what we have done, and what we are doing. It is too much of a burden on taxpayers to preserve the house itself. The original intent was to preserve the farm, so let’s preserve the farm.”
Finally, Procaccini, chair of the Grover Restoration Committee, tried to express his views but was unable to speak. In a later interview, he said, “we did over and above what we were supposed to do. Our mission was to see if the house was savable. It was not up to us to decide the house’s use. At the May council meeting [when the committee gave a presentation] I asked Borek if he needed any additional information, and he said ‘no.’ I told him the details would be ironed out after we got the vote, because it was a waste of time to line up commitments before we knew whether the restoration project would go forward. They never asked for any additional information from us. And Geevers, who sat on the committee, was out to derail this project from the start. The process was corrupted by everyone except Maher and Samonte.
“And if I lived in Princeton Oaks [the housing development behind Grover Farm] I would be really concerned because who knows what is going to happen with the property now.”
