West Windsor Town Council held a closed session meeting on November 28 to discuss two separate litigation matters: the everlasting Akselrad case and the $70,000 mistakenly sent back to developer DR Horton for sinkhole repairs at Village Grande, which is now in the hands of attorneys for the township and the developer. Business Administrator Robert Hary said that documentation and correspondence have been provided showing DR Horton’s clear promise of the $70,000 for Village Grande’s sinkhole repairs, and the township is “aggressively trying to recoup the money.”
At the previous Council meeting, November 14, about a dozen Village Grande residents and board members from the homeowners association attended to voice their displeasure at the administration for this mistake, which Mayor Hsueh attributed to human error. Toby Shor of 39 Grande Boulevard attended the Council’s business session this week to follow up on the township’s progress in getting back the $70,000 from DR Horton. She says that on Monday construction trucks as well as Verizon crews were at Village Grande inspecting the sinkholes that need repair and planning for the work they will do. Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner, who lives at Village Grande, said Verizon has agreed to fix two or three of the sinkholes as installation of its FIOS cable lines may have contributed to their formation.
Residents and township officials hope to see the sinkholes repaired before winter weather kicks in. Shor says in addition residents expect to have more communication come from the township each step of the way.
“I know everybody comes knocking on our doors as you did last month to get our votes, but when we need help we are left out in the cold. By more togetherness we should find out what’s going on and not have to fight to get information on what’s happening in our development,” Shor said.
Shor believes $70,000 is more than enough to cover the cost of sinkhole repairs, and she wants the township to tell residents how much will be left over if other repairs are needed at Village Grande.
“I’m sure the work that they’re doing for these sinkholes, whether there are eight, ten, or eleven of them, is nowhere near $70,000 based on the estimates we had. For twelve years we (Village Grande residents) have been dealing with a water problem they have not addressed. With Horton you will see in the course of litigation that they are not easy to deal with so the funds must be used appropriately,” she said.
In other Council matters, Hary presented some facts behind the deer carcass removal fee that Councilwoman Diane Ciccone asked to be pulled on November 14. Hary told the Council that per the agreement Mercer County has negotiated for all its municipalities with Deer Carcass Removal Service of Cream Ridge, the township is responsible for a fee of $55.00 per carcass each month. For October the total came to $1,650 for picking up 30 deer carcasses, which Hary said is “a very average monthly total” although the fall is the time of year when the most deer are hit on New Jersey roads.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers questioned Hary on the administration’s progress drafting letters to JCP & L and the state board of public utilities as many residents with that electric service were without power for several days after Hurricane Irene, and the situation grew so bad that Police Chief Joe Pica and Mayor Hsueh expressed their frustrations with JCP & L publicly in September. Geevers wants the township to formally submit documentation stating the displeasure and lack of service because many other townships were upset with JCP & L also and she says sharing West Windsor’s experience might let other townships consider not using JCP & L, in favor of PSE & G.
Hary announced two resolutions that were approved by Council, 4-0 as Councilman Charles Morgan was absent. The township will refund overpaid property taxes in the amount of $4,796.05 and authorized refunds for development review project quotes at Carnegie Center’s 300 building and the Princeton Arms Shopping Center sign waiver, totaling $2,737.34.
Ciccone asked that bills and claims be removed from the consent agenda as she had sent an E-mail to Hary requesting some explanations on the following items:
— A $30 photo collage for the West Windsor Police’ K-9 program, which Hary says was spent to commemorate the accomplishments of the department. The collage will go up in the vestibule of the police department building.
— A series of checks written to ACT Engineers, Inc. for development plan review reimbursing developers for money spent on a number of projects including Bobby Flay’s Burger Palace which will come to MarketFair.
— A professional services contract with Van Cleef Engineering for design and sewer repairs at Wallace Road in the amount of $8,600. This was a recommendation from the administration set on Monday’s agenda, and Hary says Ciccone asked him before the meeting why the township should be fixing the sewer line now.
“Just a couple of years ago we had emergency repairs done from Alexander and the U around the train station. This repair would be from the train station to Route 571 where we found some degradation of the sewer line during routine maintenance,” he said.
Hary had two other recommendations to Council. One was authorization to execute a Change Order Number 1 with Meco, Inc. to account for a decrease of 20.67 percent for final quantities adjustment and project closeout for phase one of the Village Road West reconstruction. Hary called this “a good one” because the township will save a significant amount of money.
“We had an original price of $255,000 and we were able to complete the project $52,697.12 under budget as the final budget was just over $202,000,” he said.
