School board keeps bus facility on Waters site plan

Neighbors opposed;

officials describe choice

as ‘tough decision’

By alison granito

Staff Writer

According to Millstone school board members, it was a tough decision. On Monday, the board voted to leave a planned transportation center in its plans for the 165-acre Waters site. The vote came after the board heard a presentation by its architect on a study to build the facility on the existing elementary and middle school campus on Schoolhouse Road.

The study found that the cost of locating the center on the current school campus would be within $10,000 of the projected $689,753 it would cost to build it on the Waters site. However, the district’s architect said that a facility on the current campus would be "maxed out" and unable to expand in the future. The switch would also eliminate a planned general maintenance facility from the project.

Officials estimated that it would cost taxpayers approximately $200,000 to build that facility down the road.

"It is a hard decision," board Vice President Mary Pinney said at the meeting. "What it really comes down to is looking at the long-term future of the township."

Board member Sami Qutub also called it a "tough decision," but said the board must do what is best for the township as a whole while doing what it can to minimize the center’s impact on its neighbors.

Board member Laura Dreifus said she had concerns about drainage and buses running so close to primary school students if the facility was relocated to the elementary/middle school campus.

During the public portion of the meeting, Roberts Road resident Bill Feris said he felt it made more sense for the board to locate the transportation center on Schoolhouse Road. He also criticized the cost of the project.

Residents of Waters Lane, Roberts Road and Wagner Farm Lane have objected to the intensity of the school district’s plans for the Waters property, the majority of which is currently a commercial nursery.

The transportation center, which will house approximately 40 buses, is at the top of neighborhood residents’ list of objections. Neighbors have said a bus depot does not belong in a residential area.

The school board voted 6-3 for the facility on the Baird Road side of the Waters site, across from Wagner Farm Park.

At last week’s Township Committee meeting and recent school board meetings, area residents have said they believe inclusion of the transportation facility might hurt the district’s upcoming referendum. On Sept. 30, the district plans to ask voters to approve $39.9 million to fund a new middle school, renovations to the existing middle and elementary schools, and the transportation center. The state is expected to fund the remainder of the $46.5 million project.

If the referendum passes, the school tax levy would increase 14 cents per $100 of assessed property value. A resident with a home assessed at $400,000 would pay an additional $560 per year in school taxes.

Officials agreed to continue to discuss other options for bus storage — including outsourcing some or all of the district’s busing, which would eliminate the center, and creating two separate bus yards.

However, officials noted that since only a few weeks were left before the referen­dum vote, it would be impossible to com­plete the necessary studies to change the plans.

Officials said that when voting for the referendum, taxpayers are only choosing whether to authorize the district to increase the tax levy to raise the money needed for the project.

For approximately six to nine months after the vote, the school board can still make changes to certain details of the plans — such as where a building would sit on the site.

"Just because the intent is to put the transportation center on Baird Road does­n’t necessarily mean that facility will end up on Baird Road," board member Tom Foley said.

Officials said they would consider ask­ing voters to approve the transportation center on its own, but it was too late to change from a single referendum question to two separate questions.

"If we could do it, we would," Setaro said.

School officials have said the new mid­dle school would be the long-term solution to burgeoning enrollment, which has cre­ated cramped conditions at current facili­ties — which school officials have repeat­edly described as "bursting at the seams."

To address overcrowding until another school can be built, school officials have placed trailers outside the main buildings.

When district schools opened their doors last week, three trailers greeted stu­dents at the elementary school while six trailers house classrooms at the middle school.

"For the first time, our enrollment is over 1,700," Schools Superintendent William Setaro said Monday. In 1990, the district had 460 students.

While many of the neighborhood resi­dents have said they understand the district needs to expand its facilities, they believe the Waters site is a poor location, too far from the center of town.

Neighbors also object to the plans for the site which set aside space for "potential future schools."

School board officials have said they want to by at least 100 acres of land in case the district needs to expand even more in the future and build a high school.

In addition to school board plans for the site, residents worry the township also has designs for the remainder of the Waters land.

At Monday’s meeting, Setaro said the school district only intends to use the 100 acres it requested and the fate of the rest of the property would be determined by the township.

"Certainly this board will be happy with just our 100 acres. The other issues are not our issues," he said.

Neighborhood residents have been vo­cal in opposing municipal use of the re­mainder of the site.

The township has agreed to purchase the Waters property for the school district. The committee authorized spending $4.8 million for the land earlier this year. The governing body has also approved the use of eminent domain through which the township would condemn the property and the courts would award the owners fair market value of the land.

Setaro said that, to his knowledge, the township had not taken title of the land yet.

"Being that we have a referendum in three weeks, I thought we were supposed to have a deed in hand," board member Patricia Coffey said.

"It seems irresponsible to me to go to the community without that," she said.