Case made for building a school on Breza Road
Voters to decide $13.2M referendum for project April 17
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer

Upper Freehold Regional School District Board of Education President Joseph Stampe sees Breza Road as the quickest path to getting a new middle school built.

Hill International, the construction manager for the new middle school project, informed the Board of Education at its Jan. 17 meeting that without having put a shovel into the ground at the chosen Ellisdale Road site, the project is currently $10.7 million over budget. Voters approved the site for the construction of the school in 2004.

Cost overruns

According to Stampe, the cost overruns are a result of inflation and underbudgeting for items such as the remediation of contaminated soil at the site and the creation of a wastewater treatment facility there.

"New Jersey state law prevents the Board of Education from proceeding with the construction of the middle school, including soil remediation work, as we now know we have insufficient funds to complete the project," Stampe said.

He continued, "Without additional money approved now by the voters, the Board of Education cannot, in good faith, continue to work on this project regardless of location."

Stampe said the board has been pursuing Ellisdale Road for 26 months.

"All we have to show for it is 350 soil samples," he said.

The new $13.2 million referendum for the project, for which voters will have their say in the April 17 Board of Education election, mainly comes as a result of the increase in construction costs in the state of New Jersey, according to Stampe.

"The longer we wait, the more expensive the project becomes," Stampe said. "If we wait another six months, we could be looking at even higher costs."

Stampe said the new referendum takes into consideration moving the school from a contaminated site in a nonsewer service area to a site in a sewer service area on Breza Road. It also takes into consideration value engineering, he said. According to Stampe, the board reviewed the design of the new school with its professionals and cut certain design elements out of it.

The money allocated in the new referendum would also cover the cost to create a culvert bridge entrance to the new school on Breza Road from Route 524. The board considered placing the school nearer to Breza Road but instead has decided to place it on the western side of Lot 44 off Breza Road, which is closer to Route 524.

If the school district opted to put the school closer to Breza Road, which is a dirt road, Stampe said it would then have to look at the costs of making improvements to that road, which includes repairing two small bridges.

"The cost would be significantly higher," he said, adding that the proposed cost of the repairs was the main reason why the board decided to place the school to the west instead. The cost for an access road, bridge and utilities, which has been factored into the new referendum, amounts to about $1.6 million, according to Stampe.

Land for two schools

Stampe said to purchase the Ellisdale Road site, the board had budgeted $3.2 million for land acquisition but would wind up spending about $2.6 million if the contract finally did go through. The new referendum estimates a land acquisition budget for the Breza Road site at about $4.7 million.

Stampe said the board is looking to purchase 118 acres on Breza Road so it has enough land to build two schools there.

"Ideally, we would want 75 to 80 acres to build a high school," he said. "But we would certainly have enough land to build a middle school and an elementary school or a primary school if we wanted to go that route."

He continued, "At least we are locking in the possibility of not having to go on a land search in an out-of-sewer service area again."

Although the board might be able to purchase additional property around the Ellisdale Road site for another school, Stampe said that the land surrounding that site also has the potential for dieldrin contamination. He said the school district could run into issues with building on a contaminated site since the state recently passed more stringent guidelines for school districts undertaking such projects.

Regarding whether there are liability issues in breaking the contract at the Ellisdale Road site, Stampe said, "I can't sit here and tell you what the board has discussed with our attorney in closed session, but I have seen the contract and the board is aware of the issues we are facing."

WMP amendment

According to Stampe, if the board did not put out another referendum to voters in the April 17 Board of Education election, the next time it would be able to go to referendum for the project would be in September. However, he said the earliest the board would hear from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) about the possibility of getting a Wastewater Management Plan (WMP) amendment for the Ellisdale Road site would be in October.

"To wait until October 2007 for the DEP's decision on the Wastewater Management Plan amendment on Ellisdale Road - assuming approval - would result in a December 2007 referendum, which, assuming it passed, would start construction in late 2008, thus jeopardizing a September 2010 opening," Stampe wrote in the letter to the staff.

According to a letter to Stampe from Terry Pilawski, the chief of the DEP's Bureau of Watershed Regulation, the earliest edition of the New Jersey Register in which the DEP would be able to publish the proposed WMP amendment for the Ellisdale project would be March 19. The mandatory 30-day public comment period would close on April 18, and the department would then review all comments received.

Based on the comments received, the department could have to schedule a public hearing. Notice of the hearing would be published in June, with the hearing taking place sometime after July 4. The department would likely extend the comment period an additional 15 days to allow the public to provide comments based on others raised during the hearing, according to Pilawski.

After the close of the public hearing comment period, Pilawski said the department could take between one and two months to review comments and prepare responses.

"A decision would be anticipated by October 2007," Pilawski wrote in the letter.

In the letter, Pilawski states that the decision the department reaches is not guaranteed to be affirmative and that the there is a risk that the board could proceed through the lengthy process and still be denied the WMP amendment.

"I don't think they're just blowing smoke," Stampe said.

Approved sewer service area

With regard to the Breza Road site, Pilawski said the site is in an approved sewer service area to be served by a sanitary sewage treatment plant that would discharge to groundwater to serve various proposed commercial (nonindustrial) retail and office buildings. Provided the proposed flow from the school is less than 126,760 gallons per day and there is no additional significant environmental impact resulting from the proposed change in use, the department may modify the WMP as a revision rather than an amendment for the site.

A revision is not subject to public comment but would fall subject to a three-week review of any affected parties, according to Pilawski.

Stampe said the DEP has also related to the board that there is a possibility that the Breza Road site could get a DEP revision within three weeks from the time of application.

If the board did not go to referendum in April and waited for and received DEP approval for the Ellisdale Road site, Stampe said the board would still need to go to referendum for the additional $10.7 million needed to complete the project. The next referendum date would be in December, thus delaying any progress until early 2008. Furthermore, Stampe said if the board waited and did not go to referendum in April to move the school, negotiations with the Breza Road property owner could fall through.

Willing seller

"There is currently a willing seller of the Breza Road property," Stampe said. "A delay of even a few months could put the only sewerable available land out of reach for the board."

DOE approval

Stampe also said the district would have to reapply for the Department of Education approval, which he said expires in September.

"Given the current soil remediation and wastewater management problems at the Ellisdale site, there is risk that the Department of Education will not grant us another approval," he wrote to the school district staff.

Stampe said he believes the board knows more about the Breza Road site prior to the upcoming referendum than it knew about the Ellisdale Road site prior to the 2004 referendum.

He said the 2004 board did not know the cost of the land at the Ellisdale Road site before the 2004 referendum, just as the current board does not know the cost of the Breza Road property. However, Stampe said the board does know from meetings with the Breza Road landowner the parameters of the sale price, which Stampe said have been figured into the $13.2 million referendum amount. Stampe said the board is actively working with the "willing seller in hopes of disclosing the land price before the referendum."

Soil data

He said the 2004 board did not know about the contamination on the Ellisdale Road site until January 2005, which was after the referendum.

With regard to the soil on the Breza Road site, Stampe said, "We have data now. I'll fully admit that it's three years old and was done by another company, but at least we were able to examine it."

Stampe said that the board's professionals have analyzed the seven soil samples that the New York City-based Rockefeller Group took at the Breza Road site when it was planning to build warehouses there.

The board will be required by law to take additional soil samples on the Breza Road property, according to Stampe. He said the board is in the process of contracting with a firm to have all the new samples taken and tested, reviewed and released to the public prior to the April referendum.

Location

Ellisdale Road is out of the sewer service area, while Breza Road is not.

"That was the critical blockage with the Ellisdale site, and it does not exist with Breza Road," Stampe said.

He said the 2004 board made an assumption about the Ellisdale Road site that it would be able to tap into the Beacon Hill wastewater treatment facility. Stampe alleged that the 2004 board based its assumption on old and faulty data.

Stampe also addressed allegations that residents at Four Seasons, an active-adult housing development across the street from the Ellisdale Road site, have influenced the board's decision in moving the school project to a different site.

Stampe said he wanted to make it clear that neither he nor Board of Education members Christopher Shaw and Howard Krieger received any campaign contributions from Four Seasons.

"To imply Four Seasons residents are spending money to influence a decision and to buy the board bothers me," Stampe said.

The kids

With three young children, two currently in the district, Stampe said he realizes firsthand that the district needs the new middle school sooner than later.

"In my opinion, it is so clear," Stampe said. "Breza Road is the quickest path to building a school."

Once the new middle school opens, Stampe said the current school will have three empty classrooms whereas now students are being taught in hall closets and other insufficient spaces. Stampe also said fifth-graders in the current elementary/middle school have to eat lunch at their desks due to overcrowding.

"We need that school, and Breza Road is a quicker option," he said.

The construction manager has estimated that with a best-case scenario at the Ellisdale Road site, a school could open in September 2010. With a best-case scenario for the Breza Road site, a school could open in January 2010.

"Six months sooner may not seem like a lot," he said, "but under the worst-case scenario, a school on Breza Road opens in 2010 and a school on Ellisdale Road never opens."