UFRSD puts an end to its Ellisdale era
District pays nursery to break contract for land for new school
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP Staff Writer

UPPER FREEHOLD - The school district has terminated its contract with Princeton Nurseries to purchase a site on Ellisdale Road for its new middle school.

When asked last week for an update on the Princeton Nurseries contract, Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education President Joseph Stampe said that the board voted at a meeting in July to terminate the contract and to pay the nursery $200,000 for losses it incurred as a result.

Upper Freehold and Allentown voters had approved a $36.8 million referendum in 2004 for the construction of a new middle school on Ellisdale Road acreage owned by Princeton Nurseries. However, after the Upper Freehold Regional School District entered into a contract with the nursery to purchase the property for the school, further analysis of the site revealed historic pesticide contamination and wastewater issues.

Voters ultimately approved a new referendum in April 2007 to move the middle school project off the Ellisdale Road site to a new location along Breza Road.

During the 18 months the school district had the Ellisdale Road site under contract with Princeton Nurseries, the nursery stopped using the site and cleared its stock there.

According to Stampe, Princeton Nurseries initially valued its losses due to the contract at $700,000.

"However, we did not tell them to plow under their crop," Stampe said. "So, Princeton Nurseries was interested in negotiating with us and working with us."

The two parties eventually came to an agreement that the school district would pay the company $200,000 for its losses.

"We did not have to pay the full restitution and we were pleased with that," Stampe said.

The money will also help the nursery clean up areas of the property the school district disturbed with test wells when analyzing soil conditions, according to Stampe.

Stampe said that the school district used the $200,000 in interest it received on the $2.5 million it offered the nursery for its land to pay for the company's losses.

"Before I became president of the board, Princeton Nurseries had asked the board to write into the contract that would put the money in an interestbearing account," Stampe said. "The $2.5 million set aside in the interestbearing account generated $200,000 in 18 months."

One of the major reasons the school district decided to go to another referendum to move the project off the Ellisdale Road site was that the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) related that it might not give the district the Wastewater Management Plan amendment necessary to build a wastewater management facility there. The DEP told the school district it would have an answer regarding the amendment in October 2007.

When asked last week whether the DEP had ever given the school district its answer about the amendment, Stampe said, "That permit basically died on the DEP desk."

Stampe said that once the school board started voting to spend money on the project at Breza Road, it no longer funded Ellisdale Road site matters. He said that getting an answer from the DEP would have required additional spending that the board decided not to authorize.