Council moving quickly on Howard Commons
Red Bank company
will help get ball rolling on conversion of homes
EATONTOWN — Facing a short deadline, the borough will soon have professional help in creating a plan for Howard Commons.
Borough Business Administrator Michael L. Trotta said he would ask Gene J. Anthony to arrange a resolution for the council to pass at its meeting last night awarding a contract to The Agora Coalition, Red Bank, to prepare the borough’s request for proposals (RFP) for planning for Howard Commons, the Army housing complex at Fort Monmouth that is being converted to civilian use.
Trotta said the preparation of the RFP would cost $5,000, which is half of the $10,000 match the borough is supposed to put up to draw down a $50,000 "smart growth" grant from the state Department of Community Affairs.
The "smart growth" grant has been designated to finance the planning for development of Howard Commons, except that its status is uncertain in light of the $2.9 billion budget shortfall the administration of Gov. Jim McGreevey faces. Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo, who has been trying to determine if the money will be forthcoming from the state, said everything is frozen for now.
Trotta said the Department of Community Affairs had suggested the borough get professional help in drafting the RFP, thus it’s turning to Agora.
The company, consisting of a group of land use consultants, also has offices in New York City and Seattle. Tarantolo said the members of the firm in Red Bank who will do the work are Tracy Challenger and Carlos Rodriguez.
In other business, the council heard reports on two environmental cleanups in town.
John Vanderslice, of T & M Associ-ates, the borough’s engineering firm, said he expects sampling of wells sunk to monitor contaminated groundwater caused by leaking underground tanks at the borough public works site on Lewis Street at Maxwell Road to be reduced from twice a year to once a year.
He said the plume of contamination is shrinking over time.
"This stuff is naturally cleaning up," he said. Asked how long it would take for it to completely dissipate, he projected 16 years.
"That doesn’t mean we have to continue to monitor it for 16 years," he added.
Vanderslice said he believed the borough had spent $55,000 on well sampling over the years. He noted the leaking tanks were removed in 1994 and said there would be no more remediation. He said the plume has not gone off-site or leached into nearby Wampum Brook.
"This brook is not being impacted," he stressed.
Brian Denegar, part-time zoning inspector, said he had talked to Dave Bell, who runs the scouting program, about getting the scouts involved in cleaning up the area behind businesses on the east side of Route 35 around where Husky Brook runs under the road near Clinton Avenue.
He referred to a section lying between Route 35 and White Street.
Denegar said there are some dangerous areas where the Scouts should not go, but that they could clean up a good deal of garbage and trash that have gathered behind the business buildings.
Asked when the area was last cleaned, he replied, "I don’t know."