BY MICHELLE ROSENBERG
Staff Writer
HOLMDEL — Speculation has recently picked up regarding a proposed pathway at the Woods at Holmdel.
The Township Committee voted 5-0 to authorize an on-site meeting with the township engineer and the developer to discuss issues surrounding the construction of the pathway at the Nov. 8 meeting.
The developer, which rejected the original pathway proposal, had previously offered to pay the township $10,000 in lieu of constructing the pathway. The funds would have been put into an escrow account until the pathway was constructed. However, the township voted not to accept the money, Mayor Larry Fink said.
“The developer wanted relief and offered to pay $10,000,” Fink said. “We did not approve the payment. We wanted to have the path done and the first step of that is to have the meeting.”
Some of the issues that will be discussed at the meeting are clearly defining the construction and the cost.
Representatives of The Woods seem to be most concerned with making sure that if the path gets built, the entire path gets built at once.
“It either has to be done in full, correctly, or not done,” said Ralph Rivera, a member of a residents’ board for The Woods at Holmdel.
The relocation of the pathway has raised numerous issues such as Department of Environmental Protection [DEP] approval of the new trail and of the new wetlands line. There is also the issue of money, as the new pathway is expected to cost more than the original.
The money issue is what led to the speculation the path might be done in pieces rather than all at once.
The new path will cost more than the original, so the plan was to have the developer build the two difficult sides and leave the rest for volunteers, Fink said.
“If it’s done entirely by two separate entities, we’re OK with that, [but] if it is one entity starting now and then the other not finishing until 2010, we have a problem with that,” Rivera said.
Rivera also said that residents of The Woods are not necessarily concerned with getting the pathway done quick, but getting it done right. He also said that The Woods wants to be a part of the process.
“At this point, I think we should be going to the DEP and getting approved whatever we need to get approved,” Committeewoman Serena DiMaso said.
Township CFO Joseph Annecharico said that the DEP has to come out and look at everything, and that most likely won’t happen within the next 90 days.
“We still have to get an approval from the DEP to get a new trail. Let’s get it started,” DiMaso said. “The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the trail.”
The committee is waiting for more information from the scheduled on-site meeting before taking further action.