BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer
UPPER FREEHOLD – The Upper Freehold Regional Board of Education has yet to decide if it wants to toss the results of the December 2004 referendum.
Although the board met into the wee hours of the morning on Jan. 18 following its meeting the night before, members did not make a decision regarding the possibility of holding a new referendum to get the new middle school construction project under way.
Earlier in the evening, the project’s construction manager told the board that without even having put a shovel in the ground at the Ellisdale Road site chosen for the school, the project is already $10.7 million over budget.
Voters allocated $36.8 million for a new middle school in a December 2004 referendum. However, the project has encountered soil remediation and wastewater management issues. Since the referendum was site-specific, the school’s bond counsel, Tony Pannella, said the board would need additional voter authorization to change anything regarding the school project.
Board President Joseph Stampe said the board can only go to referendum four times a year, with the next date being April 17.
“If we miss April, we will have to go to referendum in September,” he said.
Stampe called going from a $36 million referendum to a $48 million project “mind-boggling” and asked if Upper Freehold’s project is in line with others.
Preconstruction manager Paul D’Alto, of Marlton-based Hill International, said the project is “on the high side of average” at $255 per square foot.
When asked about changing the site of the new middle school from Ellisdale Road to an alternative site on Breza Road, Stampe said that the board would discuss that option. Stampe said a wastewater management plan would not have to be filed for the Breza Road property, however, as unlike the Ellisdale Road site, it is located in a sewered area.
Interim Superintendent of Schools Robert Smith said the board asked its architect, David Fraytak, to look at the public documents concerning the Breza Road tract, which previously went before the township’s Planning Board for a warehouse project that was later withdrawn. While pesticide testing had been done on the Breza Road tract, Smith said the testing was done to commercial standards, not residential ones, which are higher.
D’Alto said there are other issues with the Breza Road tract. Among those issues are creating site access by repairing bridges and performing environmental studies on the land. He also noted that there are wetlands and Indian burial grounds on the property.
D’Alto said the school district would have to take the existing design of the new school and transfer it to another site, which could require the redesign of utilities, athletic fields and similar items. However, he said such a project could still be done in a time frame similar to the one projected for the Ellisdale Road site, which could be complete by December 2009.
Fraytak said that Breza Road could be a viable school site, but that using the land there would require stormwater management and soil conservation approvals, re-engineering and reconfiguring. Also, the nearby bridges could create an access issue since they are too narrow for school buses. But there could be alternative access to the site, he said, if the school district received permission to create additional access through wetlands.
During the public portion of the meeting, which was attended by a capacity crowd in the elementary/middle school media center, Stampe asked those with comments and/or questions not to make personal attacks. He reminded residents that the board is in the midst of searching for a new superintendent and that such attacks would reflect poorly on the community. The audience complied, remaining civil during the questioning.
When asked if the $6 million in state aid that the school district received for the new school could be applied to a new referendum, Stampe said the money is connected to the school, not the site.
“If we move the school, we have assurance from the Department of Education that we would not lose the money,” he said. “The only way to lose the money would be to change the scope of the school.”
Resident John Mele pointed out that Breza Road needs extensive work.
“It could make $7 [million] or $8 million look like a piece of cake,” he said.
Smith later said that he did not have an estimate of how much it would cost to pave and repair Breza Road but that the board would get those estimates as soon as possible.
Kathy Haake, a project manager for the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national, nonprofit land conservation organization, said the TPL is trying to negotiate the purchase of the Breza Road property. She said TPL is willing to work with the Board of Education if the board wants a portion of the property for schools. Haake estimated that the board would need one-third or less of the 254-acre tract. She said the rest of the property could be preserved as open space or put into farmland preservation. In addition, she said the site has plenty of uplands and that the river corridor could be part of the local greenway project.
Rather than put the new school on Breza Road, Walter Helfrecht, an Upper Freehold resident and a member of the Crosswicks Creek/Doctors Creek Regional Greenway Planning Group, said he would push for the preservation of that tract. He said he would either prohibit commercial development in that area or have it extremely limited and narrowly defined.
Helfrecht said he could see the Breza Road tract developed to allow commerce consistent with tourism and agriculture, such as a business for horse-drawn carriage tours through Allentown or Native American or equine industry museums.
“These would be very low-impact uses for the property and the best compromise between totally open green space and a commercial zone,” he said.
“By keeping that area in conservation, additional access to the Crosswicks and Doctors creeks and the Indian Run could be developed,” he added, “again, enhancing Allentown’s business and commerce while Upper Freehold and Monmouth County would share in the maintenance of the open space.”
At the Jan. 18 Township Committee meeting, Committeeman Robert Faber offered yet another idea for the new middle school project. He said the Board of Education may want to consider building a high school with neighboring Millstone since it now has a send-receive relationship with that town. Because Millstone does not have its own high school, it sends its students to Allentown High School.
Faber said a regional high school could be more centrally located. He said the current high school, which is on the same campus as the elementary school, could become the new middle school.
Committeeman David Reed said he tended to agree with Faber on this idea.
Smith said board members want additional information in order to make a prudent decision about whether to schedule another referendum. The board will meet again on Jan. 24.