Preliminary results should be in by the end of the month
By: Bill Greenwood
MONROE – The Township Council has reapproved contracts for additional archaeological research at the proposed Thompson Park site of a new high school.
The contracts were first awarded at an emergency meeting held July 16, but were approved again on Monday in order to forestall potential litigation from a township resident, according to Township Attorney Joel Shain.
The council awarded an $82,976 contract Monday to Richard Grubb and Associates, of Cranbury, to conduct the new research on a 35-acre parcel in Thompson Park where the Board of Education wants to build a new high school. The new work was ordered July 5 by the state Department of Environmental Protection to determine whether the historic Bethel Mission was located on the parcel.
Grubb and Associates began the new survey July 17, and the ground work was expected to be complete this week, though it was still unfinished as of The Cranbury Press’ Thursday afternoon deadline. Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton said he hopes to have preliminary results by the end of the month.
The mission was an 18th-century community of Leni Lenape converted to Christianity by Presbyterian minister David Brainerd.
The council also reapproved a $13,571 increase to $57,205 in its contract with the company for its original study. That first study concluded in June that the mission was not located on the site of the proposed 365,000-square-foot high school.
In total, the township is paying Grubb and Associates $140,181.
Mr. Shain said Monday that the contracts were reapproved in order to forestall potential litigation threatened July 30 by Perrineville Road resident Nancy Prohaska. He said it was not necessary to reapprove the contracts, but it was deemed prudent to do so in order to ensure that the archaeological survey would not be delayed.
The DEP is expected to grant approval for a land exchange between Monroe and Middlesex County if it is determined that the mission was not located on the school site, which is protected by state Green Acres restrictions. The proposed swap, in which Monroe would trade 175 acres of undeveloped land for the Thompson Park parcel, won conditional approval by the State House Commission in January 2006.
Ms. Prohaska had said that she would file a civil complaint seeking to rescind the actions taken at the July 17 emergency meeting if the council did not, by Monday, rescind the actions or explain why they required the council to hold an emergency meeting to deal with them.
Ms. Prohaska said the July 17 meeting was illegal because it was not properly advertised according to the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, which states that notice must be provided 48 hours before a meeting except in an emergency. Ms. Prohaska said she did not think actions taken at the meeting were emergencies and that the council could have given 48 hours notice for the meeting.
Ms. Prohaska is a member of Park Savers, a local group seeking to stop construction of the school in the park. She also lives across the street from both the site and the current Monroe Township High School.
Township Administrator Wayne Hamilton said July 31 that the July 17 meeting was necessary because waiting any longer to award the contract would have delayed Grubb and Associates’ survey and the possible approval of the land swap, which would need to occur by early October in order for the Board of Education to hold an additional referendum for increases in the school’s cost.
The state Open Public Meetings Act allows emergency meetings to be called to deal with matters of such importance that a delay would cause substantial harm to the public interest. Three-quarters of the members present must vote to hold the meeting, and the discussion must be limited to the emergency matters.

