MILLTOWN – One borough official is expressing frustration with what he said is an unnecessary delay in expanding the parking lot of the town’s senior center.
Councilman Mike Skarzynski, who has served as liaison to senior citizens in town as well as HUD (Housing and Urban Development) representative for the past 10 years, helped secure a $46,000 grant to expand the parking area for the Violet Terrace building so that seniors would not have to park across the street when the lot fills up during special events. He said it is important because elderly people could slip and fall during icy conditions.
“I work hard to bring this money into the town, and then it gets knocked down. I don’t know why,” Skarzynski said, adding that he has brought in more than $200,000 in grants over the past decade to refurbish the senior center.
The Borough Council was split in a 3-3 vote to award the contract for the work to Monroe-based Big Daddy Construction Inc., also known as Brothers Paving and Excavating. Councilmen John Collins and Randy Farkas, along with Council President Eric Steeber, voted no.
Mayor Gloria Bradford broke the tie, also voting against the contract award.
“I almost fell off my chair when she voted no,” said Skarzynski, a Democrat, who is challenging Bradford, a Republican, in her bid for re-election this fall.
Bradford said she based her decision on Borough Engineer Michael McClelland’s comments regarding the contractor, because he did not sound fully confident in its ability to get the job done.
“It’s a highly-trained professional saying this will ‘probably’ work,” Bradford said. “I know there’s a big rush for Mike to do things before election time. Unless we push politics aside and do things right, that’s the only way projects like this will survive in the long run.”
According to McClelland, he said he did not have a problem with Big Daddy per se, but members of the council voiced concerns at the meeting about a job the company did in 2004 at Mill Pond Park involving installation of parking and drainage.
“The problems we had were not related to the paving, they were related to other parts of the project,” McClelland said. “We believe that Big Daddy could do the work. The issue with us was that it had to be done right away because of the rainy weather.”
Due to difficulties that would arise in paving on wet ground, McClelland said the job would only work out if it were authorized right away, because autumn rainfall would pose a problem.
Farkas, who works in the construction industry, was a member of the Mill Pond Park Committee at the time the work was done, and said that he saw firsthand that the drainage portion was not installed properly.
McClelland said no drainage would be involved in this project, however.
Further, he said, a more in-depth analysis of the area slated for the extension needs to be done, since the site is very wet. With such conditions, thicker asphalt is necessary, or else it will break apart, according to Farkas.
“I’m looking to spend money wisely and efficiently,” Farkas said. “Let’s do it right the first time. The seniors deserve better than having something thrown down on the ground; they deserve it to be done properly.”
Farkas said the project specifications should be redone, and it could then go out to bid again.
However, if the grant money is not spent by March, Skarzynski said, it will be forfeited by the borough. Bradford said the town could request an extension, as long as some aspect of the process is under way.
Skarzynski said he plans to call a public safety meeting with the engineer, and will continue to do whatever it takes to get the work done.
“I’m no professional, but it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to pave a parking lot,” Skarzynski said. “I could see excluding someone from a bid if it was a major undertaking, [but] for God’s sake, we’re paving a parking lot.”