Township Committee approves conversion to park
By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY The sale of Skillman Village to Somerset County moved ahead on Thursday, when the Township Committee voted unanimously to begin the approval process.
The over $14 million deal is the product of years of talks between the township and the county and an approximately $22 million investment on the part of the municipality. The township will clear the 265-acre site, which used to house the North Princeton Developmental Center, of all buildings, and the county will convert it to open space.
”It’s an awfully good night,” Republican Mayor Mark Caliguire said at the meeting.
The committee voted 5-0 to approve both a resolution authorizing the execution of the sale and to introduce an ordinance to authorize the deal. The ordinance will be up for public hearing and adoption at the committee’s next meeting, Thursday, Nov. 4.
Mayor Caliguire put the two Skillman Village items at the top of Thursday’s agenda, and officials and members of the public took time before the vote to praise everyone involved in the effort.
Dave Beacon, of Hunt Lane, said he was “very much in favor” of the sale, but he criticized earlier efforts to develop part of the site that led to some of the structures on the site being left standing.
”Keeping those extra buildings was foolish,” he said. “I understand (it was) with good intentions, but the cost involved in trying to renovate those and repurpose them has far exceeded … what you could benefit from it.”
Valerie Smith, a resident involved in the effort, said she was thrilled with the outcome of the sale despite her earlier expectations of development.
”I’m just so happy,” she said. “I was one of those people who always thought there could be something there, when we first talked about it, and the more I talk to people and talk about traffic everyone’s thrilled.
”Thank you for everyone’s hard work for many, many years,” she said.
Don Matthews, a former mayor who was once in charge of the Skillman Village issue, said he was happy with the outcome.
”We realized (earlier plans were) not feasible and that this was the only solution, as far as I was concerned,” he said. Development, he said, would have had too great an impact on the community.
”It’s water over the dam now,” he said. “I’m so pleased the county’s come around.”
Mayor Caliguire and Democratic Committeewoman Louise Wilson also weighed in on the impending sale.
”I appreciate everybody’s work over the years,” said Ms. Wilson, who is running for re-election this year. “Even though we don’t have a full house, there are so many people in town who care a whole lot about what happens from here on out.”
She was the sole person who discussed but did not dismiss the possibility of reusing some of the existing structures on the site, a plan she pursued earlier, when she was mayor.
”There are people who remain keenly interested in that just as there are people who think that does not make sense,” she said.
Ms. Wilson called on Mayor Caliguire to involve township residents in the process of turning the site into a park. “Ultimately that will be your call,” she said. “I wholeheartedly agree with those who want as open a process as possible.”
Mayor Caliguire agreed, saying residents and the Township Committee would need to be able to have input in the process.
”I don’t think anybody’s up here who doesn’t do this because, ultimately, we want to make an impact and have a positive way for Montgomery,” he said.
He praised everyone who has worked with the committee over the past 15 years. “This is the result, and I think we’re going to have a first-class resource,” he said.
After the meeting Pat Graham, a Republican candidate for one of the committee’s two open seats this fall, said the sale was “many years coming” and called the evening “a really great night for Montgomery.” She also said the income from the sale will be important to address the township’s finances, and called the deal “win-win” for the county and the township.
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