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ALLENTOWN: County pledges Sensi Park can reopen in 4 weeks

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ALLENTOWN — County officials promised more than 75 residents who jammed a public hearing last week that Pete Sensi Park will reopen in four weeks, however, completion of landscaping work and the installation of special ornamental railings at the park cannot be done until the fall.
   The announcement was made during the June 26 Borough Council meeting, which was moved to the Allentown First Aid Squad building on Waker Avenue in order to accommodate the large crowd.
   Residents expressed frustration the South Main Street bridge has been reopened to traffic for nearly a year, yet the park at the bridge’s southern end, which had been used by the contractor as a staging area during construction, remains closed. There were also complaints unrelated to the park, including the bright lighting on the bridge, an unsafe dead-end blacktop path behind a guardrail on the Old Mill side of the bridge and other sewer and cleanup issues.
   Monmouth County Freeholder Director John Curley and Deputy Director Freeholder Director Thomas Arnone emphasized the need for the borough and county to work together on the outstanding issues related to the $6.5 million project.
   ”I know you are concerned and rightfully so,” Freeholder Arnone told the group. “The only way projects are going to work is if the county and municipality cooperate together, and I think tonight we have to leave this meeting cooperating to achieve the goal of finishing the project.”
   County Engineer Joe Ettore said the reason work had stalled this spring at Pete Sensi Park was because an ad hoc borough committee reviewing the park restoration plans wanted work done the county viewed as beyond the scope of the contract.
   ”Some of the comments that were received were consistent with the plans that were given to our contractor when he bid the job, and some of the improvements were, in our opinion, enhancements and not in the original contract,” Mr. Ettore said. “The county’s position was that enhancements . . . would have to be negotiated.”
   The park-related issues were resolved June 20 with the receipt of a letter from Borough Engineer Eric Betz accepting the revised Pete Sensi Park restoration plans, Mr. Ettore said. The contractor now is moving forward with the work, and the park should reopen in four weeks, Mr. Ettore said.
   ”The park will not be complete, but it will be open, safe, available to you to park and to use the dock,” Mr. Ettore said. “It will not be complete in terms of landscaping; it should be complete in terms of brick pavers that we’re adding, stone dust trails and at least temporary fencing that is safe and secure.”
   The landscaping will be done in the fall as will the special-order dock railings because those take eight weeks to fabricate. The railings will match the ornamental railings that are on the bridge. Temporary railings will be installed in the meantime so the park can open this summer.
   The Borough Council has not yet formally voted on the park restoration plan, but Borough Attorney Don Driggers said after the meeting that council members supported it. County officials said the agreement was ironclad and posted the letter from the borough engineer accepting the plan on the county website the next day.
   Mr. Ettore said during the meeting that now that an agreement has been reached with the borough on the park, “we hope for a speedy resolution with the rest of the issues on the project unrelated to the park.”
   Kathy Fidler, of Church Street, zeroed in one of those issues — a short blacktop path that runs behind the guardrail on the Old Mill side of the bridge before abruptly stopping at a steep slope at the top of the spillway. The orange plastic netting that now is strung between the guardrail and the Old Mill will not keep pedestrians or curious children from getting hurt, she said.
   ”There’s a little bit of a walkway and then a drop-off at both (ends) of the bridge,” Ms. Fidler told Mr. Ettore. “As far as I’m concerned, this is an accident waiting to happen. What’s the county’s plan for making the other side of the street, across from the lake, on the mill side, safe?”
   Mr. Ettore said county and borough engineers were “discussing options to make that safer.”
   ”At a minimum, we’re proposing to use the same ornamental railing that is on the lake side on top of the wing walls on the downstream side,” Mr. Ettore said. “And we’re looking at whether or not there needs to be additional measures to secure the safety of that corner.”
   One option might be to create a crosswalk north of the Old Mill to safely cross pedestrians to the lake side of the bridge where there is a wide concrete sidewalk that runs the entire length of the span, Mr. Ettore said.
   Mayor Stuart Fierstein requested that, in the meantime, a “better barricade” than plastic construction netting be installed while the engineers work on coming up with a more permanent solution to the problem.
   ”We can certainly get someone out there tomorrow to take a look at it,” Mr. Ettore responded.
   Ann Garrison, of High Street, was one of several residents who told Mr. Ettore the stonework on the new bridge was beautiful, but the new street lamps were much too bright. The light is so blinding to northbound motorists coming down the hill it is downright dangerous, Ms. Garrison said.
   Mayor Fierstein agreed, saying the bridge looks like a “construction zone or airfield” at night and urged county officials to drive over the bridge when the meeting ended to see the lights for themselves. He also noted the electric bill for the bridge’s streetlights is running more than $100 a month.
   Several residents, including Henry Wikoff, of South Main Street, and Robert Dutko, of Allen Drive, wanted to know what was being done to remove stone and debris from the bottom of the millpond.
   To make the temporary bypass road next to the bridge, a compacted berm was built across the millpond. The bypass road was demolished after the new bridge opened in August 2011, but some crushed stone from the berm is still in the pond.
   ”We know that there’s stone in there; we are looking into the requirement to remove it,” Mr. Ettore said. “It is a very difficult operation, but we are going to require that of the contractor. That is not in the park restoration plan, but it is one of the miscellaneous items that we have to work out with the borough.”
   Mr. Ettore said the county would meet with the contractor and state Department of Environmental Protection officials to come up with a plan to “try to get as much stone out as we possibly can.”
   ”That being said, it’s impossible to remove every piece of stone that was put in for the bypass road,” Mr. Ettore said.
   The only way to remove all of the crushed stone is to completely drain the millpond, he pointed out.
   Mr. Wikoff, whose backyard abuts the millpond, alleged it was not just the stone from the berm that was in the millpond, but chunks of asphalt from the former roadway and the old concrete retaining wall that was bulldozed for the project.
   He claimed the water behind his home is now only 16 inches deep in areas where previous surveys documented it as being 3 feet deep. Ducks and geese can be seen standing on submerged debris when the water level in the millpond drops after several hot days without rain, Mr. Wikoff said.
   Mayor Fierstein urged the county to resolve the issue of how to remove the stone and debris quickly before the landscaping work is done in Pete Sensi Park because the park is the contractor’s only access point for the millpond work.