By Frank Mustac, Contributor
Funds from the Transportation Trust Fund could soon be used to finance road construction projects along Park Avenue and King George Road in Pennington, if the state Department of Transportation (NJDOT) extends a deadline for previously approved state grants.
The issue will be the focus of a special afternoon Borough Council meeting on at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14, where officials will award contracts for the projects.
“We have requested an extension and NJDOT just was not responding,” Borough Administrator Eileen Heinzel said at the Pennington Borough Council meeting on Monday. “They were responding that they couldn’t yet say, so it looks like we’d better award (the contract) just to be on the safe side. So that’s why we’re having a special meeting.”
The previously approved state grants in question are worth $283,500 for King George Road and $289,432 for Park Road, according to Ms. Heinzel.
Officials said that the NJDOT had previously told Pennington that failure to award a construction contract by Dec. 18 would jeopardize the use of state funds for the projects. In the past, the state had granted deadline extensions to the borough after a grant agreement for the projects was forged in mid-2014.
The borough requested its most-recent extension to June 15, 2017, in large part because of delays that resulted from Gov. Chris Christie’s executive order to suspend the Transportation Trust Fund from early July until Nov. 1, when a 23-cent gas tax hike took effect to prop up the depleted fund.
Since then, Ms. Heinzel said contractors have lined up for their chance at earning the borough’s proposed roadwork.
“There has been a lot of interest,” she said. “There have been 12 contractors that have come in to pick up the bid specifications, so we should get some good bids.”
In other news, the borough council approved the purchase of a new police vehicle.
According to officials, the council authorized “a sum not to exceed $35,802 plus an underwriting fee of $545 plus the cost of financing” to buy a 2017 Ford Police Interceptor Utility, an SUV-style vehicle.
Voting in favor of the purchase were council members Beverly Mills, Joseph Lawver, Charles Marciante, Deborah Gnatt and Catherine Chandler. Councilman Glen Griffiths was not present at the Dec. 5 meeting.
The 2017 Ford SUV should be in the police department’s possession by Dec. 15, Councilman Marciante said. The new police vehicle will replace a 2009 vehicle with more than 200,000 miles registered on its odometer.
“It should have been replaced this year, but because of the (municipal) budget, we figured we’d wait a year. So that backfired,” Mr. Marciante said.
Since then, he said the police department has had one vehicle “collapse,” while another blew an engine. Ford, however, should cover that repair, officials said.
“We have to keep on our (vehicle-replacement) schedule,” Mr. Marciante said. “We can’t say we’re tight this year and can’t do it. We have to stay on our schedule.”
