By Maria Prato-Gaines, Staff Writer
MONROE — The township is two signatures away from taking possession of a 35-acre portion of Thompson Park on which the school board plans to build its new high school.
Assistant Township Attorney Peg Schaffer said the township received a letter from the state Department of Environmental Protection that, once it is signed by Middlesex County and returned to the state, will remove Green Acres restrictions from the property.
Ms. Schaffer said the township sent the letter by overnight courier to the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders. The freeholders will have to sign the letter and send it back to the DEP so that the department can also sign it and execute the agreement, Ms. Schaffer said.
Once the restrictions are lifted, the county will transfer ownership of the parkland to the township. In exchange, the township will transfer ownership of 175 undeveloped acres and pay $1.127 million to the county.
The former park site would then be turned over to the Monroe school board, which plans to build 365,000-square-foot high school on the site. The new high school, approved in an $82.9 million referendum in 2003, is expected to open in 2011. Construction costs are expected to exceed original estimates and a $41.9 million referendum is scheduled for Dec. 11 to cover the difference.
The DEP is removing restrictions on 29.6 acres, which will not include a 4.46-acre archeological dig site, which will be treated as a separate parcel, Ms. Schaffer said. The dig is being required by the DEP because 18th century artifacts were discovered.
Some historical preservationists believe the artifacts were from the Bethel Mission, also known as the Bethel Indian Town, an 18th century community of Lenni-Lenape Indians converted to Christianity by Presbyterian minister David Brainerd. They say the mission was located in Thompson Park at the site of the proposed school.
An archeological study commissioned by the township says that the mission was located about a mile away.
School board attorney Bertram Busch said Wednesday night that the board’s decision last month to move the high school farther away from the archaeological dig site probably helped to speed up the process.
If all goes according to plan, the Board of Education could take control of the property sooner than most people expected.
”I expect by early next week everything will be in place,” he said. “We’re at the end of the road.”
