HILLSDALE—A unanimous Borough Council approved a $290,000 bond ordinance, Oct. 25, for the reconstruction of three streets, after concerns about possible utility work that could wreck the repairs were mostly eased.
The work will be mostly funded from a future $201,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation. The ordinance was approved, 6-0, at a special meeting the afternoon of Oct. 25 due to a grant funding deadline that needed to be met.
The streets affected are Shady Side Lane (from Mountain View Terrace to Horizon Terrace), Alpine Terrace (from Sierra Court to end) and Sierra Court (from northerly to southerly intersections with Alpine Terrace), including curb and drainage improvements.
Councilman Frank Pizzella wondered whether council could be assured that a utility company, such as Veolia or PSE&G, would not come and dig up the streets soon after they were repaved under the road repaving contract.
Administrator David Troast said if the council did not vote on the bonding ordinance that they might likely lose the nearly $200,000 in grant funding that had been awarded. The council must pay the difference between the grant and total project cost, about $89,000 following completion.
Pizzella wanted to confirm that the utilities would not be disturbing the roads once they were repaved. Troast said the utilities told him that the roads planned for repaving would not be opened for utility work in the future except in cases of “emergency” where that was required.
“That could change tomorrow and we would have absolutely nothing to say about it,” said Troast to Pizzella, who was seeking assurances that the roads would not soon be dug up by utilities.
Pizzella questioned whether the borough could get PSE&G and Veolia’s schedules for utility work on local roads so they would know where road work was being planned. He said he saw on other towns’ websites listings of upcoming utility work and wondered why Hillsdale could not get the utilities’ schedules to prevent having recently paved roads dug up.
Council President Janetta Trochimiuk noted as part of due diligence that the consulting engineers will contact utilities to make sure they do not have the roads planned for paving on their upcoming schedule.
Meanwhile, councilwoman Abby Lundy said she went to PSE&G’s website, searched Hillsdale in its database, and said none of the streets planned for repaving were listed.
Pizzella said that made him feel a little more assured. He said he didn’t want to create “a big mess” but was concerned that streets being repaved might be dug up, which had happened before.