TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—In what would be an about-face for the township if the plan is executed, the town is preparing to rent 35 parking spaces at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church for $2,500 per month, up to two years, to accommodate DPW vehicles.
An ordinance on the deal was introduced, 3–0, on April 5 with no comment from members present. A required public hearing will be held April 19.
On returning from a lengthy closed session over “negotiations, parking of municipal vehicles, and acquisition of properties/condemnation,” Council President Stacey Feeney introduced Ordinance 21-05, which authorizes the plan.
Agreeing were Council VP Desserie Morgan and newly returned member Tom Sears. Absent were members Michael DeSena and Steve Cascio.
The council had authorized Mayor Peter Calamari to execute a similar arrangement with the church in October 2020—then seen as a solution to where to site town equipment while the DPW land is decontaminated and its headquarters is rebuilt—but it was scuttled due to complaints about expense, maintenance obligations, and ethics questions around the mayor’s and his family’s board ties to the church.
We were not able to get a copy of the 2020 agreement, amounting to $60,000, that was cleared for the mayor to sign, as the township asserted it had an error that needed to be corrected.
After ethics questions were raised, including in a letter to the editor, Calamari pushed back, saying negotiations were with the Archdiocese of Newark.
Then, at the Dec. 21, 2020 council meeting, Calamari announced that the OLGC option, at 668 Ridgewood Road, would not be needed.
The township’s DPW’s environmental contamination problems have been known for years, and the township faces fines from the state DEP should it not be in compliance by May.
The town has explored several local temporary options, including Sherry Field, behind the Dog House Saloon, and at a nearby bank parking lot—and outside the town—but public resistance over noise, safety, and tree felling, and other considerations, had eliminated those options.
An assortment of heavy-duty vehicles such as multi-ton garbage trucks, dump trucks, and front end loaders need alternate parking spaces while the state-mandated soil remediation at the DPW building, which also requires its demolition, takes place.
On March 29 we reported Calamari had concluded, “The decision was ultimately made to construct a two-bay garage at the Town Hall site where the existing DPW building is located. This decision was not easy and was based on the fact that the DPW already operates from this location and the deadline for remediating the soil is fast approaching.”
Calamari said “This remediation is a result of contamination by a fuel storage tank leak that occurred onsite in the 1970s and 1980s. A portion of this contamination is underneath the existing building, so the building must be taken down as part of the project.”
Ordinance 21-05, which can be found under “Ord. Hearing Schedule” under the town’s Government drop-down menu, does not list a date for when DPW would begin parking vehicles at the church.
The brief ordinance introduction occurs at 2:19:38 mark of the recorded April 5 council meeting.
— With John Snyder