TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Three days after the Township closed on its $750,000 purchase of a 6.1-acre former Washington Township Swim and Recreation Club, the council sought public input, May 2, on a county open space land acquisition grant for $675,000, hoping to recoup most of its cost — which otherwise stays with local taxpayers.
Mayor Peter Calamari requested that residents email or call his office with suggestions on what to do with the property.
The township recently approved bonding for $800,000 so that it could purchase the property, after a summer camp’s winning bid fell apart and the seller circled back to Mayor Peter Calamari.
Appearing via Zoom, Township grants consultant David Biunno of GLD Associates said the hearing and grant application was a “unique application” because the township already purchased the property and was looking for reimbursement.
At the May 2 council meeting, Calamari said the township had closed on the purchase and acquired it on Friday, April 29. He said he was looking forward to “commissioning a study” on how the property will benefit residents.
Calamari posted a video to Facebook on April 29 informing his 783 followers that the township had acquired the property.
“We’ll now do a study to see how this piece of property fits in with all of our other parks and fields to come up with a great field inventory for the town to hold all of its sporting and other events,” he said in part.
He did not indicate who would conduct the study or when it would be completed. He did not address the outstanding bond refunds long due past members.
On May 4, Calamari posted to thank Valley Bank for having stored seasonal DPW equipment. “To avoid overstaying our welcome at Valley Bank, over the next few days the seasonal DPW equipment that has been stored at their location will be moved to the former swim club property.”
He said, “There will not be any operational DPW work done from the property. My full intention continues to be maintaining open space and converting the property into a recreational facility for our community to enjoy. I welcome resident feedback on what they would like to see on the property as we work towards its design.”
It is not clear what such town storage will mean for the success of the county open space land acquisition grant application. Biunno said the grant would help preserve the property from development, add to recreational space inventory, and be used for “active recreational purposes” such as baseball fields, multi-purpose fields for soccer and lacrosse, and other recreation.
He said next year the township should apply for development funds to help fund demolition, plus design and building of recreational fields. He said the county was unlikely to award acquisition and development funds simultaneously.
Township Administrator Robert Tovo said additional feasibility studies were needed before development grants could be applied for.
Tovo said uses might include “active and passive” recreation. He noted that structures can be added, including bathrooms, or other related buildings. The town is under no obligation to run the site as a pool
The county land acquisition grant application was submitted to reimburse 90% of the property’s cost. He said the county usually will reimburse 50% to 90% of total land acquisition costs. Generally, Open Space grants are announced late in the fall; last year’s grants were announced in mid-December.
Former owners want refunds
When a swim club bond holder, Jacqualine Marraffini of Ridgewood Boulevard North, questioned what will happen with bond holders looking for reimbursements, Poller told her, “That has nothing to do with the town. That’s something that needs to be taken up between the bond holders and the corporation itself.”
He said, “The town does not have any involvement with that.”
It was unclear how many bond holders, who purchased bonds to help support the swim club and become members over the years, were due refunds on their bonds or how those bonds might be repaid by the former swim club’s board of trustees.
Later, during meeting public comment, Rick Boggess, a 38-year bond holder, asked three questions about the fate of bond holders awaiting repayments.
Boggess said he emailed the mayor about the situation and the mayor said he had sent his responses to Poller for double-checking before replying and was going to get back to him.
Boggess asked if bond holders had been notified of township acquisition efforts, what happens to the bonds of existing bond holders, and what the township believes was the property’s assessed value before its acquisition, as developers had been interested in the property.
He said he purchased a bond, which was worth $775 in 2007, and sent a letter in for its redemption but was told it would take two to three years before that would likely occur.
Poller told him the swim club is a registered not-for-profit corporation in New Jersey. He said it was a 501(c)7 organization, “which means that it can make distribution to its bond holders. However, it is done through the corporation itself and its board of trustees, not by a purchaser of the property, not by the township.”
He said bondholders “have to go to the organization itself to be reimbursed… The town has no power to make distributions to bond holders, that’s not their ability to do it or obligation to do it. It couldn’t do it even if it wanted to do it.”
He asserted he did not know the assessed value of the property, “but as far as the value of the property it was certainly worth well in excess of what the town paid for it, extremely well in excess of what the town paid for it in terms of fair market value.”
That prompted concern from some bondholders, who question whether the trustees violated their fiduciary responsibility to the bondholders in leaving ample money on the table.
Loretta DeTitta, president of the board of trustees of the club, told Pascack Press on May 4, “We must reconcile any and all outstanding bills and fees, followed by the distribution of outstanding bonds. We will do this with the guidance of our legal counsel and accountant taking great care getting it all correct and completed in a timely fashion. We’ll be reaching out in the coming weeks.”
She added, “It’s honestly still an ongoing process despite closing on the sale.”