Update June 25, 2021: Mayor Peter Calamari and fellow advocates for this purchase have succeeded; Councilman Michael DeSena changed his June 21 no vote at the June 24 council meeting to yes, paving the way for the acquisition.
TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Two council members opposed to the purchase of the 6.39-acre private Washington Township Swim and Recreation Club appear to have nixed a purchase by declining to back a potential $1 million bond.
At the June 21 Township Council meeting, members Michael DeSena and Steven Cascio voted against a resolution to begin negotiation and later told town attorney Kenneth Poller that they would not be changing their votes to approve the bond.
A bond issue must be approved by a 4-1 majority, said Poller.
Undaunted, Mayor Peter Calamari made a last-minute appeal in advance of the June 24 budget hearing, at which the pool issue will come up again.
On Facebook, he invoked President John F. Kennedy’s 1962 call for landing Americans on the moon by the end of that decade and tackling other national priorities “not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone.”
The $1 million cost includes $600,000 for the mortgage and $400,000 for a commitment on improvements needed to enable the closed swim club to be updated and functional once again, said Calamari. (For background, see Swim Club Seeks a Way Forward: Dragging Unpaid Taxes, Stalled Reimbursements, Sept. 30, 2019.)
The mayor, championing the purchase, said that 6.39 acres at this price likely would not come again for the township and hoped to put a bid in on the property, on Ridgewood Boulevard North, by June 25.
In contrast to NASA’s work on the Apollo program, Calamari admitted there was no feasibility study on the town running the failed club, and did not know what the real costs would be to bring it up to code or to compete with other area clubs.
He said at this stage of negotiations he was “not into wasting the taxpayers’ money” on a feasibility study.
The governing body meets June 24 at the Municipal Complex Council Chambers, 350 Hudson Ave., at 7:30 p.m.
This spring Calamari was authorized to negotiate for the club at $850,000. On June 18, he took to his mayor/campaign Facebook page to to advocate for the $1 million in new debt, which he said would cost an average taxpayer about $18 annually over 20 years.
He said of the nonprofit board, which represents bonded members owed thousands in refunds, “They decided to offer it below open market value to the town with the understanding that we will try to run it as a swim club for a couple of years. If, after that period, we see that the property cannot support that use, we will be free to use it for other recreational purposes.”
Calamari said it was a small price to pay to avoid alternatives such as high-density housing, multifamily affordable developments, and even single-family homes that could add children to local schools, an eventuality he suggested would be prohibitive.
Following our June 21 meeting advance story, the club’s board of trustees told us, “The swim club’s property is listed with a local commercial realtor and in the coming weeks after meeting several times with current membership, we will be zeroing in on the choice of buyers whose letters of intent have been submitted to the Realtor.”
The board added, “The township is also an option. That possible acquisition would mimic many Bergen County swimming pools—property owned by town.”
It said, “Alternatively and obviously if the township for whatever reason does not decide to purchase the property, the remaining buyers will be considered and pursued accordingly.”
The board did not accept our invitation to comment for this story by press time.
Calamari asserted schools, taxpayers would be burdened. Any future development would likely lead to increased property taxes due to school tax increases, the mayor had argued on Facebook in the days before the vote.
He said purchasing and keeping the land as open space, and running it as a swim club to offer recreational opportunities to residents, “is a good investment in our future.”
He addressed calls for a feasibility study, made by DeSena, Cascio and seven of nine callers who opposed the purchase, noting that the township would be kicking in $400,000 to upgrade the facility and try to keep it operating as a swim club and preserve open space there.
He said the owners wanted to save the club too.
Should it not work out to be viable as a swim club under the town’s stewardship, Calamari said if he’s still mayor “I would be the first to pull the plug on it and say we tried it, we kept our word but it’s not going to work out.”
He said the owners were selling the property to the township because they want to see it remain as a swim club and open space. He noted the sale price was “for way under market and way under other offers they have received.”
He seemed uninterested in whether bonded former members due refunds would be made whole. He noted that the terms of his proposed deal called for the club to pay off its mortgage and that the town would commit to $400,000 in some shoring up.
DeSena, who is challenging Calamari for mayor this year, later told Pascack Press that he’s been asking for more details about the prospective purchase for weeks or more, including an analysis of needs and expenses, and has not received anything.
Moreover, he said negotiations with the club owners have been ongoing for two-plus years with few details from the mayor.
He said the proposed $400,000 set aside for swim club upgrades in the $1 million offer “was a drop in the bucket for what it needs.”
He said a recent visit he made there showed the property needs new roofs, concrete repairs, facility renovations, and likely a new air-conditioning system.
He said no inspection reports had been done and no reports on possible future swim club operating expenses were available prior to the vote on continuing negotiations and bonding for a new offer of $1 million.
With Cascio and DeSena absent, the council voted, 3-0, in early April to authorize Calamari to begin negotiations with swim club owners and set a maximum price of $850,000 for the club.
DeSena later asked Calamari where the $850,000 figure came from and was told simply that it had been negotiated.
While DeSena and Cascio opposed to spending $1 million to purchase the club, and critics pointing out the town’s standing encumbrances, Council President Stacey Feeney, Vice President Desserie Morgan and member Tom Sears were in favor of purchasing the property for use as a swim club as well as maintaining open space there and preventing development.
Morgan said she was “not willing to roll the dice on development” there, noting she did not want local schools “overwhelmed” with students from a possible high-density development.
The property is zoned AA, for single-family homes on half-acre lots. No other development has been proposed for the site.
Feeney said purchasing the swim club was “100 percent in the best interest of the town” and called the swim club “6 acres for an amazing price, [we’re] never going to get this opportunity in this town again.”
Sears and Feeney said residents were telling them they want to keep the township’s small-town feel and they don’t want to see what’s happening [with redevelopment] in Park Ridge. The borough approved a four-story mixed-use high-density residential-retail apartment complex on Kinderkamack Road.
Morgan said, “the way to control it is to acquire it” and noted “if we acquire the property [now] we know there’s not going to be overdevelopment.”
Calamari said, “We pass this up tonight, it’s gone. We’re at the time where we have to decide… It’s a steal for us and future generations” even if it costs another $200,000 to upgrade the property to be a viable swim club.