The following article was published in the Westfield Leader/Scotch Plains Fanwood Times, Oct. 6,2005
In the fall of 2004, just prior to the last general election, the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders announced the purchase of 17 acres of land on Snyder Avenue in Berkeley Heights.
Newly sworn-in Freeholder Bette Jean Kowalski explained the property had been the site of the Shaw Plastics company, as well as Barry Oil Service and Duffy Fuels and that the county had paid $8 million of the $13 million purchase price and had entered into a deal with the municipality of Berkley Heights who had anted up the other $5 million.
The freeholders had tapped into the Open Space Historic Preservation and Recreation Trust Fund as the property would be used for baseball fields with Berkeley Heights building a Senior Citizen Center on a portion of the land.
This particular piece of property had been tied up for years in litigation as the developer/owner had intended to construct 259 residential units, some of it would have been low-income Mount Laurel housing, which the township wasn’t exactly thrilled about. There has been no disagreement that the soil is badly contaminated and no matter what the land is used for it must be reclaimed first, surely before the kids take to the fields or the seniors roll in.
Freeholder Kowalski is quoted in the Westfield Leader at that time as saying that the existing owner would be cleaning up the property. This, by the way, was a part of the deal. Obviously the owner is willing to foot the bill for remediation just to get rid of the land as it isn’t fit for his original plan anyway. The clean up is expected to cost about $1 million.
Well, guess what? The freeholder board just voted yes on resolution #977-2005, which calls for the County Manager to enter into an agreement with PMK Group of Cranford for the purpose of oversight services pertaining to the remediation of the Snyder Avenue property in Berkeley Heights in an amount not to exceed $202.222.25 from the Open Space Trust Fund.
The contract was awarded without competitive bidding and the PMK Group has contributed $75,500 to the UC Democratic Committee between ’00 and ‘04 as well a cool grand or more to the campaigns of Assemblymen Joe Cryan, Neil Cohen and Jerry Green in ’05, and a token $300 to Linda Stender (she should complain).
There are two things wrong with this picture. If the deal called for the seller to fund the remediation, why are the taxpayers picking up such a large tab? And second: a full-time engineer could be hired in the neighborhood of $80,000 to $95,000 a year and a trailer on site to house this person for another $10,000, so what on earth is the other $100,000 for?
Why not have the property owner agree to hire the firm of the county’s choice to do the job right in the first place instead of the taxpayers providing the funding for a “watchdog”. It looks as though PMK will recoup most of their political contributions here in Union County.
Nothing can be done about this situation now. Let’s just hope that the job is done right and, as the County Manager explained to me, that we do indeed avoid another Miesel Field mess which dragged on for years.
For those who say that the numbers are fabricated or who are unfamiliar with working with databases and navigating some websites, below is a sample of the political contributions, reported by the Union County Democratic Committee, which this vendor made to the UCDC in a four-year period, from 2000 to 2004. Downloaded directly off the New Jersey Elect website into Excel
PMK GROUP CRANFORD $5000 13-Oct-04 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP CRANFORD 5000 15-Sep-04 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP CRANFORD 5000 15-Sep-04 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP CRANFORD 1500 15-Jun-04 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC CRANFORD 5000 8-Mar-04 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC CRANFORD 5000 26-Oct-03 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC CRANFORD 5000 23-Oct-03 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP CRANFORD 2500 30-Sep-03 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC CRANFORD 5000 17-Mar-03 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP CRANFORD 2500 18-Oct-02 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC KENILWORTH 1000 30-Sep-02 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP KENILWORTH 2500 17-Sep-02 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP KENILWORTH 5000 5-Aug-02 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC KENILWORTH 5000 2-Mar-02 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC KENILWORTH 5000 28-Oct-01 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC KENILWORTH 3000 ######## UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC KENILWORTH 5000 30-Mar-01 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP INC KENILWORTH 1000 14-Mar-01 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP KENILWORTH 3000 13-Oct-00 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP KENILWORTH 2500 5-Jun-00 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
PMK GROUP KENILWORTH 1000 28-Feb-00 UNION COUNTY DEMOCRATIC CMTE
total 2000-2005 75500 Total 75,500
