More democrat inaction and incompetance in NJ
Posted on 06/23/2008 12:06:25 PM PDT by Coleus
A historic tower built by a Paterson silk baron has stood neglected and decrepit for nearly 40 years. Passaic County officials received a $1 million federal grant to renovate it, but lost it because they didn't start the project on time. Now they want to tap into taxpayer money to finally restore the landmark. "It's ridiculous. That money is never going to come back," said Thomas Vatrano, 79, of Wayne, who began his workday for 30 years as a Passaic County Park Police officer by raising the American flag at the tower.
When Vatrano returned to the tower for the first time since the early 1980s on Friday, he lamented the tower's poor condition and the county's loss of the federal funds. In 2002, the National Park Service awarded $1 million to Passaic County through its Land and Water Conservation Fund, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection, which administered the grant. The stipulation was that the project had to start within five years.
On Oct. 2, 2007, a DEP official notified the county that the funding was canceled. "Based on our conversations, it is our understanding that no construction has been initiated to date," wrote Assistant Commissioner Amy Cradic to Kathleen Caren, Passaic County open space coordinator. "Unfortunately, the National Park Service's deadline for funding disbursement is very firm, and we were not able to obtain an extension."
County officials offered no explanation this week. Caren and County Administrator Anthony De Nova declined to comment. Keith Furlong, county spokesman, said officials were reviewing what had happened and were optimistic that some of the funding could be restored. The 75-foot tower built in 1896 by silk manufacturing tycoon Catholina Lambert stands hauntingly in the woods of the Garret Mountain Reservation amid rocky terrain and walkways, mysteriously harking back to a lost time.
Lambert and his guests would ascend the tower after dinner parties to take in views of Paterson, said county historian Ed Smyk. Manhattan's skyline, obscured by the overgrowth at the base of the tower today, did not exist when the tower was built. The Flatiron Building, often considered to be New York City's first skyscraper, was not completed until 1902. Passaic County bought the tower in the 1920s, after Lambert's death. Over the years it has been pressed into service as a lookout point in anticipation of German bombers in World War II and as a radio transmitter for the now-disbanded county park police.
In 1969, county officials closed the tower to the public because of its dilapidated condition. At their June 9 meeting, the freeholders floated the idea of using $2 million from the Open Space Trust Fund for the tower's restoration. In 1999, county freeholders authorized Passaic County's open space tax after voters approved the creation of a fund for park improvements and land preservation in a public referendum.
County residents are taxed at a rate of 2 cents per $100 of assessed property value for the trust fund. Caren estimated in February there was between $4.5 million and $5 million in the fund. County Planning Director Michael La Place, Caren's supervisor, said on Wednesday that County Engineer Steven Edmond was responsible for monitoring the completion of the project's design work.
In 2003, the freeholders awarded a $104,240 contract to ETM Associates LLC of Highland Park to design the tower's renovation. The completed plans were submitted to the county engineering department in August 2007. Neither Edmond nor E. Timothy Marshall, the firm's principal, returned phone calls this week to explain why the plans were delayed.
Martha Sapp, the state Department of Environmental Protection's chief of local and nonprofit assistance, said National Parks Service officials had asked for an update of the project's progress last August. "Normally what happens is they [county officials] submit the plans for our bid review, and they go to bid," Sapp said. "That never happened." In June 2005, the state awarded $250,000 in Green Acres funding to the county for the tower's restoration. It was contingent on construction plans being submitted in a timely manner.
Sapp said the county still had the state grant."We're still partners with them on this project," she said. "They know they have to move quickly."
I will: Incompetence.
I used to go to day camp up there on Garrett mountain as a kid. As I recall, it was allot of fun!
Yup, it’s just Standard Operating Procedure in NJ’s governments.
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