Claiming that the town cannot bear any more delays, the Town Council voted at their meeting this past Tuesday to rescind its contract with Emara Contracting Co. for the building of the new library on Patterson Plank Road.
In a resolution, the council claimed the company had failed to complete its obligations and turned the matter over to the bonding company, Lumberman’s Mutual and Universal Bonding of Lyndhurst.
The bonding company, according to Town Attorney Frank Leanza, will take over as the project contractor and is responsible for hiring subcontractors that will finish a project that is now nearly nine months behind schedule.
Mayor Dennis Elwell said the bonding company will pick up the contract for the original $2.939 million, the amount bid last year by Emara.
"It is clear the contractor was not able to complete his obligation in terms of both time and workmanship," said town Administrator Anthony Iacono. "The town has found Emara in default of its contract."
The town awarded the construction contract to Emara last November, after investigating complaints of delays in a project they conducted in South Jersey.
At the time the contract was issued, Emara was the lowest responsible bidder, and according to the resolution passed on Sept. 18, met all the qualifications on the contract. Under state law, the town was required to award the contract to Emara.
Emara reported problems getting steel for the library as early as May and told the town there might be a delay, although the firm hoped to keep to the original timetable. The project was supposed to be finished by the end of this November.
Elwell said since then, however, work on the library was clearly behind schedule, despite weekly meetings with the builder.
"Clearly, the most responsible action is to have a new contractor come in," Elwell said, noting that the bonding company intended to keep the same subcontractor for the purchase of steel and the installation of elevators, but would immediately seek a new subcontractor to help realign foundation pins that Emara allegedly mis-installed.
Elwell said the town will seek to enforce a penalty clause in the contract, which requires a payment of $500 a day for each day past Nov. 15 that the library construction is not complete. But he noted promises from the bonding company that a contractor would get the project finished by spring.
"We are doing everything possible to see the completion of this important project and to protect the interest of our taxpayers," Elwell said.
Louis Street property sold
Also at their Sept. 18 meeting, the Town Council addressed a two-year old problem as to what to do with a narrow piece of property on Louis Street.
In 1999, neighbors near the property at 167 Louis St. objected to the town’s proposal to build a house there, claiming the 25-foot wide space was just too narrow.
The town, which took possession of the property in 1998 because of the owner’s failure to pay taxes, had knocked down a house on the property because of its dilapidated condition.
Louis Street, located four blocks south of the Washington Hook and Ladder firehouse on County Avenue, is an old farming area with several other houses built on large plots of land.
The property at 167 Louis St. is small by town standards, 25 feet wide and 100 feet deep, with houses close to the property line on either side. Lot sizes in Secaucus are generally 50 by 100 feet, and under zoning regulations, a house would have to have six feet separating it from other houses. To meet this, a townhouse built there would have to be 15 feet wide.
In order to recoup some of its lost taxes and generate future revenue from the land, the town has proposed building a house 18 feet wide and 30 feet high. The town had argued that because no additional adjacent property was available for purchase to meet the zoning requirements, it should be granted a variance to build a one-family home on the site. This would increase the value and allow the town to sell the property, putting it back on the tax rolls.
But the town’s plan to build that house was not to be. The Board of Adjustment had agreed with the neighbors and denied the necessary variance for the town to build.
At its Sept. 18 special meeting, the town agreed to sell the land for $40,000 to a local contractor, Joseph Fontana, who has purchased a large property next door to the narrow land. By taking some land from one property, Fontana would create two 50-by-100 foot lots, and would construct a duplex on the empty lot. He will have to seek approval for a subdivision from the Board of Adjustment.