Reaction to an artist’s sketch of the town’s new proposed recreation center was mixed at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. Those critical of the current administration tended also to be critical of the drawings.
“This is too much,” said a clearly distraught Frank MacCormack when he viewed the drawing done by Architect John Capazzi, the same architect who designed the town’s new library and business resource center. He also designed the band shell and improvements to Buchmuller Park, as well as improvements to the Sept. 11 Memorial and other projects.
“This $5 million project should go before the voters on a referendum,” he told the council, although officials said the project is not yet fully developed and that funding for it has yet to be determined.
While Councilman Bob Kickey admired the project, he was critical of leaks to the press that announced possible funding for the project before he and other councilmen had learned the details.
“We don’t have to come to meetings any more,” he said snidely. “We just have to pick up The Secaucus Reporter on Fridays.”
Tentative details of the financing for the project appeared in the March 16 edition of The Reporter after an interview with Bill Snyder, director of the Secaucus Housing Authority, revealed discussions of the sale of the Centre Avenue Senior Citizen Nutrition Center to the town.
Town officials are seeking to put together a finance package that would take the $1 million sale price and combine it with $1.9 million for the sale of land to New Jersey Transit and possible bonding of additional money by the town.
The conceptual drawing unveiled at the meeting depicted a 28,000-square-foot building to be constructed on Board of Education-owned land near the high school gymnasium – which would include an additional gym, a fitness center, a multi-purpose room and 1/20th of a mile indoor track. Town Administrator Anthony Iacono said the footage of the facility is not finalized. While the drawing shows 28,000 square feet, “we’re looking at 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000 square feet,” Iacono said. “This is not the final plan.”
The plan, as presented, would have a gym that is four times the size of the existing high school gym and would provide a 10,000 square foot storage room as well. The facility, Iacono said, would be open to the school for use as additional gym space and to the community for a variety of activities, from sports recreation to dances.
Iacono called this the first phase of the project. He said the artistic rendition was necessary to move ahead with the next phase that would seek requests for proposals, a leased purchase for construction, and a possible lease agreement for the building.
“We needed to have a drawing so that we could have a general idea of the size,” Iacono said. “If this is phase I, then the next phase would be an outline that includes size, what kind of materials, and layout of rooms.”
Looking for a unique package
Last year, town officials began to explore options that would seek a developer to “design, construct and then lease” the facility to the town.
If an agreement can be forged, the town would lease the facility for 30 years and then purchase the building at the end for $1.
Mayor Dennis Elwell said the recreation center would meet state standards for school construction, and that the town has already had discussions with the officials from the Department of Community Affairs about the project.
If the town receives proposals from reputable companies, all the associated fees for land studies, design, and construction would be borne by the company, not the town.
“They would bring in all the experts. They would take our input and the input from the Board of Education, and then they would build what we want,” Iacono said. “We would not have to go out to bid.”
Estimates for construction, however, were much higher than first believed. The town originally thought it could construct a new recreation center for about $2 million – which the land sale would mostly pay for. But Iacono said the cost will likely exceed $4 million, possibly go as high as $5 million, making the lease option more attractive.
The town had originally thought to construct the recreation center itself through combined funds generated from the sale of school-owned land near Meadowlands Parkway as well as revenue it is currently receiving from a billboard near Kane Stadium.
The town attorney – after reviewing the billboard issue as a result of a series of articles printed in the Philadelphia Inquirer – has determined that the billboard revenue, dedicated to a non-profit organization, cannot be used to pay for this project.
This forced to look at other options. So, the town has sought to put together a package of financing that included selling the Nutrition Center and bonding for $1 million.
If the lease purchase arrangement falls through, the town may have to use this package to finance a more traditional bid process for the recreation center’s construction.
MacCormack said the project is too costly to allow the council to move ahead without a referendum similar to one that the school board recently passed to upgrade its middle school/high school complex.
We can work it out
Unfortunately, the town and the council have been in dispute over sale of Board of Education land to New Jersey Transit. After meeting with a committee of the council and the board – called the interlocal committee – the town passed a resolution authorizing the sale of 16 acres for $1.9 million. The Board of Education was expected to pass a similar resolution at its March 27 meeting. Both the council and the board would then seek to work out the agreement that would use the money for the recreation center.
“We would put the money into an escrow account and then talk to the Board of Education about it,” Elwell said, claiming he believed the board would allow the money to be used for a recreation center.
The right to sell as well as the actual value has been a source of dispute between the two public bodies for over a year. Board of Education Member Tom Troyer has opposed the town’s having control over the money. The town of Secaucus claims the council has the right to negotiate the sale of land to New Jersey Transit since the Board of Education deeded it over in the 1980s for use as sports fields.
“I believe we could still sell the land without board approval,” said Town Attorney Frank Leanza. “But we would spend money in legal costs, and this is a way to avoid it.”