With the runoff election for mayor looming, retired Municipal Judge Patrick Conaghan said his idea for establishing a container port for a section of the former Military Ocean Terminal should get a public hearing.
After finishing second in a contest of four candidates on May 9, Conaghan is running against incumbent Mayor Joseph Doria in the June 13 runoff election.
Conaghan has run a campaign on leasing the MOTBY to container port companies, thus retaining city ownership of the land while receiving a yearly fee that would bolster the city budget.
Doria opposes the container port citing security dangers and traffic concerns; he promotes a plan that would sell off the former base for mixed-use development.
Conaghan claims security risks are exaggerated, noting that most cargo containers coming into the United States are actually checked.
The Department of Homeland Security currently opens for inspection 6 percent of the 11 million cargo containers that enter U.S. seaports annually. But all cargo manifests are examined, as is “high-risk cargo,” which is identified through an automated targeting system.
“The port facility would be a mile and a half away from residential Bayonne,” Conaghan argued. “So that noise and other issues are not a concern.”
In what appears to be a modification of his original position, Conaghan said he believes the port facilities as proposed in the current redevelopment plan would be adequate.
“A container port is in the plans for the base,” Conaghan said. “I ran for office because of the city’s failure to utilize the 150-acre portion that was set aside for a container port. That isn’t my proposal. That’s what’s in the redevelopment plan. We could have done this in 2004 and received $13 million a year since then.”
During an interview Monday, Conaghan pointed to the recent report from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that suggested Bayonne Bridge would have to be replaced or rebuilt in order to accommodate the larger cargo ships passing from New York Harbor to ports in Newark and Elizabeth.
“While Mayor Doria said he’s changed his mind about the container port, he supported it up until 2004,” Conaghan said. “And the container port was approved by the redevelopment authority and the city council.”
Many of the issues concerning traffic and noise were addressed in the plan, Conaghan pointed out, including the reconstruction of a railroad spur into both the proposed container port at the MOBTY and the existing and expanding operations at Global.
“The plan also calls for the construction of a Turnpike ramp that would keep truck traffic off local streets and even off Route 440,” Conaghan said, pointing to the redevelopment plan that calls for 166.5 acres for a regional port facility.
Conaghan said Doria’s recent decision to do away with the container port element comes without a public hearing, and seems to run counter to a $3.2 million transportation study for the region that said the maritime portion of the former base would provide jobs to local residents as well as provide a facility for larger ships to dock and unload.
“The transportation people knew that bigger ships were not going to be able to go through the Kill van Kull,” Conaghan said.
While Doria’s campaign advertisements have depicted a container port as a dirty operation with piles of trash, Conaghan said the modern facility proposed would be clean and efficient, with little or no negative impact on Bayonne residential areas.
“But I’m willing to leave the choice up to the people,” he said. “If I am elected mayor I would hold public hearings, bring all the experts in to explain what is being proposed. If people still do not like it, then we won’t do it. But unlike the way development there is being done now, we would hold everything in public so that everyone would know what we are doing.”
Conaghan is also opposed to developing residential property on the base, saying that this would create “a tale of two cities” in Bayonne, and have a negative impact on older Bayonne where rentals and sales may suffer.
“We should have office space and retail at the base,” he said. “If we can’t undo what has already been set aside for development, so be it.”
Conaghan said he is also concerned with the impact the proposed big box store development will have on the Broadway shopping district.
“We need to invest in traditional Bayonne, not build strip malls along the highway to compete with traditional businesses,” Conaghan said.