The battle of wills between Ward E City Councilman E. Junior Maldonado and Jersey City Medical Center continued last week as the councilman pushed for the Medical Center to fulfill their longstanding obligation to put a traffic light on the corner of Monmouth and Grand streets in downtown Jersey City.
The light, according to Maldonado, is a necessity in an area where there is a hospital, shopping plaza, and school under construction. Grand Street is also a major thoroughfare that many out-of-town and local commuters travel every day on their way to the Holland Tunnel.
At last week’s Planning Board meeting, Maldonado’s office opposed the Medical Center’s application to build a parking lot and to make other changes to their master plan.
Also, a meeting took place Thursday morning with Maldonado expecting to meet with Medical Center officials along with representatives from the Jersey City Police Department and the city’s Traffic Department and Planning Board. But the representatives from the Medical Center were unable to attend due to last-minute business.
The meeting went on as planned with discussion of what efforts should be made to mitigate traffic in the absence of a traffic light.Need the light
“There’s a straight drive from Pacific Avenue all the way down to Jersey Avenue,” said Maldonado. “It’s like a speedway out there, and I get e-mails from constituents telling me how they almost hit someone trying to cross the street.”
There was a meeting last July 9 followed by one in early August, both organized by Maldonado’s council office. At the time, officials from the Jersey City Medical Center met with city officials to discuss the progress and the funding for the light.
As reported in a Aug. 2 article in the Jersey City Reporter, Thomas MacEwen, the senior vice president of facilities and construction for the Liberty Healthcare System, which operates the Medical Center, said at the meeting that the reason the Medical Center did not install the traffic light was that it had made other improvements in the area before construction was completed and there was very little money left.
“Nine hundred thousand dollars was spent improving the infrastructure, upgrading the sewer lines,” said MacEwen at the July 9 meeting. “From a fairness perspective, we need someone to share the costs with us.”
The installation work for the traffic light is estimated to cost between $150,000 and $175,000.
But it was pointed out at the meeting that the traffic light was in the Medical Center’s site plan. The hospital received approval for the plan from the city’s Planning Board in 2001 on the condition that it would install the traffic light before Public School 3, located across the street from the hospital, was constructed.
The school is currently under construction.
Putting up a traffic light is also one of several stipulations that the Medical Center must fulfill in order to receive a permanent certificate of occupancy, which is issued by a local building department to a builder or renovator stating that the building is in proper condition to be occupied and legally permissible for use.
The Medical Center currently has a temporary certificate.
MacEwen said at last week’s Planning Board meeting that they are ready to go ahead, but need a signature on an authorization document from the New Jersey Department of Transportation. Hospital officials also said that they would have to put out a bid for a contractor to mount the traffic light and do the electric work, and that the time between the bidding process and the traffic light’s operation would take 90 days after the approval is given by the state DOT, which is expected this week.
But that didn’t sit well with some in the audience and on the board. Planning Board says go, but with conditions
Robin Pinkowitz, an aide for Maldonado, spoke on behalf of the councilman and herself about the issue.
“Back in August, [the Medical Center] said that in 60 to 90 days, the traffic light would be up. We are now on 210 days,” said Pinkowitz. “We’re talking about people’s lives.”
Pinkowitz also provided the documentation outlining the communication between the city and the Medical Center, showing that the hospital as of July 2004 was still not complying with the city’s request to have a traffic light installed even after it opened its doors last May after closing the old Jersey City Medical Center.
Dania Cabellero, a resident of the Bergen- Lafayette area and member of the Communipaw Avenue Block Association, said that members of their association have been complaining about having to cross the intersection of Monmouth and Grand streets when visiting the hospital or shopping in the area.
The Planning Board started questioning MacEwen and medical center attorney Charles Harrington as to why it has taken so long install the traffic light.
Planning Board attorney Vincent LaPaglia asked MacEwen for a contact at the DOT that LaPaglia could speak to regarding the light. Board Commissioner Jeni Branum wanted to know why the Medical Center had not contacted their state legislators about expediting the traffic light.
Eventually, the Planning Board gave preliminary approval to the Medical Center’s plans for a parking lot and other changes to their master plan on the condition that the light be installed before final approval is given. Let’s put a stop to this
Thursday morning, Jersey City Police Officer Scott McNulty suggested that off-duty police officers patrol at that intersection. He said that the week before the meeting, at least 24 summonses were issued for speeding in the area near the Monmouth and Grand Street intersection.
Pinkowitz noted, “We are close to a serious accident.”