For more than six months, Mayor Dennis Elwell has promised to publicly release a full accounting of the construction and operating expenses for the town’s new Recreation Center. The administration has promised that taxpayers would not have to foot the bill for the project, and that membership fees would fund future costs, but some residents haven’t believed him.
As the center, located on Koelle Boulevard, neared completion in December, the Elwell administration vowed to release a booklet that would lay out, in detail, the complete price tag for the large-scale project. The numbers were to include construction costs, projected operating expenses, projected income, and debt service on the bond issued to fund creation of the facility.
The promised booklet has yet to be distributed, and the numbers that have been released, the mayor’s critics say, leave more questions than answers.
How much is the debt service?
Two weeks ago, Secaucus Scene, Town Hall’s newsletter, was dedicated entirely to information about the rec center. There was information about membership rates, hours of operation, and an overview of exercise equipment at the facility. There were also some numbers.
In a box titled “How it’s paid for: By the numbers,” the newsletter stated that overall construction costs were $11,950,000, with $1,064,380 coming from a payment received from nearby developer Fraternity Meadows and another $40,000 from billboard revenue.
This year, the town expects to receive $395,000 in membership fees, according to the Secaucus Scene. Beginning next year, membership fees will jump to $720,000. Annual operating expenses are currently projected to be $716,000, according to the newsletter.
Critics, however, argue that this offers an incomplete picture of the full costs of the facility.
“What we were given does not provide a clear picture of the full operating costs of the rec center,” Councilman Gary Jeffas said at Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. “We still have not received all the numbers. What’s missing from this picture is debt service. If we’re going to bond, let’s assume $10.5 million over 25 years, at 3 and a half percent. That would give us a debt service of $630,000 a year, on top of $716,000 in operating costs. So the full cost, if those were the numbers, is $1.347 million to operate the rec center.”
Operating deficit is feared
Jeffas further questioned whether the facility would be able to double its membership by next year and projected that the center could incur a deficit of $750,000 to $900,000 if membership falls short of current projections.
“Every time I give a number out, there’s somebody getting up at a Council meeting saying, ‘You’re hiding something.’ And I want the numbers to be exact.” – Dennis Elwell
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Town administrator David Drumeler said these requests came too late to be included in the final draft of the newsletter, which had already gone to print.
In response to Jeffas’ concerns, the mayor stated that full numbers have not been released because full construction costs have not come in yet, and the town is disputing two building-related expenses.
“We are going to come out with numbers,” Elwell said. “But we have not received all the change orders yet, and I don’t want to give out preliminary numbers or estimates. The one problem we’ve had from day one with this project is, every time I give a number out, there’s somebody getting up at a council meeting saying, ‘You’re hiding something.’ And I want the numbers to be exact.”
When asked directly when complete numbers will be released, Elwell said he still couldn’t give a definite date.
Other information missing from the Secaucus Scene were figures on current membership levels and a summary of how much money has come in from membership fees thus far.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.