Recent rainstorms may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Vitamin Shoppe, headquartered at 2101 91st St. in North Bergen, is threatening to relocate if the town cannot figure out a way to solve the flooding problem that has plagued its premises for years.
A retailer and direct marketer of nutritional products, the Vitamin Shoppe is a growing company with a plan to open approximately 48 new stores within the current fiscal year. The 91st street corporate office has roughly 500 employees.
“I can’t believe any elected public official wants that to happen.” – Tony Truesdale, CEO, the Vitamin Shoppe
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Now, executives of one of North Bergen’s largest companies are threatening to leave town if the issue cannot be resolved.
When planning ahead fails
During storm alerts, workers have set up a system in preparation. Employees are notified of potential flooding and are encouraged to park at a nearby lot. They are then transported by a school bus, which the company has on hand and is typically able to wade through any flooding that may have occurred.
A week ago Tuesday, the bus was unable to get through the water, rendering employees immobile from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. until the water finally subsided.
Two employees who had their cars with them attempted to leave unsuccessfully, damaging their vehicles to the point that they needed to be towed.
Another major issue, according to company CEO Tony Truesdale, is that the warning lights next to the train tracks, which intersect 91st Street, are inoperable during flooding.
“When it floods, the lights go off, so we had a couple of employees almost get hit by a train,” said Truesdale.
A recurring problem
According to executives from the corporate offices, flooding has been a continuing issue for the better half of a decade.
“This is not the first time that the street has been flooded,” said Susan McLaughlin, the Vitamin Shoppe’s director of corporate communications. “I’ve been here four years and the street has flooded a few times.”
“It’s been going on seven or eight years now,” said Truesdale. “People have children in day care and can’t get to their kids. We’ve got all kinds of people missing appointments because they can’t get out.”
“There’s a danger associated with this for my associates,” added Truesdale, “a quality-of-life issue.”
Whose problem is it?
While associates from the Vitamin Shoppe claim that the town has not done its fair share to address the issue, township officials seem to feel otherwise.
“The township has been on top of this issue for years and has taken many steps to address it,” said Phil Swibinski, a spokesman for the town.
According to a memo sent from North Bergen Township Engineer Rick McGrath in November 2010, the first recorded complaint from the Vitamin Shoppe was in June of 2002.
From that point on, “the township has spent several million dollars on improvements and has seen positive results as a result of that work,” McGrath said in the memo.
Among the most “successful repair[s],” the memo states, was replacing a manhole cover with a grate that allows water to flow through more efficiently.
Other repairs include cleaning and lining the sewers to remove blockages.
Most of the flooding occurs on the part of the street west of the railroad tracks, which includes the Vitamin Shoppe. This area is owned privately by Hartz Mountain Industries, a real estate firm based in Secaucus. But all of the pipes along the street are owned by the town, according to Swibinski, who says that more pipes are slated to be cleaned and lined within the next few weeks..
“Nobody’s taking ownership and nobody really wants to fix the problem,” complained Truesdale.
McGrath insisted that the pipe that runs west of the railroad tracks along the Vitamin Shoppe is scheduled to be lined this autumn.
“The currently ongoing project includes lining the pipe that extends from the railroad tracks through the Vitamin Shoppe property to extended West Side Avenue,” McGrath said. “This is the last section scheduled to be lined.”
While some of the burden is placed on North Bergen, Bergen County also carries some of the responsibility, after failing to complete a tide gate project in the area in 2005 as part of the planned construction of a Department of Public Works site for both Fairview and Cliffside Park. At the time, it was determined that the installation of a tide gate and pumping system would reduce the amount of flooding. While the tide gate was not completed, a central plant was converted to a pump station.
“Representatives of this office have inspected the 91st Street right-of-way in the last few rain events that have occurred since the Central Plant was converted to a pump station,” McGrath stated in a memo dated November 18, 2010. “At no point in time has flooding of the level that was previously observed at the railroad tracks been observed.”
According to weatherunderground.com, as of November 18 2010, 1.84 inches of rain had been measured for the entire month in Central Park. The website, similar to other databases, uses Central Park’s recorded precipitation for towns like North Bergen that do not officially record their own rainfall.
The same website reported 2.09 inches of rainfall for Tuesday, Aug. 9.
“While the Township has completed many projects over the years to stem flooding in the vicinity, intense rainfall like on Tuesday can still cause overflows,” said McGrath. “With rain that heavy, there is simply nothing that can be done to completely contain the resulting weather.”
McGrath continued, “Luckily, weather like that is unusual.”
Similarly, regarding the rainfall, Swibinski said, “This extreme amount of precipitation is unusual, and under normal weather conditions flooding in the area is much better controlled.”
Stay or go?
However, a lack of flooding during “usual” weather conditions may not be enough to convince the Vitamin Shoppe to remain in North Bergen.
“[Changing locations] ends up being an obvious choice for the situation given today’s economy,” said Truesdale.
“I can’t believe any elected public official wants that to happen, but that may be the ultimate outcome because nobody seems to want to solve the problem.”
“It’s unfortunate that so many people understand the issue and nobody wants to actually fix the issue,” Truesdale added. “It really doesn’t put North Bergen in the light as a place where people want to grow business and hire more employees.”
Stephen LaMarca may be reached at slamarca@hudsonreporter.com.