HOBOKEN — Repairs to Sinatra Drive in Hoboken will cost more than $10 million for the county portion, said Freeholder Bill O’Dea at the Jan. 10 Hudson County Freeholders meeting. The freeholders voted to increase the contract for legal services to $149,750 as part of an ongoing lawsuit to get other possible responsible parties to help foot the bill.
At the Jan. 10 meeting, the freeholders passed a resolution that authorized Berman, Sauter, Record & Jardim PC to proceed with a lawsuit against parties alleged to be responsible for the October 2010 collapse of a portion of Sinatra Drive in Hoboken.
The resolution sets aside $108,750 for legal feels and $41,000 for litigation costs.
Freeholder Al Cifelli said a report of a freeholder committee said that the suit was proceeding in phases and that it is currently in a discovery phase with thousands of documents being exchanged and in need of review. He said the current resolution would cover the costs of legal suit up to pre-trial.
Freeholder Bill O’Dea said based on the information that has come as a result of research, the repairs for the repair could exceed $10 million and that the county is seeking to hold other responsible parties accountable for some of the costs.
“To date the repair has cost the county about $3 million,” Cifelli said. “We are told the liability to the county could be anywhere from $5 million to $8 million more. We are in the big leagues with this and I agree that we should aggressively pursue other responsibly parties to share the burden.”
Freeholder Chairman Anthony Romano said it is essential for the county to find who the responsible parties are.