A plan to build a temporary clubhouse on Duncan Avenue in Jersey City for the new county golf course in Lincoln Park will cause some Hudson County offices to relocate.
The county has just completed the golf course, and is in negotiations with Jersey City to take control of Duncan Avenue from Route 440 west to the Hackensack River as an access road to the facility.
A temporary clubhouse will be constructed at the entrance to the golf course off Duncan Avenue.
County Executive Chief of Staff Bill Gaughan said Department of Public Works (DPW) offices and other operations currently housed at the Meadowview Campus on County Avenue in Secaucus will be moved to a former bank building on Bergen Avenue in Jersey City.
This will clear space for the Hudson County Prosecutor to move its operations out of Duncan Avenue to the Meadowview Campus.
“But the road needs to be improved,” Gaughan said. “This means that the county will have to start enforcing traffic laws with concern of the trucking operations along that stretch of road.”
He said the road is in deplorable shape, and trucks coming in and out businesses there do not follow rules of the road.
“If this is going to be the main entrance to the golf course, then the trucks will have to follow the rules,” he said. “We’re going to have a talk with the owners of the businesses to get them control these habits.”
Union City to share county DPW site
In connection with these moves, the county is negotiating for the purchase of property on Tonnelle Avenue near Manhattan Avenue in Jersey City for the construction of a new DPW facility. County DPW operations are currently spread out over several locations, including the Meadowview Campus.
The county will share the new site with the Union City Department of Public Works, said Union City Freeholder Tilo Rivas.
Last year, state officials ordered Union City out of its Department of Public Works building on 27th Street due to imminent danger caused by a deteriorating roof. The 40,000 square foot building originally was operated by New Jersey Transit, but was leased by the city. Workers raised concerns about safety there and were eventually relocated.
“If this is going to be the main entrance to the golf course, then the trucks will have to follow the rules.” – Bill Gaughan
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Late last year, County Executive Tom DeGise agreed to let Union City run its operations out of the county facility once it is constructed. Gaughan predicted that the site would be up and running quickly since it is already vacant land.
“It has been cleared and fenced in,” he said.
Meanwhile, in another agreement between DeGise and Union City Mayor Brian Stack, the county’s sheriff’s garage is servicing Union City police vehicles.
Freeholders concerned about oil contamination at Caven Point
In light of a pending settlement between the state of New Jersey and ExxonMobil to pay for cleanup of oil-contaminated sites in Bayonne and Linden, the freeholders will ask state officials to examine a number of properties near Caven Point that may also have been contaminated by an affiliate of the company.
O’Dea said Eagle Works, a company owned by the same corporation that ran operations in Bayonne, had facilities in areas where several sports fields are currently located, including the Caven Point military base and possibly a portion of Liberty State Park.
O’Dea said the announced $225 million settlement will not cover the cleanup of sites already listed. He wants Hudson County to contact the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection and ask them to inspect the Jersey City sites.
“We don’t know what is there or how deeply underground it is,” O’Dea said. “But we know there were tanks on those sites years ago.”
County to investigate golf course soil
As a result of a federal indictment connected with contractors bringing soil into the Hudson County golf course, the freeholders are expected to hire an environmental consultant to determine whether the soil is contaminated.
O’Dea said this consultant would go back to the roots of the construction and investigate each step in the landfill process.
In early February, the FBI arrested two men for allegedly using their influence to have the Hudson County Improvement Authority choose specific contractors who paid the county to take their soil for the golf course.
Officials connected to the investigation said the soil used in the golf course was not contaminated. But the freeholder investigation would look into that aspect, which has been a concern of the board since work on the golf course started in 2010.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.