Dear Editor:
I am a resident of Hoboken living on River Street near Pier C. For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to get information about the holdup on construction of the pier, but with no success. I contacted the department of community development (the cognizant agency I am told) at Hoboken city hall and was told that a Ms. Forbes would get back to me, which did not happen. Subsequently, I actually went to city hall and visited the department where a secretary took my information and told me someone would get back, but this didn’t happen either. I stopped by Councilwomen Castellano’s store on Washington Street and asked her; she informed me that she has been trying to find out the status of pier construction for a while but also can’t get answers.
Why is it so hard to get a response on such a simple question from the city? I know they’re busy (we all are), but one shouldn’t have to pull teeth to get such information. The last we heard (I believe through the Reporter), certain new parts had to be ordered from overseas, and this was causing the delay in pier completion. However, that was many months ago and as I recall, the pier was supposed to open in early April (i.e., right now). One can’t help wondering if it’s really about finances; i.e., whether contractors aren’t being paid. If so, why is this happening? I am informed that money was provided to the city for pier construction by the Port Authority, so what happened to these funds? And why was it necessary to order new parts? Did the engineers somehow mess up in the planning, and if so, is anyone being held responsible or being sued? Can the residents of Hoboken please get some answers from what is supposed to be a transparent administration Mayor Zimmer?
Sincerely,
Mark Orman