The Hudson County Freeholders agreed to help out the city of Hoboken and the city of Bayonne by voting on several key resolutions and ordinances at their Sept. 10 meeting.
The freeholders agreed to give Hoboken the right-of-way to install of a pumping station that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer said could alleviate as much as 80 percent of the city’s flooding problem. The city’s flooding is particularly prevalent on the west side of town during rainstorms.
“It’s something we really need. It is not just a band-aid.” – Dawn Zimmer
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The pump
The freeholders’ approval for Hoboken will allow the North Hudson Sewerage Authority to install a pump station near the New Jersey Transit train station, providing a way to ease the flooding from the southwestern portion of the city often hard-hit by floods. The $14 million project will install a two-story pump house that could begin providing relief within 18 months, Zimmer said.
“When we have high tide and heavy rain fall, the southwest section of Hoboken – which including Housing Authority residents – we get raw sewerage backing up onto our streets,” she said. “This can happen every couple of months, sometimes every few weeks, and the raw sewerage leaves a sludge behind and stench. I’ve been asking for the last two years for a pump.”
The plan calls for four pumps through the city, but Zimmer said the others are less critical than this pump.
She added that through green management, the other pumps might not even be necessary after this one is installed.
“Actually there will be two pumps located in this first pump station,” she said. “It’s something we really need. It is not just a band-aid.”
Freeholder Jose Munoz suggested the county look at the needs for the entire county to determine if there are other problem areas that need to be addressed.
Bayonne mall gets boost from county
In the other municipal relief, the freeholders basically acted as co-signers to a $23 million state loan for the Bayonne Crossing project, a big-box store mall slated to be constructed on Route 440 between East 22nd Street and New Hook Road.
Mayor Mark Smith pleaded his case for the support last month, and the freeholders agreed to support his effort because the project will bring both temporary construction and permanent jobs to the region.
While Bayonne and county taxpayers will not receive initial tax relief since the payments due to the city through a PILOT program will go towards repaying the loan, O’Dea said the city would be receiving significant benefits as a result of sale tax through the Urban Enterprise Zone – which the state allows to be reinvested into the community where the sales take place.
O’Dea said the county will serve as the second backup incase the developer is unable to pay back the loan.
“The city would be required to pay back the funds first, and if it could not, then the county would pay it,” he said.
But O’Dea said the county will never get asked to make the payments, because if the developer fails to make the payments, the city of Bayonne will have the ability to foreclose on the property and would be the first bills paid if the project should go belly up with bankruptcy.
The mall is supposed to consist of 10 buildings on a 30-acre tract of land east of Route 440.
The acreage was cobbled together through a number of land deals over the last three years, but faced some serious environmental cleanup hurdles that involved the removal of underground petroleum contaminants from the site, which once served as a storage area for Standard Oil Company.
Agreement on county building
The county has come to a tentative agreement on a price for the purchase of the Hudson County Annex building on Pavonia Avenue for a price of $9.5 million
County Attorney Donato Battista said they expect a Sept. 28 closing.
But Laurie Cotter, assistant county administrator, said that the cost will likely rise because of unsettled issues about repairs and other items. Still, she said the cost will be under the original asking price of $12.5 million.
O’Dea said the county will see an annual savings of more than $400,000.
Although O’Dea has been a staunch proponent of the county doing away with leases and taking ownership, a policy change was implemented when County Executive Tom DeGise took office, according to county spokesperson Jim Kennelly.
“When Tom took over he began to eliminate these leases,” Kennelly said.
The purchase of the annex building located at 567 Pavonia Ave., where the freeholders have done business for the last 20 years, would allow many of the operations to continue uninterrupted.
Joseph Panepinto, former chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Party, leased the building to the county in 1989, was asking $12.5 million for the building. The freeholders would also have to pay about $2 million for improvements to the facility’s roof, heating system and air conditioning network.
The county offered about $8.5 million for the property, and for a time, even considered using eminent domain to take the property.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.