Traders Cove Survives, But Scaled Back

A vote to award a $3 million contract for work on the second phase of the redevelopment of the Traders Cove site on Mantoloking Road will stay in place.

The township council left intact a vote from the Dec. 30 council meeting that awarded a contract to Eagle Construction of Burlington to effectively complete the transition of the former marina into a bayfront park. The council, however, narrowly voted to rescind a second vote from the same meeting of the former council that awarded a $600,000 contract to construct a spray park at the site.

After a nearly two hour long closed-door, executive session meeting with Township Attorney Jean Cipriani, the council emerged and voted on a measure put forth by Councilman Dan Toth to rescind the vote on the $3 million contract and retool the project altogether. The vote failed.

Council members Jim Fozman, Domenick Brando and Bob Moore all voted against rescinding the contract while council members Toth, Susan Lydecker and John Ducey voted in favor of rescinding it. Councilman Joseph Sangiovanni was not present. The tie meant that the motion to rescind failed.

On a second motion to rescind the previous council vote on the spray park contract, Brando and Moore voted no, while Fozman, Ducey, Lydecker and Toth all voted yes.

Township attorney Jean Cipriani warned that even though Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis had not signed the contracts, the fact that a previous council vote awarded the bids could be grounds for litigation. She said there could be a chance that the winning bidder would have "substantial success" in a suit if one were to be brought.

Fozman, who will lead a commitee being formed to scale down the project, said costs can be lowered.

"There are different things you can do in this project to bring costs down," he said. "We have to look through to see what can be done in there."

Cipriani said legally, the costs could be lowered about 20 percent if bid specifications were changed. Fozman said the park should be opened, and rescinding the vote to authorize the main contract was too risky.

Moore said the council will look at changing certain specifications such as the materials used in construction to help lower the cost.

Mainly, council members who voted against rescinding the prior vote said they did so because of the risk of litigation, plus delays in opening the park.

"If we reversed the decision of a prior council, we'd pretty much be getting sued for the amount of the project," said Brando. "Sometimes, these construction lawsuits can take a year, two years. It could end up where trying to save money would mean spending more money."

Business Administrator Scott Pezarras said he expects work to get started quickly. He's said previously that due to environmental regulations limiting construction during the winter flounder migration, construction needs to be completed relatively quickly in order to have the park open to the public next summer.