'It's a mess': Sayreville BOE mulls legal action if council scraps bus depot plan

SAYREVILLE – The wheels may have come off the bus for the borough’s new transportation complex on Cheesequake Road.

Superintendent of Schools Richard Labbe told MyCentralJersey.com he believes the Borough Council is not going to follow the memorandum of agreement it signed with the school board last year for the project, which would produce a joint transportation center for the school district and the borough, including the Department of Public Works and about 60 school district-owned school buses.

"It's a mess," the superintendent said. "I'm incredibly disappointed. The borough is not making good on the promise that they made to the Board of Education and the taxpayers."

Members of the Borough Council did not respond to requests for comment.

The need for a school bus depot arose after the school district decided to switch from a private contractor for transportation to provide the service in-house in 2017. Labbe said the buses are currently "gobbling up all the parking spots at the high school."

The Borough Council and the Board of Education in March 2022 agreed on the plan after scrapping a controversial proposal of building a new transportation facility at Selover School, which generated neighborhood opposition. The new site is on the north side of Cheesequake Road between the entrances to the ballfields and the DuPont factory.

School board members earlier this month advanced resolutions on the new complex, awarding a $5.6 million bid for development to James R. Ientile, Inc., of Marlboro, with the funding coming from the district’s capital reserve funds.

"They need to come through on this because they made a promise not only supporting the Board of Education, but to our students and our parents and the taxpayers," Labbe said.

"(The memorandum of agreement) is a legal binding document," Labbe said. "It is a promise. We are in the process of determining legal remedy. And, quite frankly, we're going to do everything we can to make (the Borough Council) fulfill the promise that they made us."

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Borough Business Administrator Glenn Skarzynski said while he doesn’t know exactly where things stand now, the fact remains the school district needs a transportation center.

"Moving forward, I will be meeting with Dr. Labbe and his team in an effort to see if this can be overcome or if we're going to have to find another site," Skarzynski said. "I mean, it's very clear the Board of Ed requires this transportation project to be done. It is not clear yet where it is ultimately going to wind up and it may actually wind up at the original site, I just don't have the benefit of knowing that answer right now."

At last week's Borough Council meeting, several Laurel Park residents spoke against the project, as well as a warehouse project nearby that is already underway.

Skarzynski said the residents expressed some definitive concerns about having this facility located near their neighborhood.

"And no one it seems was aware of the fact that there were some restrictions with regard to the use of the land," he said. "Because of ongoing monitoring due to groundwater contamination, there are restrictions about removing dirt on the site."

Labbe said he reached out to DuPont early in the process and was informed there were no restrictions on the land.

"We looked into that and the people from DuPont gave us the green light," Labbe said. "But now they're (residents) trying to say it's contaminated land, which I think that's what they're (council) trying to use as the excuse."

According to Laurel Park resident Nicholas Manente, the 120-acre wooded area was donated to the borough in 2008 by the Dupont Corporation.

"It appears the borough just moved the depot from one neighborhood to another. This location is not practical for several reasons," Manente said.

"The land was donated to the Borough of Sayreville to be used as open space and has been left as open space for the last 15 years. However, this property when owned by Dupont was cited by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as a contaminated site. Dupont was required to clean to contamination and install ground monitoring. Many different species of wildlife live in this open space and this development can just be the first of several as it was reported the mayor is considering moving the Department of Public Works to the same location."

Manente said he and the residents are also concerned that neither a comprehensive environmental impact study nor a traffic study was done on the project.

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Skarzynski said he is sure a solution can be found.

"We're in this together. It's a necessary project. We just may need to find another place. It's all going to depend on what kind of fruit our discussions bear," he said.

Labbe is frustrated and said the Borough Council can’t be trusted.

"This is about making good on the promises they made to taxpayers," Labbe said. "Whether it's school district money, or whether it's municipal money, it's still coming out of the same pockets. … So, now we're going to have to start all over again in another location? And why do we even trust that? … What makes you think we're going to trust you − that you're not going to pull the rug out from under us with that location too? And we'll have to redo plans and go out to bid again and all those wonderful things that are just eating away taxpayer money."

email: cmakin@gannettnj.com

Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Sayreville NJ BOE mulls legal action if council scraps bus depot plan