FROM THE ECHOES-SENTINEL (Recorder Community Newspapers)
02/24/2006
LONG HILL TWP. – Several downtown Stirling business and property owners support the long-delayed streetscape project but told the Township Committee Wednesday, Feb. 22 that more must be done to improve the business climate in that area.
Summit resident John Colangelo, who owns property on the 200 block of Main Avenue, Stirling, said that the township should use granite instead of concrete for sidewalks, since concrete tends to deteriorate quickly.
He cautioned that a multimillion-dollar streetscape project in Summit’s downtown had some structural problems. He said much of that project was made possible by a special assessment tax that was imposed on business owners for the capital improvements.
Business owner Carl Sundberg of Stirling said he also supports the project but said the township should not resort to eminent domain in the future to improve the business zones. He added that he is against imposing a tax for downtown merchants for improvements.
“It is going to hit a dead-end,” he said.
Stirling Hotel owner Tom Baldassarre asked whether he could pitch in to get the revitalization project going, as a way “to start connecting the dots.”
Township Administrator Kevin Sluka said it probably wouldn’t speed up the project and it would be better to wait for a public bid.
Dan Murphy of Murphy Gardens on Magnolia Avenue, Stirling, said the township should start allowing businesses to post additional signs, which township ordinances currently forbid.
“The signage ordinance needs to be changed,” he said. “You can’t really notice them (the businesses) driving by.”
Sluka said the township will put the project out to bid again sometime in late March.
The revitalization project calls for upgrades to the area. They include adding 1,000 square yards of sidewalk concrete, 14 new benches, six trash receptacles, and 20 trees, the installation of cast-iron, 1950s-style street lamps and landscaping to the park adjacent to the train station.
“The replacement sidewalks will be an attractive concrete aggregate and wide enough so that two people can walk side by side,” according to a statement from the township Historic Preservation Advisory Committee (HPAC). “The sidewalks will flow into new concrete crosswalks cut into the road pavement at the intersections.”
The cross walks will aid in safer pedestrian crossings and traffic calming, the HPAC statement read. Also planned for the project are banners to be hung throughout the 5,000-foot long stretch down Main Avenue.
The township received a sealed $848,155 bid last year from Tec-Con Contractors, Inc., based in East Orange, which exceeded the estimated $600,000 for the project. A grant from the Department of Transportation will provide $450,000 for the project.
The second time the township went out to bid in June was even less successful, receiving no bids.
Sluka said prices for building supplies, particularly concrete and asphalt, two components of the project, have especially been volatile.
The project aims to aid pedestrian mobility from the Stirling train station to the business district, as well as to encourage the development of business and commerce along Main Avenue, from Railroad Avenue to Essex Street, otherwise known as downtown Stirling.
Sluka said he wouldn’t recommend scaling down the project.
“We would have to go back to the state for approval,” he said. “It would not only hurt the character of the project, it would slow down the process.”
HPAC Chairman Larry Fast said by scaling back the project, “it really opens up quite a can of worms.”
If future bids still come up higher than desired, Sluka said the township will most likely appropriate more funds toward the project through a bond ordinance.
Former HPAC member Anastasia Harrison, who worked closely on preparing the grant application for the project, said the revitalization could help bring in new businesses and ratables, and could lead to improvements in other sections of the township.