Your recent article regarding the Borough of Ringwood’s use of a $238K Small Cities Grant for Roger DeGroat’s sinkhole “Residents question use of grant money,” provided few answers. Borough officials were tight-lipped, leaving two consultants (their sinkhole engineer and their grant writer) and former Mayor Joanne Atlas to provide answers. One thing we did learn was that the Borough was not prevented from fixing the sinkhole by the Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program, as they have long claimed. HUD officials wrote to NJ Dept. of Community Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Joseph Doria in April 2008, stating that a waiver was “never required” to remediate this safety hazard on Mr. DeGroat’s property.

Unfortunately, statements in the article by former Mayor Atlas confused the issue by bringing the displaced residents of Van Dunk Lane into the discussion. Their sinkhole problems, while very serious, were never covered in the $238K grant. In fact, the DCA refused the Borough’s request to modify the grant to pay for relocating these residents. DCA chose to provide additional money to pay for temporary housing instead.

Atlas also stated that the collapse of nearby Sheehan Drive (also from sinkholes) trumped DeGroat’s sinkhole repair. But those repairs were already completed and paid for in early 2007. There was no need to re-direct the Small Cities grant in 2008 to pay for “road repairs” as the Borough’s grant consultant Carol Lowy states.

The $400,000 price tag didn’t kill the remediation project because the former council had a funding package in place. Mayor Atlas signed a resolution in late November 2007 directing that $177K from the original grant, $204K in funds from an old Employment Development Grant, and $68K from DCA be used to do the job. But the new council ignored that resolution when they took office in January 2008. They closed the grant in April 2008, (although no more money had been spent) leaving $177K unaccounted for. No explanation as to where the money went has ever been given, other than offering vague answers like “engineering.”

So let’s review. The remainder of the Small Cities grant wasn’t spent on Van Dunk Lane residents; wasn’t spent on Sheehan Drive repairs;  wasn’t used to repair the sinkhole (although it could have been), and  would have paid for the sinkhole remediation if the prior Council’s plan was implemented.  So why wasn’t it done?

Mayor Atlas provided one clue to the foot-dragging. She alleged at a recent Community Advisory Group (CAG) meeting that DCA didn’t want to spend $400K on the sinkhole when DeGroat’s property was only worth half that much. One could certainly debate whether the repair was too costly. But the Borough never took this position publicly, continuously assuring Mr. DeGroat that remediation would occur. If the repair was not economically feasible, DeGroat should have been told that, not misled with promises that no one intended to keep.

Mayor Atlas stated that asking the taxpayers to pay for Mr. DeGroat’s sinkhole wasn’t on the table. But it should have been considered. The Borough has used taxpayer money to remediate hazards on private property before. Two recent examples: They paid to prevent boulders from rolling into a home on Fountain Drive, and they bonded to fix a retaining wall on a Lakeview Ave. home fearing the road would collapse. Mr. DeGroat’s sinkhole presents a major safety threat to the community, and should be dealt with just as seriously.

Now the Borough plans to apply for another $400K, assuring Mr. DeGroat that this time, the repair will occur. The latest plan calls for partially fixing the hole, then partitioning the remaining open pit from his property so the sinkhole is ‘next door.’ But shrinking DeGroat’s property and leaving the sinkhole half-filled does not solve the problem.  No one would blame Mr. DeGroat (or anyone else) for being skeptical of this new plan. As he has learned over the last three years, talk is cheap, especially when it comes from Borough officials.

Robin O’Hearn
Executive Director
Skylands CLEAN, Inc.
Ringwood, NJ
rohearn@skyclean.org

 

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