News from Skylands CLEAN, Inc.

Ringwood sinkhole aid disputed
Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Bergen Record
BY BARBARA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER

RINGWOOD - The borough has nearly $600,000 in state grants to help residents recover financially from mining sinkholes that destroyed their properties.

But its original plan to control all use of the money in solving the situation apparently has been superseded by a state plan to involve the affected residents.

State officials want the borough to give $120,000 apiece directly to two Upper Ringwood homeowners from a $400,000 grant recently awarded. What's left of that grant can be used to take down the two houses and for other costs the municipality may incur.

"We are giving each family the money to do with as they wish - pay down their mortgage or put money on a new house," said Joseph Doria, commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs. "It's not the borough's decision on how to spend that money."

But that plan differs from projections by local leaders. They say they need almost all of the $400,000 to acquire and demolish the houses and permanently cordon off the properties. Then the $200,000 from the other DCA grant will be used toward fixing a third property on Sheehan Drive with an SUV-sized sinkhole in the yard.

"I just don't think there'll be that kind of money left over to give to the residents when it's all done," said Mayor Walter Davison.

As the situation develops, state and local officials have yet to sit down over their differences.

Residents just want what they had before the sinkholes prompted borough officials to move them out of their homes for safety reasons.

"I don't really know how I feel about the $120,000; I need time to think about it," said Jeanine Mann, now living in a rental home in Riverdale with her extended family. "I just want what they took from me - a house for my family."

Mann is one of 23 people evacuated from two adjoining Van Dunk Lane homes in November 2006 after a series of sinkholes opened up in their yards, making the properties unsafe. They relocated to rentals, funded by the borough with state grants, or moved in with family members.

Some of the displaced residents have since found permanent housing, but the two homeowners are left paying mortgages on buildings they can't use. Mann declined to say how much she and her husband, Tommy, owe on their mortgage, but said the payments are $1,100 a month.

The other homeowner, Tommy's brother Rodney Mann, did not return calls for comment.

Insurance companies involved with both houses denied claims, saying the structures aren't unsafe - just the surrounding yards - so the homes are not covered.

Former Mayor Wenke Taule and Robin O'Hearn, executive director of Skylands CLEAN, advocated for the residents and worked with U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's office to ask the Department of Community Affairs, which awarded the grants, to mandate that the money be given to the residents.

Working in concert with Doria's plan, Taule said she and O'Hearn also are negotiating with homeowners' banks to lower the mortgage amounts owed. Taule said their proposal is for banks to swap the mortgage to another available vacant house in addition to getting the $120,000 as a down payment.

"Yes, the bank will be losing money on the Van Dunk homes, but they are worthless right now anyway," Taule said. "In this horrendous market, they'll be getting something for a house on the market right now."

Borough Manager Kelley Rohde said officials are working with the residents to find a resolution acceptable to everyone.

"We want to help these residents," Rohde said. "I can't comment on Commissioner Doria's statements since I haven't heard from him directly ... but we want to see these people in permanent housing."

E-mail: williamsb@northjersey.com

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