WEST ORANGE, NJ — Construction on the long-awaited and hotly debated parking project at Gregory Elementary School began July 7, with work currently focusing on the drainage system for the staff parking lot.
Leonard Lepore, the township engineer, told the West Orange Chronicle that contractor JTG Construction Inc. has been concentrating on the installation of the new drainage catch basins and pipes for the lot. Additionally, Lepore said JTG set a manhole on Gregory Avenue for one of the basins at the entry of the bus driveway.
Thus far, Lepore said work appears to be on track to meet the completion deadline of Sept. 1, which is just before school starts. This will be more evident as construction proceeds, the engineer said.
“It seems a little slow at first,” Lepore said in a July 15 phone interview. “But once the drainage is done and then they start doing work on the curb for the parking area and the driveway, then you’re going to see more visual progress.”
Lepore said JTG will next put in the two drainage structures, one on each end of the bus driveway. After that, he said the curbs will be installed for both the driveway and the expanded parking lot. He did not know which would be done first.
A representative of JTG Construction told the Chronicle that the contractor does not comment on projects.
According to Lepore, before the curbing work can take place, however, the township must receive an open road permit from Essex County because Gregory Avenue is a county road. Lepore said the county told him it had processed the permit and sent it by mail, though it had not yet reached him by July 15. But he said the curbing work is not expected to start for a little while anyway.
Not everything has gone according to plan, though. While it was the township’s responsibility to take down all trees for the project — work it has indeed completed — JTG cut down what Lepore described as a mature, approximately 40-foot spruce that had been marked to be saved. The engineer said he does not know what prompted the contractor to act on its own since he specifically told JTG that the tree was to remain, and JTG was not supposed to be doing any tree work at all. There must have been a communication breakdown on JTG’s end, Lepore said. As stated above, JTG would not comment.
What is certain is that the tree’s loss is frustrating for everyone, Lepore said.
“I was probably as upset as many of the residents,” Lepore said.
Meanwhile, Lepore said he made it clear to JTG that the township expected a replacement tree and provided it with contact information for a supplier. But he acknowledged that putting in a new tree will not be the same as the mature tree that was once there. He also added that that tree was the only one JTG touched.
The accidental tree removal was not the only issue the project has faced since construction started. A resident complained to the Essex Hudson Passaic Soil Conservation District when a group of neighbors noticed that JTG had not set up a silt fence to prevent sediment from being carried by storm water runoff into nearby water supplies. Lepore said the conservation district contacted him about the matter on the first day of construction, and he alerted the contractor. The silt fence was put up the next day, and the engineer said he has seen no evidence that any sediment had gotten off of the property at any point.
Even with these issues addressed, many residents are upset with the way the project is proceeding. West Orange Planning Board member Jerry Eben, a vocal critic of the project, in particular feels that the township “rushed” the improvements through the approval process. Now that construction has started, he does not think the town is handling the project’s oversight any better.
“The township, with its victory in the bag, should be spending extra time to make sure that this project will be built in accordance with the plans,” Eben told the Chronicle in a July 15 email. “It is apparent that this is not being done, and the reasons for same should be addressed by the administration.”
Eben said encircling the spruce tree with a fence could have prevented it from being mistakenly cut down. And the contractor should have known to set up the silt fences around the driveway and parking areas on Day One, he said.
Even if the project goes smoothly moving forward, Eben said he does not believe the end result will benefit the Gregory community. Specifically, he said the loss of so many trees will make the front of the school look bad. But above all, Eben said he is concerned that the driveway will make the already busy Gregory Avenue-Walker Road intersection more dangerous for crossing children.
Resident Susan Scarpa is also concerned about how the project will affect her neighborhood once finished. As a former speech language therapist at the Gregory school, she acknowledged that something has to be done to correct the traffic issues. But she said this project will just take the congestion caused by the buses off of Lowell Avenue and move it to the already troublesome Gregory Avenue. If a comprehensive traffic study had been done and the issue had been examined in depth, she said that a better solution might have been found.
And now that she works at Redwood Elementary School and has seen how its own “kiss and go” lane operates, Scarpa said making Lowell into one might not be as effective as supporters think. Particularly, she said there is no guarantee that the lane will be quick-moving.
“It takes a lot longer to get the children in and out of the car than you would imagine,” Scarpa told the Chronicle in a July 18 phone interview, explaining that some take extra time to finish their breakfast or get their backpacks out of the vehicle. “They don’t hop out of the car right away.”
Scarpa said the key to an effective kiss–and-go lane is to have plenty of staff managing it. Likewise, she said the township should be managing the contractor more closely, just as the contractor should be managing its employees better. Having run her own telecommunications company at one time, she said she knows firsthand that “careless mistakes” such as the tree removal are easily prevented with good management. It should not be up to the residents to keep an eye on the project, she said.
Not every community member is dissatisfied with the way construction has been going. Ken Alper, chairman of the Gregory PTA’s traffic safety committee, said he is pleased to see the project finally under way after 15 months of working on the plan. Once finished, Alper thinks it will greatly improve traffic flow by allowing buses to angle off and on Gregory through the looping driveway. Right now cars are forced to collect behind them as they make a right turn off of Gregory onto Walker, another right onto Lowell, a third right onto Winding Way and a left back onto Gregory.
On top of that, Alper said the Gregory students will be much safer by not having to exit vehicles or walk to school in the same area where the buses are dropping off students on Lowell.
“We’ve been seeing the dangers on (Lowell Avenue) every day for as long as we’ve been there,” Alper told the Chronicle in a July 17 email. “It’s terrific to see work has begun and to know that this coming year is finally going to be different.”
Councilwoman Michelle Casalino is also happy to see the project moving ahead. Having been on the Board of Education when a solution was last proposed for the traffic problem in 2007, Casalino knows how long this issue has gone on. Though she is disappointed that trees had to be cut down — with the accidental tree removal being particularly frustrating — she said this project is the best way to keep students safe.
“I just didn’t see another solution to the safety issue,” Casalino told the Chronicle in a July 14 phone interview. “I wish there was another solution. But for nine years the school board was looking for solutions, and unfortunately there weren’t any. So I’m just pleased that the project is moving along.”
Casalino added that Lepore frequently updates Gregory community members on work being done, so everyone will know what to expect as the project progresses.
Photos by Sean Quinn
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