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Questions surround Mayor McGreevey's pet project
Originally appeared in the Courier Post on Monday, October 29, 2001
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim McGreevey's pride- and-joy project during his term as Woodbridge mayor has been a multimillion-dollar community and sports center being built as a private-public partnership the mayor said won't cost taxpayers a dime.
Last spring, there was an official groundbreaking at the site, near Woodbridge Center Drive and Main Street, where construction of the two-story, 110,000-square-foot Woodbridge Community Center is under way. It is expected to open early next year.
The center will feature ice- and roller-skating rinks, an indoor pool, gym, wellness center, computer lab, theater, arts and crafts room and inside track.
"The Woodbridge Community Center will be perhaps among the most significant accomplishments during this municipal administration," McGreevey touted earlier this year.
But McGreevey's critics said the project, located on an old municipal landfill site, bears a resemblance to former Republican Gov. Christie Whitman's troubled auto emissions and E-ZPass projects -- state government boondoggles McGreevey repeatedly criticized on the campaign trail as the type of thing he'll clean up if elected governor.
The dual skating rink project, like E-ZPass, has suffered from a contractor who ran into financial trouble.
"We questioned right from the beginning at council meetings about the arrangements, and how this was going to be financed," said lifelong township resident Barbara Wyatt, a Republican who serves as a watchdog for Woodbridge government.
Like the auto emissions contract, critics said the contractor for the sports complex was hand-picked.
"There is no question there should have been a bid process for the project," said Republican Michael Hersh, who lives adjacent to the site. "It should have been a public process about what should go here and who should do it."
And former Republican Councilman Robert Gawroniak labeled the township's plans to pay the $16 million cost of the project -- $23 million to $25 million with interest - with user fees, corporate donations and advertising contracts "a fairy tale," similar to criticism of the way the state intends to pay for E-ZPass.
McGreevey administration officials and supporters labeled the criticism nothing more than partisan politics.
His supporters said when things went wrong, McGreevey stepped in, met with residents and found a way to get the project back on track.
"He was able to pull this out of the fire," said campaign spokesman Richard McGrath. "If he hadn't succeeded, you would have literally had a gaping hole there."
Woodbridge officials also defend the selection process.
"I don't know if you would want to use the word bid, but we sought and solicited and advertised for competitive requests for proposals," said Jim Davy, business administrator for Woodbridge from 1992 to 2000.
Wyatt charged the township only advertised for proposals for the site in one magazine and officials ignored warnings that Family Golf Centers of Melville, N.Y., the contractor awarded the initial deal, had financial problems.
"As things went along, their financial picture got worse and worse," she said.
Work on the center became mired in delays and complaints when Family Golf Centers started moving dirt and quit work before it finished capping the old landfill, leaving trash and dust to annoy neighbors.
"There's the stench, the dirt, the flies -- it's disgusting," nearby resident Linda LaMotta said in August 1999.
Township officials said the problems caught them by surprise.
"This company was a very strong company," Davy said.
Published reports show the cost estimates, which Wyatt and Hersh said started at $6 million, grew to $10 million, $ 12 million and then to $16 million, the figure township officials said they always used.
When the lease-purchase agreement with Family Golf Centers failed to produce a building, Woodbridge filed suit against the company and agreed to pay $812,500 to satisfy subcontractors' liens and reclaim the property, township officials said.
The township then turned to the Middlesex County Improvement Authority as a way to borrow the $16 million cost of the project, plus interest.
Short-term notes with the county authority will be turned into bonds once the money from contributions, advertising and fees for the project are in place.
"There is no likelihood that any taxpayer anywhere is going to have to provide any funding for this community center," Davy said.
But the project's critics question what effect the economy will have on the funding scheme.
"I just don't believe it," Hersh said. "(McGreevey) is going to be out of here, and it is going to be someone else' s problem.''
"They may very well lose money on the fees because maybe people can't afford after a while to come there as often as maybe they would like to," Wyatt said. "And how can you expect companies just to give you money? There is no free lunch."
Critics also raised questions about the perception problem of donations coming from companies McGreevey gave tax abatements.
Giving to the center "was their decision to make," said Davy, who indicated the donations were in no way tied to the tax breaks.
"These companies that come into the township want to be good corporate citizens," he said.
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