preserved
as a symbol of the township’s heritage; the buildings were a lost
cause and too costly to restore; the costs would drive senior citizens
out of town; the committee was “bickering” and hurting the
township’s image.
Committee
members, for their part, spoke of misperceptions and confusion,
attributing some of that to each other. With the township having put
$100,000 into the project, all five said they opposed any further
commitment of tax dollars.
The four-acre farmstead site, which was acquired as part of a larger
municipal open space purchase five years ago, features a farmhouse,
barn, wagon house and cowshed that date back to the 18th century.
In January 2002, after learning that preservation grants would be
contingent on finding uses for the structures, the committee created the
Rev. Kennedy Farmstead Task Force to explore uses and costs.
Preservation work got underway last year using $289,000 in Somerset
County grants. The task force, which was reappointed through June 30 of
this year, applied for another $550,000 in county and state grants and
set up the Friends group to take over the project.
But on July 13, after the task force and the Friends had declined to
submit a business plan, Chaudry announced that the governing body itself
would take over.
The mayor was critical of the Friends in a July 16 interview with this
newspaper, saying, among other things, “We’re not going to just
blunder along.”
Barn Work
Moschello’s preservation proposal included changes in the ongoing barn
work. A contractor, Schtiller & Plevy of Newark, is fixing the
older, eastern end of the barn under a $146,935 contract, with a plan to
fix to western end if the township gets a $110,000 county grant.
Moschello said it was mistake to take a “half-and-half” approach. He
suggested that the barn work be changed to do only structural work on
the eastern half, deleting a new roof and siding, and using the freed up
funds to dismantle the western half, with the materials to be used in a
later reconstruction.
The barn and the other structures would then be stabilized and
weather-protected prior to a lease agreement, he said.
Earlier, contractor Lawrence Plevy told the committee that the siding
and the roof would be installed in a week or two. But Chaudry said he
told the engineering department that “nothing should be ordered” and
that Schtiller & Plevy was “not to proceed with anything.”
Township Attorney John Belardo, however, noted that any change in the
contract would require the consent of Plevy & Schtiller, followed by
a change order.
Committeeman John Malay inferred that he was left out of the move not to
work with the Friends. “Who made that decision?” he asked.
He then took a thinly veiled swipe at Chaudry’s criticism of the task
force and Friends.
“This is also a debate about how we treat our resident volunteers,”
Malay remarked. He said the governing body had asked for volunteers, a
preservation plan, a schedule, timelines and grant applications, and
each time, “We got it.”
“Then,” he said scornfully, “I read about how, supposedly, we’re
blundering around in the dark.”
Chaudry did not respond but he criticized a July 22 head line in The
Bernardsville News that said volunteers were “axed” from the project
for not presenting a business plan.
“This Township Committee and mayor never axed anybody from working
with the township,” he said. “It is the group that said, ‘We are
not ready to make that commitment.’ ”
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