State
to buy 60 homes stuck in school fiasco
Emergency measure aids Iraq vet
and others abandoned by SCC
Thursday, August 25, 2005 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL •
Star-Ledger Staff
Hoping to end months of chaos, the state
yesterday approved emergency buyouts for dozens of
homeowners left in limbo when the $6 billion agency created
to build schools in their neighborhoods ran out of money
years ahead of schedule.
The 60 emergency buyouts are the latest
step in cleaning up the mess created when the New Jersey
Schools Construction Corp. collapsed earlier this year amid
evidence of widespread waste and mismanagement. With much of
the SCC's work suspended since April, residents in many
communities were stranded on blocks that had been largely
vacated and boarded up by the state for use as school
sites.
Among other things, the new program
approved yesterday will let the state buy up the last nine
homes on Newark's Dewey Street, an established residential
block in the South Ward that was decimated earlier this year
when the state relocated most of the longtime residents and
boarded up their homes in anticipation of a high school that
has now been shelved.
Buyouts also will go to four homeowners
in Gloucester City, who have been living among 61 houses
vacated after the state bought them last year to make way
for a middle school, another project postponed for lack of
funds.
"It has been a difficult situation for
this organization," said Al Koeppe, the former Public
Service Electric & Gas chief who was brought in to run
the corporation in May, after a series of critical reports
showed it was squandering public funds.
In some cases, yesterday's buyouts went
to individuals, not neighborhoods, caught in the SCC
implosion.
Monte Wilson, an Iraq war veteran who
faced ruin when the state evicted the tenants of a house he
owns in Irvington, then backed off plans to buy the house,
was included in the new acquisition program.
At yesterday's meeting, Koeppe offered a
personal apology to Wilson, who was serving in Iraq last
year when the SCC began taking steps to buy the three-family
house.
In April, after forcing Wilson to evict
his tenants, the SCC reneged on an offer to buy the building
for $185,000, leaving the returning veteran to manage two
mortgages without income to offset them. At the same time,
Wilson faced a personal crisis. His fiancée died,
forcing him to quit one of his two jobs so he could care for
his six children.
"I'd like to apologize to you if this
corporation created any stress for you," Koeppe told Wilson,
who appeared at yesterday's corporation meeting wearing his
desert fatigues. "With everything you have endured, you have
been nothing but a statesman."
Wilson, who is scheduled to close his
home sale to the state next week, told the board he was
"thankful I got an answer today."
Later, in an interview, Wilson said the
quick resolution to his problem was gratifying. Wilson's
plight had been the subject of a story in the Sunday
Star-Ledger four days ago.
"Over in Iraq, when bombs went off or we
got in a firefight, afterward I'd always reflect on how we
were fighting for our country and freedom," he said. "Now I
know I wasn't fighting for nothing."
Acting Gov. Richard Codey endorsed the
emergency actions and speeded the process along by waiving
the 10-day period he has to consider vetoing SCC
actions.
Koeppe said the neighborhoods slated for
continued acquisition were those where it appeared the state
had already acquired much of the land needed for a site, or
where homeowners faced particular hardships because of the
aborted plans.
"I would characterize it as a must-do
list," he said.
The plan will let the state continue
buying homes at four Newark sites besides Dewey Street: for
Ridge Street Elementary School, Hernandez School, Harriet
Tubman Elementary School and Franklin Elementary School. The
final properties needed for Paterson's School 16,
Irvington's new middle school and Camden's Cooper's Poynt
Elementary School also were approved for purchase
yesterday.
The board also approved buying the last
four of 65 houses needed to make way for a new middle school
in Gloucester City. A $1.2 million demolition contract for
the 65 houses was approved earlier this month.
"The vacant structures have been the
targets of arson, vandalism and drug activity over the last
several months," states an SCC memo recommending the
demolition. "The city clerk of Gloucester City has requested
that the NJSCC demolish the vacant structures to preserve
the health, safety and welfare of the citizens and employees
of Gloucester City."
Those concerns echo complaints made by
residents left behind at school sites in Camden and Newark,
where their once-thriving communities have been turned into
desolate, blighted pockets.
Homeowners like Wilson and those left on
Dewey Street have been at loose ends since March, when the
state inspector general ordered a freeze on new school
construction contracts because of evidence of waste and
mismanagement at the agency.
Last month, their uncertainty deepened
when the corporation's board announced it had enough money
to continue only 59 of the 266 school projects already in
the works.
Yesterday's action means that property
acquisition can continue on nine sites where plans for
school construction have been suspended.
Even with yesterday's action, plans for
building new schools on the acquired land are still on hold.
In many instances the state will only secure or raze the
neighborhoods it has been authorized to buy up. Whether
schools are ever built there remains to be seen.
The SCC board also voted to install its
chief financial officer, Peter Maricondo, as acting chief
executive officer, following the resignation of CEO Jack
Spencer.
The SCC was set up three years ago to
manage a court-ordered overhaul of decrepit school buildings
in the state's neediest communities.
Last month corporation officials
acknowledged that money would run out next year, with only
70 of the 172 new schools envisioned for construction being
completed. Hundreds more classroom additions and school
renovation projects also have been left on the drawing
board, awaiting a new infusion of funds from the
state.
The corporation also announced yesterday
that it approved the first new school construction project
authorized since Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper released
her findings this spring.
The board accepted a $39.3 million bid
from Hall Construction Corp. to build the new First Avenue
Elementary School in Newark, a bid that had been in the
works since February.
Staff writer Steve Chambers contributed to this report.
Dunstan McNichol covers state government issues. He may be
reached at dmcnichol@starledger.com or (609) 989-0341.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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