Neglia Engineering, the borough’s engineering firm, was awarded $11,400 at the first September Mayor & Council meeting for ‘design and construction management engineering services’ for repairs and improvements to parks in the borough – namely Acker Park and Aldene Park. There are numerous rides and sections in need or replacement and/or repair including the clatter bridges at both parks.
For at least four months the bridges have been removed from the parks. Also in that time swings, pieces of the actual playground, and the spring rides have become unavailable.
Resident David Robertson spoke on Resolution 272-18 at the public comment portion of the September 6th municipal meeting. He stated, “We have had repeated and on-going engineering and construction and rework on the borough’s children’s parks – specifically Aldene and Acker – and yet both remain in a state makes them all but unusable.”
He continued, “We need some accountability to get these things moved forward and repaired . . . This has gotten out of hand with those parks. It seems like every time we turn around we’re hiring a new construction company, going int to do more engineering and doing something with the park, and then, next thing we know, it’s torn up and can’t be used again.”
Councilman-At-Large Joseph DeIorio remarked that a purchase order was signed that day that will allow repairs to ‘a good portion’ of the parks. The remaining larger portion of work will need to go out for bid in line with the bid threshold for such work.
Mayor Carl Hokanson provided more information, “We were down there two weeks ago; myself, the engineer, the DPW superintendent. We went through every piece of equipment, the ones that were damaged, the ones that are missing, the clatter bridges. We brought the representative in from General Recreation. We went through the park again, piece by piece, item by item . . . He was able to get us the quote in under state contract very quickly.”
Mayor Hokanson added that the purchase orders were signed and that, Hopefully, the parks will be up and running as far as the equipment goes ASAP.”
The $11,400 will not be to pay for any repairs but to, instead, have Neglia manage the project and provide design and engineering services. In a previous article written last month, it was stated by a source that the reason for the delay in work was due to Neglia Engineering not giving the go ahead at that time.
Mayor Hokanson concluded his statement on the topic by saying, “I tend to agree with Mr. Robertson as far as some of the responsibilities but I’ll leave that up for later.”
The bid process requires a deadline, opening and accepting of a bid, then approval of that bid by the governing body through a resolution. It appears the bids will not be voted on until October at the earliest which means repairs will be done in the fall sometime.