Estimated Cost of $45K for Well Installation at Chatsworth Firehouse Surprises Woodland Officials, with Mayor Calling It ‘Extremely High’ - Pine Barrens Tribune

By [email protected] | on May 30, 2024

Woodland Fire and EMS sign. Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

WOODLAND—A $45,850 estimate to install a well for the Chatsworth firehouse of the Woodland Fire and EMS Company has reportedly surprised Woodland Township officials.

For the past couple of years now, Mayor William “Billy” DeGroff has called for a well to be installed at the firehouse so that fire trucks battling blazes in the town and surrounding area can be filled more easily and quickly, than having to draft water out of a lake, especially given how wildfire prone the municipality is with its vast forestland.

The township has no fire hydrants (outside of the state-run New Lisbon Developmental Center Complex).

A local well company had based the estimate on an “8-inch PCV Schedule (Sch) 40” well to go down to a depth of “up to 140 feet,” per a copy of the estimate that was included in a provided agenda packet for the Woodland Township Committee’s May 22 session. The estimate also included a “40-foot by 8-inches PVC high capacity” well screen, in addition to a 15 HP submersible, single-phase pump with a control box, as well as other necessities for the project, such as a drop pipe, iron check valve, fittings and wellhead.

Well chlorination and development were also built into the price, in addition to labor, the estimate showed.

“Did we put this out to bid?” asked Mayor William “Billy” DeGroff during the May 22 Woodland committee meeting, to which Township Administrator and Clerk Maryalice Brown replied, “No, Tom just got an estimate to see what we are looking at.”

It led DeGroff to declare, “I think we need to go out to bid because that estimate is extremely high, I think, for a well.”

DeGroff previously vowed that the cost of the well would be funded through Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding the municipality had received following the pandemic, with officials previously describing that the project was an acceptable use of the relief monies.

But Chief Financial Officer Kathy Rosmando warned the governing body during its May 22 meeting that “you have about $24,000 of COVID money” left, calling the amount remaining “not that much.”

“Well, that is what we were thinking that it was going to come in at, and it came in double that,” DeGroff responded.

Rosmando stressed for the governing body to “just be aware of that,” or the relief funding remaining, because the township doesn’t have a capital ordinance at the moment, and “we would have to find money in our budget to pay for the rest of it,” or the remaining balance of the cost to install the well after all the relief monies are applied.

The committee ended up ordering Township Engineer Tom Leisse to put the well project out to bid, but at a cost “not to exceed $5,000.” (Township Solicitor William Burns later clarified to this newspaper that the $5,000 maximum was for the work Leisse is to do to prepare for the bidding).

While Brown contended Leisse was surprised also to see the estimated cost, she read aloud an email from Leisse that indicated it might be at least somewhat difficult for the governing body to find a lower cost.

“What Mr. Leisse says in an email he sent to me is that this estimate was based directly on a site meeting with (the local well company), and it was based on the size of the pump and motor, and what they wanted for discharge,” Brown said. “He doesn’t feel you can go smaller or be much cheaper.”

Additionally, Leisse in that email had pointed out to the governing body that the “estimate also does not include the cost of electric to run the new pump.”

The well is not for potable water, the engineer added, and officials are pursuing simply “irrigation well permitting” because it is a “much more straightforward” and simpler process, compared to the one for potable water.

“I think it is something we definitely need,” said DeGroff after Rosmando raised the possibility of the township having to fund part of the project if the cost holds around the initial estimate.

Fire Chief Shawn Viscardi, in attending the May 22 session, put in a request to the committee for funding to repair a fire truck based at the company’s other firehouse in Lebanon Lakes, a truck that Viscardi described as having failed a pump test back in April. After the fire chief described it requiring repairs somewhere in the” neighborhood of $1,900,” the governing body granted the request, in a 3-0 vote.

Viscardi, following the approval, forewarned the governing body that another vehicle in the company’s fleet has a “pretty substantial oil leak” in which he is “not sure where it is coming from.”

“I have to get an estimate,” he advised.

Moments later, when it came time for “Committee Comments,” Committeewoman Donna Mull asked Viscardi for a “report” to justify the quarterly contributions the township has been giving to the company (an audit was previously requested of Viscardi).

The fire chief responded that the reports given to the committee had been “changed” to add additional detail, but Mull, in contending she was seeking “transparency,” maintained it was not detailed enough.

That led Viscardi to respond that the company’s attorney advised it is “not required” of the company to provide that level of detail to the township, but that such reporting is available for any audit.

Mull, however, persisted that she wanted to see the “checks” showing specifically what the contribution dollars are being spent toward, to which Viscardi replied he would “talk to the treasurer about it.”

“I just think there should be some more transparency on where the money is going … ,” Mull declared.

The less than 20-minute meeting, the last one scheduled before a GOP primary in which local Battalion Chief Christopher Stopero is challenging veteran GOP Committeeman and Deputy Mayor Mark Herndon, began with the governing body awarding Phase I and Phase II of a Lebanon Lakes repaving project to Earle Asphalt Company.

One awarded contract (for Phase 1) is for $110,313.13, and the other (for Phase II) is for $123,113.12, with the township having previously received grant funding from the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) to put toward the resurfacing project.

But DeGroff, prior to the committee making the award to Earle, questioned the governing body giving contracts to the company “even though we have a lawsuit” against them, to which Burns denied that was actually the case, though he acknowledged there is an ongoing “dispute” between the township and the company.

“We are not suing them in civil court,” Burns said. “We have an ongoing dispute with respect to that because the NJDOT has never really weighed in.”

Since Earle “came in as the lowest responsible bidder” for Phases I and II of the Lebanon Lakes repaving project and it is not on a “list” that would deem the firm unqualified to bid on the project, Burns declared, “there is no way not to award them.”

And so, the governing body awarded the paving firm the pair of contracts even as DeGroff alleged the company “did not do a good job last time,” with Burns asserting the mayor was “absolutely correct” in that the last time, there were allegedly “air pockets within the paving.”

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