Posted on September 9, 2024
Wayne Township Attorney Matt Giacobbe Said That There is Possibly One Way
WAYNE, NJ – After a lengthy discussion on the topic of Wayne dredging Packanack Lake during this past Township Council meeting, the ordinance that authorizes the expenditure of $3.1 million (of which $2,945,000 will be borrowed through a bond and paid for over 40-years,) was passed…reluctantly by some. This is in addition to approximately $370,000 for consultants hired in 2022 and for the down payment on the bond.
When this was introduced during the August 21st council meeting, there were several councilmen who voiced concerns about the cost, about the never-ending nature of the agreement, and questioned how the Township could get out from under this obligation.
Township Attorney Matt Giacobbe had done some research since that last meeting and shared what he found.
In 1975, Newt Miller was mayor of Wayne and a bond was issued “to make improvements up at Tom’s Lake, which is a man-made lake,” he said, explaining that a drainage by-pass system was installed which took water run-off from Tom’s Lake and put it into Packanack Brook, which flows downstream into Packanack Lake.
“As a result of that, sediment and silt from the upper lake, because of gravity, was flowing down,” he said.
After a lawsuit was filed, Judge Salerno issued an injunction, which forced Wayne not to use the drainage system. The two sides then agreed to settle, which allowed Wayne to use the drainage system in exchange for an obligation to dredge the lake’s easternmost finger, which is where the brook flows into.
Years later, “they realized that the outflow was affecting the second finger, which is why there was an amendment [to the 1975 settlement agreement],” said Giacobbe.
But the original settlement, and this amendment was approved by the judge in order to override the injunction. But should the township not fulfill its obligation, they would find themselves in court fighting, what Giacobbe believes would be a losing battle and that injunction restricting the use of the Tom’s Lake drainage system, would be put back in place.
The township would find themselves right back in 1975, being forced to follow the settlement agreement.
“You have to vote for this,” said the township attorney. “You don’t have a right to take matters in your own hands and rip [this settlement agreement] up. If you want to change something, you have to negotiate or look at the root cause of it.”
He suggested that Wayne could, after this dredging is done, hire engineers and see if they can “abate” the problem at Tom’s Lake and stop the flow of sediment and silt from going into the brook. “Then, I think we have something you can talk about.”
Sixth Ward Councilman Jon Ettman was one of the council members who voiced concerns about this during the last meeting. He reluctantly agreed with Giacobbe.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to extricate ourselves from this agreement,” he said. “I think we’re stuck with this terrible agreement. So be that as it may, I am inclined to reluctantly move ahead with it because we really have no choice.”
Mayor Chris Vergano explained that of the $3.38 million, $1.5 million would be used just to get rid of the accumulated silt and to truck it all away.
This will be the third dredging of the fingers done by Wayne Township. It was last done 2012/2013 and before that it happened 2005/2006, according to Vergano.
“The last time, we tried doing it by ourselves and we had stockpiles of the dirt down at the DPW garage,” he said. “Then we were fined by the DEP. We became Topsoil Depot for a little while.”
Giacobbe broke down the “cost estimates,” saying that just removing the sediment dredged from the fingers would take three months, with five people working about 3,000 hours. But, it’s the disposal of the accumulated sediment that will cost about half of the total expenditures for this project.
Fifth Ward Councilwoman Fran Ritter hopes the township had learned a lesson from this. “Note to counsel; note to administration: maybe don’t do things the way Newt did it,” she said
Ettman added on: “No more perpetuity,” he advised.
The 40-year loan to help pay for this project was another concern, given interest over that time, and the fact that this loan wouldn’t be paid off before the next dredging would likely need to occur.
Ritter suggested looking for “funds” from grants that might pay for this and future dredgings. Councilman-At-Large Dave Varano agreed but also suggested that the township start putting money aside over the next decade, to save the township from having to issue another multi-million-dollar bond in 10-15 years from now, when it will likely be time to dredge again.
Now that the funding for this dredging has been approved, the job will be put out for bid and the project will either start at the end of this year or the beginning of next, according to Vergano.
Should the township move forward on attempting to abate the issue and get out from underneath this obligation, TAPinto will be there to cover it.
