Posted on September 4, 2024
WAYNE, NJ — A decades-old agreement between Wayne Township and the Packanack Lake Country Club and Community Association could see taxpayers pay $3.1 million to remove silt and debris from part of the lake.
This is in addition to $280,000 already marked for the dredging project, according to township documents.
The lake has not been cleaned out since 2012 and the township has been waiting on permits from the state to do so beginning later this year, Mayor Chris Vergano said.
“The last time we did this, it took us 108 days…we removed 527 truckloads of silt,” he said, pointing out that the accumulated material is not biodegradable like grass or leaves would be.
A bond ordinance appropriating $3.1 million to dredge the lake will appear before the Township Council again at their meeting Wednesday, with the entire cost sitting at about $3.38 million.
The measure was introduced at the Aug. 21 session, where some council members expressed concerns about the cost for Wayne residents to remove sediment from the bottom of a private lake that many can’t even access.
Councilman Al Sadowski and Mayor Vergano discussed the 1975 court ruling which made the cost of dredging silt Wayne Township’s responsibility, after the country club sued to halt a drainage project that would carry stormwater from Tom’s Lake into Packanack Lake.
At first, the settlement applied to the east “finger” at the top of the lake and 15 outfall locations, but an agreement 23 years later added the west finger.
The township is responsible for measuring silt levels every two years, and must dredge the lake to increase water levels when the sediment rises to a certain depth below the water’s surface.
“This doesn’t sit well with me in a number of ways,” said Sadowski, who represents the township’s 2nd Ward. “I don’t understand why the majority of Wayne Township taxpayers, who are already overburdened, are on the hook for $3.3 million for a private lake.”
Jonathan Ettman, the council representative for the 6th Ward, suggested that the township challenge the original 1975 court ruling.
This Google Maps screenshot shows Packanack Lake, and the east and west “fingers,” or inlets.
“It’s just an incredibly expensive proposition that we are stuck with for a private lake that most of the community can’t step foot in,” he said.
But Councilwoman Jill Sasso, who has lived on the lake for 14 years and serves on the Packanack Lake Board of Governors and Board of Directors, said the township has not always held up its end of the agreement — and that the lake contains plenty of material that local residents did not put in.
“We have been fighting with the township for years to fulfill the obligation of the township,” she said. “I would argue that this problem has been going on for decades, and that the remediation that is here has not always been fulfilled.”
Sasso continued on to say that whenever the township or anyone outside the lake community puts anything on the pavement, it will go into the lake and affect the water quality.
“We have been educated on the watershed, that goes far outside Packanack Lake, and yet the members of that lake bear the cost of remediating that lake,” she said, adding that people who do not live on the lake do sometimes use it.
“I don’t love the dollar figure either, but it’s required, it’s obligated, and it’s necessary,” she said during the last meeting.
Furthermore, Vergano and Township Attorney Matthew Giacobbe said there could be a costly court battle ahead if the township does not dredge the lake.
“You have an obligation to proceed with this project,” Vergano told council members.
Wayne Township Council meets at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at the Municipal Building, 475 Valley Road.
