Soil Testing Funds Approved in Garwood

Garwood Council approved $12,500 for additional soil testing on the borough's under-construction athletic field complex at a special Friday meeting. The borough's insurance provider would pay for half of that cost and no additional funds need to be raised, as the bond contingencies already cover it, explained officials.

Council went into executive session at the start of the meeting and returned to vote on the additional funds. 

Garwood resident Bruce Paterson questioned the council as to how the need for additional testing came about and what materials were found in the soil. 

Borough attorney Robert Renaud explained that there were no hazardous materials found and that the additional testing arose out of a dispute with the contractor, Flanagan Construction. 

"In order to proceed, we determined there should be some private testing," said Renaud at the meeting. "No hazardous materials were found, but because it does involve a dispute between the borough and a contractor – though I think talking about litigation is premature – but there is a dispute regarding the condition of the soil, which we determined would be best dealt with by doing additional testing."

Testing began yesterday.

Councilman Jim Mathieu took issue with the additional testing, saying it was another way the borough had misled residents about the total cost of the project.

"I am opposed to this additional testing of soil excavated from the AFC as a waste of money and a distraction from the real issue at hand," said Mathieu. "That issue is that the contractor, Flanagan, only bid $1,000 to remove what the borough had clearly advertised as a large amount of contaminated soil. I believe Flanagan submitted this low bid in an effort to win the AFC contract and with the intention that it would ask for more money once the project had begun for what was obviously going to be a much more expensive undertaking.  To the extent that the Mayor and Council knew or suspected that Flanagan had deliberately underbid this item, we were complicit in creating the current impasse.  In this way, the public was deprived of knowing the true cost of the AFC." 

Mathieu was the lone no vote against approving the testing. Councilwoman Sara Todisco was absent from the meeting.