Today's article gave a better depiction of the events that went down Monday night then the first article that was published yesterday.
In this article Penton has quotes from Township Administrator Tony Mercantante, who many feel is the real person behind the West Front Street field proposal.
In the article Mercantante is quoted as saying "If it fits, it fits, but that is yet to be determined.", which was in reference to the multipurpose field, two baseball fields and 221 parking spaces depicted on the plan which was presented by Alan Vrable on behalf of the River Plaza/Lincroft Chargers Pop Warner Football team that plays it games at Trezza Field, to the Township Committee.
Vrable told Mercantante and the Township Committee that the plan for Trezza Field was based on the 2007 T&M Engineering wetlands study, the same study that the township used to determine that Trezza field was not a viable location for the field upgrade and which made the Township decide to build the sports complex at West Front Street instead.
The article also went on to state:
"Middletown's analysis of the residents' plan will include a cost estimate for earth disturbance so parking spaces can be added to Trezza Field, Mercantante said. The residents' plan eliminates a playground and a basketball court that are currently at the site, he said." ...
And concludes with words from Mayor Scharfenberger about how the Committee would take a serious look at the plan and determine if the plan was a viable alternative or not.
On the surface you may want to take what Mercantante and Scharfenberger had to say at face value and give the the benefit of the doubt, but after thinking about the quotes I was left to think that this just may be lip service.
Mercantante didn't seem convinced that the plan would work and seemed to question the fact that the plan as presented by Alan Vrable eliminated a playground and a basketball court in favor of parking.
Would eliminating a playground and a basketball court be considered a viable alturnative by Mayor Scharfenberger? I don't know.
Also I would like to point out that in both of Kevin Penton's articles on the meeting he quoted Deputy Mayor Tony Fiore who was not there but was on the phone from Orlando Florida attending a work related continuing education class, about how the closing down of CMX Engineering was just a little speed bump in the road and that it wouldn't hold up the process of deciding about the installation of the fields.
But what stood out to me during Fiore's comments wasn't what he had to say about CMX but what he said about the field installations in general, which was that the Committee would listen to "OUR" engineers and "OUR" professionals when determining what would be the best location for the installation of turf fields.
With this all being considered, I wonder if Mercantante, Scharfenberger and Fiore meant what they said, because if they do except the plans that were presented on the behalf of the Chargers than they would be admitting that their engineering firm gave them bad advice or is incompetant and they would be throwing them under the proverbial bus if they don't proceed with the exsisting plan for building the sports complex at West Front Street.
2 comments:
Who prepared the new plan presented by SONIC? I heard them say it was a professional engineer, but no one said who it was.
I don't know who prepared the plan for Pop Warner/SONIC but I understand why they did not say at the meeting.
If they announced who the engineer was that prepared the plan before it was looked at by the Township, the group felt that the Township could apply pressure to the individual engineer or firm an possible make them retract their work as a possible hoax prepared for the money.
Not giving up the name upfront was a tactic to ensure that the township takes the plan seriously on its merits as opposed dismissing it out of hand due to the preparer.
I am sure that once the plan is taken seriously by the town, the name of the engineer will be made public.
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