Overlooked by myself and others at the September 17th meeting of the Middletown Township Committee, was an item with mentioning. On the Meeting Agenda for the night, a public hearing was scheduled to take place on the proposed Township Ordinance "2018-3236 Ordinance Adopting Amended Municipal Complex Redevelopment Plan for Block 815 Lots 1.01, 6 and 7 on the Official Tax Map of the Township of Middletown".
Laid out within the electronic copy of the agenda for the night, was the entire proposal for the planned municipal complex (which you can see by falling the link above). However, that public hearing never took place. It was postponed for a later date, which I've since learned to be the night of Nov. 19th, which is the first meeting of the Township Committee after the Nov. 6th election and 3 days before Thanksgiving. Historically, that meeting is sparsely attended and happens to be a good night to drop a bombshell that few will hear.
So why was this proposed public hearing abruptly rescheduled at the last minute you ask? Well, according to a very, very, reliable person who would have knowledge of the details, after telling residents for months that the cost of a new municipal complex, which Township authorities had estimated to cost $20M, has ballooned upwards and potentially over $54M!That's right, $54M. That's nearly triple the original cost estimate for the complex and Township authorities couldn't stomach presenting that information at the meeting knowing that there were going to be so many people there asking questions about the potential of a huge sports complex being built at Stevenson Park.
$54 million dollars is big chunk of change, what could possibly cost that much money to build? And why, if you read the redevelopment plan, is the Township constructing two buildings to used as some sort of retail establishments? Isn't there going to be enough empty store fronts once the proposed Village 35 retail complex is built?
One other thing that should be kept in mind and it is said quite often about financial dealing like this is, "Follow the money" and "Who will benefit" the most from this. Well, I can tell you who. It's the Bonding agency and it's attorneys! Few people know this but the bonding attorney for the Township is none other the Middletown Republican Municipal Chairman, Peter Carton. His law firm has handle all the bonding projects that Middletown has needed financing for, for two decades. Peter Carton and his firm have gotten fat feeding from the trough of Middletown taxpayers.
As usual, the Township Committee doesn't want you to know about this stuff and are happy to bury this information until after the election, so as not to upset potential voters.
