Fill ‘er up

Nearly nine months after a borough inspector slapped a violation notice on the front door, a Union Avenue gas station’s renovation sits unfinished.

It remains unclear when the new Sunoco station – complete with fading red, white and blue bunting on its facade – will open for business.

Middlesex municipal officials answered questions about the station’s stalled overhaul at the Borough Council’s Tuesday, Oct. 24 meeting. But they could not say when the remaining issues at the site will be resolved.

That appears to be up to the property’s owner. Doors to the station’s building sit boarded up and a power shovel sits in the woods behind the building.

The orange sticker on the front door – posted on Feb. 8 – mentions that required municipal permits were not obtained for interior alterations. It threatens a $2,000 fine for further work that violates the stop order.

The interior alterations were part of the site plan approval granted by the Joint Land Use Board in 2021. That approval included conversion of the former repair shop in the 900-square-foot station building into a convenience store.

But failure to obtain permits was not the only renovation issue uncovered, according to officials.

Council members said that concrete removed during the station’s upgrade was disposed of in the woods behind the property. It has since been removed, but it was another violation to be dealt with, officials said.

The concrete had been buried in the woods and covered over with four inches of soil, officials said.

“It was like 1960 all over again,” said Council President Michael Conahan, referring to an era when environmental protection efforts were lax.

Mayor John Madden said there is also an issue with a dry well on the property.

Council members agreed that the station’s near-finished appearance is peculiar. But Conahan noted that it still looks better aesthetically than the predecessor Getty station that operated on the site for years. That station had a rundown appearance.

During the 2021 hearing, at least one JLUB member commented that he had been “disappointed” by the ongoing state of the site, according to the session’s minutes.

The 140 Union Ave. location is included on the Sunoco.com website’s station roster, listed as station number 8002354201. The site says to contact the owner for business hours.

The property has been owned by Richie and Mike Realty of Staten Island, N.Y. since 2014. During the JLUB hearing, a representative of the realty firm said the station’s intended hours were 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Despite the stalled reopening, the property’s ownership remains current on its real estate taxes, according to the municipal web site.

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