‘No further action’

A Pond Avenue firm’s on-site paint recycling proposal has been withdrawn . Meanwhile, the Borough Council’s negotiations to buy the former Presbyterian Church property have also fallen by the wayside.

Officials explained the circumstances related to each during the Borough Council’s Tuesday, Nov. 26 meeting.

Mayor Jack Mikołajczyk had been engaged in ongoing email communications with the Middlesex County Solid Waste Advisory Council regarding the Class D recycling plan for the GDB International’s 207 Pond Ave. facility. During an exchange on Nov. 20, according to the mayor, a county official wrote that GDB had dropped the paint recycling application. Borough officials had been anticipating it might be amended.

According to the mayor, the email stated, “The county will not be taking any further action on this matter.”

The specific reason for the withdrawal remains unclear. Answering a followup text from Inside – Middlesex on Dec. 2, the mayor noted that officials had toured the 207 Pond Ave. site. During that tour, it became clear that the application filed with the county did not accurately reflect GDB’s intended use of the property. How that occurred also remains unclear.

Regardless of the exact circumstances, GDB’s withdrawal of the paint recycling application is welcome news to residents of the nearby Runyon Avenue neighborhood.

The county held a public hearing on GDB’s proposal in early October at the Ronald S. Dobies municipal building. Runyon Avenue residents attended and voiced concerns. They included potential traffic effects, the possibility of industrial odors and whether local first-responders would be equipped to handle a large-scale chemical fire at the recycling facility.

One stipulation to approval – that was potentially a major hurdle – emerged after the October hearing. At a subsequent council meeting, Mikolajczyk said the paint recycling application would need approval by the borough’s Joint Land Use Board as well as Middlesex County authorities.

Although the proposal has been withdrawn, the borough intends to check-in on the 207 Pond Ave. site, at least in the short term. According to Mikolajczyk, Zoning Officer Tyler Gronau will conduct a followup visit there “to make sure everything is on the up and up.”

Also on Nov. 26, Mikolajczyk and Borough Attorney Chris Corsini explained that talks centered on acquiring the former Presbyterian Church property ended earlier this year.

“it’s out of our purview right now – nothing,” said the mayor. “There’s no contract,  we’re not obligated to buy. The Presbytery owns it. It’s their property to do as they please.”

Corsini said discussions with church representatives had “terminated.”  When the borough forwarded a counter-offer earlier this year, “They didn’t bite,” Corsini said.

“We made a counter-offer, they didn’t accept it,” Mikolajczyk added.

The church property or related topics had appeared frequently on the council’s executive session agendas dating back to summer 2022. It was most recently listed on the closed session agenda this past August.

The council passed a resolution in September 2022 stating the intent to purchase the Presbyterian Church parcel for $900,000.

An environmental study ensued. Although officials never gave details publicly, they acknowledged that the study uncovered potential issues with the six-acre property.

The Presbyterian Church parcel sits on Mountain Avenue between the former borough landfill and the municipal building. The landfill was once found to contain contaminated soil trucked there from the former Middlesex Sampling Plant site. The MSP was the site of Manhattan Project research that led to the country’s development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s.

The landfill was remediated under the direction of the federal government and has continued to be subject of groundwater monitoring.

Last March, the council passed a followup resolution, that included a proposed, lowered purchase price of $350,000. The price drop was apparently due to the study results. Borough officials had eyed the former Presbyterian Church building as potential space for the recreation department and senior services.

Officials have not released a tally on the expenses incurred during the now-terminated church property negotiations. Those costs included the study plus legal fees.

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