By Stephen Appezzato
MIDDLETOWN – This week, multiple projects edged closer to completion as the township committee awarded a major construction contract, passed a multimillion-dollar bond ordinance and greenlit an open space grant application.
A milestone, the plan to construct a three-story, 12-unit affordable housing building for veterans moved forward after township officials accepted a nearly $7.3 million bid from Matawan-based Woodward Construction Company. The award comes after the second of three environmental cleanup stages at the lot was completed, which required digging a 20-foot hole, remediating the ground and filling it with clean dirt.
The parcel, located on Leonardville Road in the Belford section of the township, formerly housed a tool rental company. In 2021, the township purchased the land for $355,000 from its Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
“At one point, we were thinking to ourselves, ‘How are we ever going to be able to afford this?’” Middletown Mayor Tony Perry said. When the housing project was initially put to bid in 2023, the lowest offer was $8.3 million – nearly $3 million over budget.
But, “We’re getting it done,” Perry said, who thanked the township committee and other professionals for getting the project to this point. The housing will mean a lot to the veterans who end up living there, Perry said.
At the meeting, planning board member Carl Rathjen recounted when the project was initially presented to the board years ago. “As a former ’Nam Air Force veteran, I’m so glad to see that we’re getting the housing done,” he said.
The township will now begin the final phase of site remediation before construction begins.
A Move To The County
In other news, as the township moves to switch its emergency service dispatch to the county network, Middletown officials earmarked $2.5 million for overhauling its first responder radio network.
Sheriff Shaun Golden noted the areas surrounding Middletown are already on the county system and the system is ready to welcome the Middletown Police Department. “It’s going to be great to have them interact with the neighboring towns and they’ll get more channels and certainly have better coverage in their line of duty,” he said.
Golden said the move was the last component to transitioning to county dispatch.
“We have EMS (and) police already on board and now we’re going to be bringing the fire departments on board as well in Middletown as part of that project,” he said. “Collectively, this is a big move.”
Township committee member Ryan Clarke, a former fire chief, said the 10-year effort to overhaul Middletown’s radio system was “amazing.”
“You click on a radio, and you talk, and you don’t realize the hundreds of thousands of man hours and dollars and energy and effort that goes into making that one click work,” he said. “The decisions that we make up here literally have an effect on everything that they do.”
Park to Get Upgrade
Officials now have their sights set on overhauling Bill Kunkel Memorial Park in the Leonardo section of the township. In a resolution, the township committee approved a county grant application for $500,000 to remodel the park’s baseball and softball field, install new bleachers, overhaul tennis courts to accommodate pickleball, resurface the park’s playground and construct a walking path, among other renovations.
The park’s namesake was a Major League Baseball player and an umpire who was a longtime Middletown resident, explained township recreation director Janet Dellett. “Right now, we’re not really doing it justice for what he did for the town, for his community,” she said.
Earlier this year a new skatepark was unveiled at the park. Officials are now focusing on overhauling its existing features and rededicating it to the MLB legend.
“To me, this is a great next step to completing the overall viability of Kunkel Park, not only memorializing Bill Kunkel’s memory and legacy in Middletown but also providing a great legacy for Leonardo to have this unbelievable new park,” said Perry.
The project is expected to cost close to $2 million. In October, officials will learn if their application to the county’s Municipal Open Space Grant Program is approved.
The article originally appeared in the June 27 – July 3, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
