Engineer reviewing second round of playing field bids
Manalapan officials are trying to get work started at rec center
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That is what Manalapan officials did in their attempt to find a contractor to build new playing fields at the Manalapan Recreation Center, Route 522.

A second round of bids for the work was opened by municipal officials last week and Township Engineer Greg Valesi is now in the process of qualifying those bids. The lowest of nine bids came in at $3.6 million while the highest bid came in $4.2 million. The seven other firms bid amounts that ranged in between those two figures.

The Township Committee has approved a $4.4 million expenditure to cover Phase 1 work at the recreation center. That appropriation includes $4.1 million to be raised through the sale of bonds.

Officials had hoped to start the Phase 1 work in July after initial bids for the job were received on June 29.

However, Township Administrator Tara Lovrich said a review of the bids by Valesi determined that the low bidder had not included a business registration certificate in his bid package and that was a "fatal flaw."

Officials then sought a second round of bids and those are the bids that were opened on July 25 and are presently under review by Valesi.

According to a legal notice the bidders responded to, Phase 1A consists of the construction of the basic infrastructure for Phase 1 of the recreation center expansion including three natural turf baseball fields, one natural turf multi-purpose field and one synthetic turf multi-purpose field, storm drainage, water and sewer utilities, electrical service, irrigation systems, underground conduit for future sports lighting and associated work.

According to the legal notice, the committee reserves the right to reject any or all of the bids if in its opinion it is in the best interest of the township to do so.

Work on the recreation center project can begin after Valesi reviews the bids and determines if a contract should be awarded to one firm. The committee would then vote to award the contract, Lovrich said.

In a related matter, Lovrich said soil remediation needed at the recreation center due to contamination will be pursued once money for the project is placed in the capital budget.

Lovrich said she will present the committee members with a proposed resolution of approval for the money transfer at the same Aug. 8 meeting at which they will be reviewing the playing fields construction bid.

According to Lovrich, after the committee OKs the funding, Valesi will be directed to prepare a bid package for introduction.

Valesi has told officials that the construction of the playing fields will not will not be affected by the soil remediation project.

According to documents provided to the News Transcript, the soil contamination resulted from a heating oil tank leak in a home in front of the recreation center. The contamination is limited to a thin layer 6 inches or less in thickness over an area of about 22 square feet. No contamination of ground water was found, according to the documents.

Manalapan owns the home where the contaminated soil was found.

Pesticide contamination has also been found on an isolated area on the former farm property. The contamination im-pacts between six and eight cubic yards of DDT impacted soil, according to the documents. Soil will be brought to the site and blended with the contaminated material and then tested to assure the success of the remediation.