Construction firm facing sanctions
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Intervention by state Assemblyman Michael J. Panter (D-Monmouth and Mercer) has resulted in a Pennsylvania firm being barred from working on school construction projects in New Jersey until at least 2009.

The decision, which was handed down in August by the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, was directed at Ernest Bock and Sons (EBS), of Philadelphia, the contractor that performed renovation and construction work at the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School (MEMS), Millhurst Road.

Due to a litany of code and construction violations, the renovations and new construction at MEMS were not completed as scheduled for the opening of the 2006-07 school year and that caused administrators to keep the entire school closed. For two weeks, MEMS pupils were transported to other schools in the Manalapan- Englishtown Regional School District for instruction.

EBS is contesting the decision and has requested a hearing, according to a Sept. 17 letter the attorney general sent to Panter to inform him of the decision.

An EBS spokesman did not return a request from the News Transcript seeking a comment in the matter.

Panter, who is running for re-election to the Assembly, said he asked the attorney general to get involved in the matter because "this construction company really dropped the ball and kids were the losers."

He said he wanted parents to know that for him, "this was not a closed matter after the school opened and I wanted a closer look taken at the matter. I wanted (EBS) to have to give an accounting as to why it happened."

Panter called the action taken by the attorney general "entirely appropriate." He said the down time will be good for EBS. Speaking about the Notice of Adverse Action, Panter said the decision "puts the brakes on this happening again in the near future."

He said if EBS is deemed by the state to be qualified in the future to take on a job like school construction, the down time imposed by the attorney general's current decision will afford the company a chance to examine its operation and figure out what went wrong with the MEMS construction project and "to fix it so the problem doesn't happen again to other students in other districts."