Middletown Hires 2 New Contractors For North Track/Turf Replacement

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — What's the latest with the track and turf replacement at Middletown High School North?

The school district has not forgotten about this, which business administrator Amy Doherty called a "major" and "important" project at the most recent Board meeting, held Tuesday night, Jan. 30 (watch it here).

At Tuesday night's meeting, the board unanimously voted to award two new contracts:

• The Board approved a proposal for the resurfacing/repair of the High School North track to ATT Sports, Inc., in the amount of $327,375.
• The Board approved a proposal from Keystone Sports Construction to install a synthetic turf athletic field at North, plus related site and drainage work, in the amount of $880,643.

"This is a major project," said Doherty at Tuesday night's meeting. "We had budgeted for this last year, but there were some delays in getting that project going."

The "delays" she's referring to is the fact that the Middletown school district was sued over this last year: A contractor called LandTek sued the school district in March, alleging the Board of Education improperly awarded the job to rival contractor Applied Landscape Technologies.

Applied then countersued, and the whole project became ensnared in a complicated legal feud between two contractors. Both Applied and LandTek have since dropped their lawsuits against the Middletown school district, said Board president Frank Capone.

Middletown put out a new request for proposals for the job. The project has now been split among two contractors. Also, the district was able to scale back the project "significantly," said Doherty, saving the district about $760,000.

The original bid Middletown was going to pay for the work last year was $1.9 million. Middletown will now pay ATT Sports and Keystone a combined $1.28M, for a cost savings of $760,000, which Doherty seemed very pleased to report at the meeting.

The track/turf replacement is scheduled to resume once the weather warms up this spring. The work will continue through the summer, with the goal of having the North track/turf field ready for use when the school year begins in September 2024.

Capone said he was happy to see the track and turf replacement move forward, "especially saving almost $750,000." The North turf field has not been updated in at least 15 years, he said.

Last year: Middletown School District Sued Over North Turf Field Replacement

District Promises Funds Set Aside For Middletown North Turf Project

Here is the agenda from Tuesday night's meeting, and the paperwork that shows the bids awarded to ATT/Keystone: https://go.boarddocs.com/nj/mi...

Something else Middletown parents should know:

At some point in 2024, the district is preparing to do a "district-wide master facility assessment," said Doherty.

This will be a comprehensive look at all the facilities and buildings in the district, and seeing where improvements need to be made, and if any new construction should be done. The school district will likely eventually ask Middletown residents to vote on a referendum to fund capital improvement work, which means borrow money to pay for the work.

"We really haven't had a large-scale capital improvement plan in nearly 20 years," said Doherty Tuesday night. "It is time we start planning for that. It is time to look at all the things we need across the district."