Moorestown Council Makes Final Decision On Additional $50K For Wesley Bishop Park Project

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Moorestown Council unanimously approved a $50,000 change order for the reconstruction of a hockey rink at Wesley Bishop Park Monday night. The change order was $30,000 less than originally advertised on introduction. A bond ordinance approving the change order calls for the borrowing of $47,500 in bonds or notes.

Council first gave approval for preliminary engineering and design expenses in September of 2015. The price tag attached to that was $100,000. At that time, the total cost of the project was estimated at about $400,000. Last year, Moorestown passed a $150,000 bond ordinance to fund the project.

Moorestown has a $250,000 grant from the county and the Moorestown Youth Street Hockey Association (MYSHA) has agreed in writing to commit $80,000 to the project, in the form of $8,000 over 10 years.

In December, it was revealed that certain aspects of the project that had originally been included during the discussion phase were left out of the final plans. This included a gate, shelter and some electrical work. A change order for $125,000 was proposed, but not approved.

Council decided to move forward with the overhead shelter, initially estimated to cost $80,000. When the proposed ordinance that was approved on second reading Monday night was initially introduced, it called for an additional $80,000 to be set aside for the project. However, proposals were coming in for $40,000.

During the introduction, council lowered the amount to $50,000, and decided that if it cost more than that, it wouldn’t move forward with the proposal. The final vote was 5-0 in favor of the project.

Patch file photo