Tempers Flare Over Edison Project at Council Meeting

[Editor's note: The Feb. 21 township council meeting will now be held at Thomas A. Edison Central Six School on 75 William Street.]

Tuesday's township council meeting quickly heated up when residents took offense at what they considered a lack of transparency about the Edison redevelopment project by township officials.

"Information is not being disseminated properly," resident Rosary Morelli told the council. "There's a lot of suspicion going on because of the moving around of these meetings."

The to redevelop the land surrounding the on Main Street will finally be heard before the township council during the at Edison School.

The rental project, , was pending additional information from the developer.

"The mayor refused to move this project until those documents were in place," business administrator Jack Sayers said. Several documents detailing the infrastructure and financing for the project are now available online.

A handful of residents, though, remained angered by the drought of information surrounding the project before it was placed on the township council agenda.

"There's a lot of stuff to this that you are not sharing. This isn't right, this should have been represented to the public," said resident Christine Bosco who felt the township was not being honest with its taxpayers. "You are asking the people, the taxpayers to pay for what (the developer) is going to develop."

The slew of comments riled up township officials and caused a back-and-forth between both parties, forcing council president Patricia Spango to repeatedly strike her gavel.

"We're not getting answers, we're being ignored!" people yelled from the audience, claiming residents had been cut off during public comment.

Councilman Joe Krakoviak addressed the tension in the room and said residents should be able to speak for their allotted five minutes without being interrupted.

"It's not so much as not letting the residents speak … but when you start to personally attack or accuse people, that's wrong and I am going to stop that," Spango said.

Other residents were confused by the automated calls that only went out to some residents about a meeting on Feb. 15 to discuss the redevelopment.

Sayers confirmed the township will be hosting a Feb. 15 meeting at at 7 p.m. to discuss the project with residents closest to the site.

He said the call went out to a specific section of residents that live near the Edison property. "It has nothing to do with shutting anyone out, we're trying to get people that live there, that live there everyday." He said the meeting, though, would be open to anyone.

Sayers also responded to people's transparency concerns and said assured the township was committed to being transparent.

"I don't know how much more transparent we can be with this process … Our commitment is to make sure that everyone is informed and everyone knows what's going on," he said.

He said additional information would be posted on the website and reiterated the proposals still have to be approved in several meetings before coming to fruition, "There are rules that have to followed, these documents have to be approved at two separate meetings by this council."

To read more about the Edison redevelopment project, see attached documents.