Search Committee Stalled Library Construction

STONE HARBOR — If, that biggest of little words, Borough Council had not named a site search committee for the county branch library, it’s likely construction would have begun.
County Administrator Stephen O’Connor told the Herald the county had received the necessary Coastal Area Facilities Review Act (CAFRA) permit in time that would have permitted construction to begin by the first deadline set by Borough Council, Jan. 20.
That date was set when council became weary of waiting for the start of construction. It had waited four years, and after that span, had nothing to show for its patience except the tiny branch in Borough Hall.
Through those four years, the county hired an environmental attorney, Neil Yoskin, to work on its behalf with the DEP to amend a regulation that would allow construction of the library near the beach. Moving at an endangered snail’s pace, the regulation was modified after publication time in the New Jersey Register.
Garrison Architects was tasked with creating a design for the library. Its original height was eventually lowered to conform to the new DEP regulation.
Council’s deadline imposed upon the county what seemed an impossible deadline, Jan. 20, to secure the permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection and start construction.
Council’s Jan. 3 action to name a committee to seek other sites within the borough dictates that the search be done and recommendations made to the full council by early July.
At the freeholders’ meeting Tue., Jan. 24, a resolution was to be voted upon to rescind the resolution that awarded contract for library branch construction to R. Wilkinson & Sons Construction, Inc. It postponed the start of the library‘s construction.
For its part, the DEP at first set a 10-day public comment period, then, extended the comment time an additional seven days without notifying the county. By then, the intent of council, with two new members who opposed the 95th Street parking lot site, became evident to the county.
The county consented to wait until July for the desired location of the branch library.