Bid rejected for former ‘junkyard’ on Orchard St.

Borough will tackle environmental cleanup

By SALLY CAPONE, Staff Writer

MADISON – While the borough is anxious to get money from the sale of vacant property on Orchard Street, a selling price of $200,000 just wasn’t enough.

After a bidding process on Friday, Dec. 5, that brought out more borough officials than bidders to the public auction for a .57-acre vacant lot at 22 Orchard St., the Borough Council rejected the highest bid of $200,000 at its meeting Monday, Dec. 8.

The council unanimously rejected the bid in a resolution for the sale of the municipally owned property, which has been vacant for several years at the corner of Orchard Street and Strickland Place.

“The borough had reserved the right to reject the highest bid, which came in substantially lower than the appraisal,” said Borough Attorney Joseph Mezzacca Jr.

Two Bidders

At 10 a.m. Dec. 5, Room 320 at the former Bayley-Ellard Catholic High School off Madison Avenue – which is serving as “borough hall” during extensive renovations to the Hartley Dodge Memorial municipal building on Kings Road - was nearly empty as Robert Kalafut, borough chief financial officer, began the bidding process at $200,000.

The two bidders, Robert Roselli of Morris Plains and president of the Emerald Investing and Consulting Group, and Louis Riccio, director of the Madison Housing Authority, remained silent.

Kalafut then dropped the amount to $100,000 before increasing it in increments of $10,000.

The bidding went back and forth between Roselli and Riccio, who stopped at $190,000, giving the winning bid to Roselli.

After signing the contract, Roselli gave a $25,000 check to Mezzacca for deposit in a trust account.

In addition to Mezzacca and Kalafut, Mayor Mary-Anna Holden and Main Street Executive Director James Burnet sat in on the proceedings.

The property, which had previously been occupied by the Guerriero Paving Company, is an environmentally unsound half-acre corner lot that has long been the bane of surrounding neighbors, who called it a “junkyard” and a “dump.”

They have complained over the years that the property is at best an eyesore and at worst a health hazard.

At Friday’s auction, only one neighbor showed up, Joseph Mottola, a longtime resident of Orchard Street.

“It’s a steal for $200,000, even with the cleanup,” he remarked.

Mottola noted that there had been lots of activity around the lots during the past week, with potential buyers “stopping and looking” at the property. But that’s as far as it went, apparently, considering the sparseness of bidders.

If the bid had been approved by the council, Roselli was planning to build two homes on the property, which would have relieved neighbors, who have expressed fears that the Madison Housing Authority would get the lots and build affordable housing.

“It’s a gamble; I don’t know what the cost will be to bring the property up to standards,” Roselli indicated Dec. 5.

A 2007 remedial analysis by the Environmental Engineering Corporation estimated the cleanup could cost $195,000.

That figure decreased the original appraisal, said Borough Administrator Raymond Codey.

Borough To Clean Up

The borough now plans to apply to the state Department of Environmental Protection for so-called “brownfield” money to rehabilitate the property on its own before beginning the bidding process again, Codey explained.

In any case, re-bidding won’t begin again until after the holidays, he said.

The initial appraisal for the three-lot property, zoned for two homes, was $700,000, Codey said.

If the lots were rezoned for three homes, the appraisal price would increase to $900,000, he said.

In either case, $190,000 for a cleanup would be deducted, Codey said.

Neighbors have long protested the property constitutes a health hazard, citing oil that had seeped into the soil among other conditions, and officials said the buyer would be contractually responsible to undertake an immediate cleanup.

According to the contract, on closing, the buyer would be given 14 days to complete a surface cleanup and erect a fence around the property.

Also, if the buyer doesn’t adhere to further 18-month cleanup requirements in the contract, the borough would regain the property at the full purchase price.

The municipality acquired the property in 2004 in a foreclosure for more than $140,000 in back taxes.

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