Driving along Prospect Street in Lakewood has gotten a lot bumpier ever since New Jersey American Water ripped open the road for important replacement of aging water main.
Plans to repave this road with major upgrades to the drainage system continue to be halted as a number of property owners along the roadway have refused to grant Ocean County the necessary easements and rights-of-way.
The County has already been forced to take legal action against a number of property owners in order to keep the project moving forward.
The County has just now filed legal action yet another developer, Mordechai Eichorn, FAA News has learned.
Back in June 2022, New Jersey American Water announced that they were commencing utility upgrade projects across 3 municipalities including in Lakewood along Prospect Street and other roads.
The work involved upgrading the aging cement and cast-iron water lines that were installed as far back as the 1920s with new, thicker ductile iron main.
Additionally, as part of a statewide initiative to remove all lead and galvanized service lines by 2031, the work included replacement of any customer-owned service line that has been identified as lead or galvanized.
This investment will continue to advance water service reliability and increase water flows for household consumption and fire protection in this area.
Typically, utility companies repave roads once they complete their utility line upgrades. However, in this particular instance, Ocean County has anyways been planning to reconstruct the entire stretch of Prospect Street along with major upgrades to the drainage system and some upgrades to the existing traffic control signage. Therefore, New Jersey American Water entered into an arrangement with Ocean County for the County to do all the paving work.
The Ocean County Board of Commissioners have already committed $2.5 million to the project and County engineers have been working over the past few years on the design plans, including for the drainage system improvements.
County officials have been hard at work acquiring the necessary rights-of-way along the roadway for the various easements they need to get the project done.
However, a number of property owners along the roadway have refused to grant the necessary rights-of-way. This has led to a delay in the solicitation of bids for the project.
As a result, the County has been forced to file legal action against the property owners, seeking for condemnations of the necessary rights-of-way.
County attorneys have already filed legal action against 319 Prospect LLC, Prospect Homeowners Inc, 301 Prospect LLC, Yerek 601 LLC, Congregation Kesser Bais Yaakov, Daniel Velasco and Mayra Apraez, SK Prospect Lakewood LLC, which is registered to Joseph Sebbag, and The Estate of Douglas F. Vogel.
County attorneys have also just filed legal action against Grand Prospect Center, LLC, as well as Lakewood Investments LLC, which is registered to Mordechai Eichorn.
These new filings are in initial stages. Hearings are likely to be set later this month.
None of these property owners have given any explanation as to why they are delaying the repaving of the road.
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1 comment:
Do the work and send em a bill
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