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Project Timeline
November
25, 2002 BOT Meeting
#283-02 – Resolution Authorizing the Village President to Submit
Applications for Essex
County Community
Development Block Grant Funding for Program Year 2003. [included $250,000
REQUEST for Tony Smith Sculpture]
March
10, 2003 BOT Meeting:
Tony Smith Sculpture - The Village Administrator passed amongst the
Trustees pictures of the statue, the rights of which to build said statue are
being given to the Village. The Village has applied for a grant for the money
for this item, however, the grant does not look promising. Mr. Gross
explained that the donation to the Village is a donation of the right to
manufacture this sculpture. The sculpture, itself,is not being donated. The
estimated cost to build this piece is $80,000. There are also other costs
above and beyond the $80,000 with an approximate cost of $200,000 to
$250,000 for the piece and the maintenance over a period of time. Mr.
Gross commented that the exact costs are unclear as they do not include
shipping and/or installation.
March
14, 2005: BOT Meeting
#77-05 – Resolution Accepting the Gift of a Tony Smith Sculpture.
July 11, 2005 BOT Meeting:
Contract for Consulting Services for Site Improvements for the Tony Smith
Sculpture – Village Administrator, John Gross advised that there will be a resolution
at the July 25th Regular Meeting awarding the contract for professional
services for the Tony Smith sculpture layout on the square.
July
25, 2005 BOT Meeting:
#215-05- Resolution to Engage the Professional Services of SESI Consulting
Engineers to Perform Engineering and Landscape Architecture Services for the
Design of Site Improvements for the Tony Smith Sculpture.
February
27, 2006, BOT Meeting
The following quotes
were spoken by the Board of Trustees WITHOUT CORRECTION BY ANYONE when asked
about the source of the funding for the Sculpture:
“It is coming from a grant that we received” (Calabrese)
“The first $250 thousand was a grant” (Rosen)
“The Statue obtained by a grant and then supported by Committee”(Rosen)
“This money came from a Federal Grant” (Rosen)
“The Village is not going to spend a cent of taxpayer money” (Rosen)
“It did so without sacrificing anything we would ordinary provide” (Taylor)
“The money could only be used for that purpose We did not take tax dollars”
(Taylor)
“The money was given to us for the sculpture” (Taylor)
March 13, 2006 BOT Meeting
According to the 15 April 2006 Star Ledger: “Three trustees
said at a meeting Feb. 27 that the village's $250,000 contribution would be
covered by a federal community development grant and said "no taxpayer
dollars" would be used. But at a special meeting Monday night, the
trustees -- Allen Rosen, William Calabrese and Arthur Taylor -- said they were
misinformed when they gave that guarantee. The community development grant,
they discovered, could not be used for the statue and must be applied to
projects such as the new South
Orange Performing Arts Center.
Instead of using federal dollars, the village will take $250,000 from the
SOPAC capital fund and use it toward the $410,000 project."
News Media Reports
Project Costs
According to Trustee Mark Rosner, the total project cost is as
follows:
Fabrication: $90,000
Delivery and Installation: $20,000
Demo/Site clearing $40,000
Brick Paving $65,000
Structural Soil $55,000
Furniture, landscaping and irrigation $60,000
Lighting $35,000
Site Design and construction admin. $75,000
Total
Cost: $440,000
Cost to taxpayers: $250,000 PLUS the balance of the cost above not
raised by private fundraising.
(At the Feb
27, 2006 Board of Trustees Meeting: In response to questions raised by
Mr. Goldberg, he was advised that the sculpture would cost $85,000 to
fabricate and that the total estimated cost of the sculpture was $410,000
with $250,000 coming from the Village in grant money and the remainder from
fundraising by the Tony Smith Committee which has pledged to cover any and
all other costs including future maintenance costs. Mr. Goldberg asked if
the Village taxpayers would have to pay the balance of the cost for this
sculpture in the event the Committee did not raise the funds. Village
President Calabrese replied in the affirmative.)
These costs also do NOT
include cost overruns and any costs to be incurred for moving and re-siting
the current gazebo and fountain, which will easily push the taxpayer
obligation higher than $250,000.
Public Dialog
Until the March
13, 2006 Board of Trustees Meeting, there was NO official public discussion or written article about the TAXPAYER
COST of this project. (including the above News Media references)
There have been no public hearings or official solicitations of public
opinion.
When the public did directly ask the Board of Trustees about the source of
the funding, Bill Calabrese, Arthur Taylor & Allan Rosen directly lied at
least eight times and stated the money would be coming from a Grant. Don't
believe this? Please feel free to watch for yourself!
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