T.F. Board of Ed. welcomes Navy's action on Earle housing

T.F. Board of Ed. welcomes Navy’s action on Earle housing
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — Board of Education officials welcomed news last week that the U.S. Navy is negotiating a settlement with a developer that would avoid privatization of housing at Earle Naval Weapons Station in Colts Neck.

Tinton Falls Board of Education President Pete Karavites said in an interview last week that he is pleased with news that the Navy is working toward a buyout with Seattle based developer Teri Fischer for the homes located at Earle.

“We are very happy,” he said. “It is a good thing for everybody that has been working on this.”

The Laurelwood housing area at the naval base, off Route 34 in Colts Neck, is a 300-unit neighborhood formerly used as lodging for military families.

An agreement with the developer who built the Laurelwood homes for the Navy two decades ago would have permitted Fischer to rent the units to civilians now that the Navy has no need for the residences. According to the agreement, the homes would have been demolished in another 30 years.

At the press conference, Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th District) announced that the Navy would suspend the decision to allow civilians in the Laurelwood housing. He said that decision is expected to clear the way for a settlement and would enable the Navy to reach a mutually acceptable agreement among the federal government, local municipalities and the developer who owns the housing.

Karavites has been a longstanding critic of the Navy’s plan to privatize Laurelwood.

Under the terms of a 1988 contract between the Navy and Tinton Falls, the borough agreed to educate the children of naval personnel living on the base.

The district educates approximately 80 children living on the base and some estimates predicted as many as 400 school-aged children would live on the base if it had become privatized.

However, the Navy’s agreement with the developer provided that the housing units would become public housing by 2010 and the question of whether the Tinton Falls School District was obligated to educate children living at Earle who were not military dependents became an issue for the district.

The district has claimed that the agreement was only for Navy children and that the children of private citizens who would live at the privatized housing would attend Colts Neck schools.

The disagreement resulted in litigation involving Tinton Falls, Colts Neck and the Navy.

Despite the Navy’s decision not to move forward with privatizing the housing, Karavites said he wants a court ruling on the district’s suit, with a judge deciding where the children living at Earle would attend school.

“We still want a judgment,” he said. “We went through it, we paid for our attorney to go through it and we want the judgment.

“We don’t trust the Navy anymore,” he added. “What happens in 10, 20 years from now when the Navy decides to do this again?”

According to Karavites, the Navy has said immediate plans are to knock down the housing units, which he said is welcome news for now but doesn’t assure that this will not become an issue in the future.

“We signed this contract 20 years ago, and did you ever think they’d have civilian housing?” Karavites said.

Karavites thanked those he felt were responsible for stopping the Navy’s plan to privatize the housing.

“We are very happy with all groups, with Congressman Chris Smith [R-4th District], who fought to push this forward,” he said. “NOPE [Neighbors Opposed to Privatization at Earle] did a nice job of pressuring and of course the Tinton Falls Board of Ed started this off by saying no to the United States Navy.”

Several local politicians commented on the Navy’s decision.

In response to the Navy’s announcement, state Sen. Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth and Mercer) said she hoped the announcement meant that the Navy was admitting that the plan to rent the homes was flawed.

“The contract the Navy signed with the developer states that [the Navy] must provide unimpeded access to the very heart of the largest ammunitions depot on the East Coast for the civilians who would be renting these homes. This was a bad plan from the start and it is about time the Navy took heed of what officials at all levels of government have said about the many potential security problems it could bring,” Beck said in a press release.

“From the time I was elected to office, the plan for civilians to live on Earle has been of great concern to me, as well as my constituents,” state Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth and Mercer) said. “Allowing an influx of 300 new civilian families into the area, and all that entails, is a great burden to place on municipalities. … We are talking about serious financial and security risks.”

State Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-Monmouth and Mercer) added, “We have been working on this for such a long time and it is truly gratifying to see that the Navy is finally coming around. Our end goal has always been making sure that unvetted civilians did not have unhindered access onto the property at Earle.”

Karavites said he expected this announcement for quite some time.

“I saw it coming,” he said. “It didn’t shock me that they bought them out; this is what everybody was hoping for.”

Karavites was critical of how much the litigation cost some of the parties involved.

“The Navy should be ashamed of themselves,” he said. “This cost hundreds of thousands of dollars on their end with all these studies.

“Tinton Falls did not spend much at all because we used our in-house attorney,” he added. “We didn’t bring in outside firms like Colts Neck.”

With the announced cut to Tinton Falls state aid, Karavites said he was pleased to have some good news.

“It’s good to have some good news with all the bad news that we have had the last couple of months,” he said. “This will be good for the children and good for the taxpayers of Tinton Falls.”

Contact Kenny Walter at kwalter@gmnews.com.





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