The state panel in charge of New
Jersey's $8.6 billion school construction program took a glimpse
at the future yesterday -- and absorbed a series of costly blasts
from its troubled past.
At their regular monthly meeting
in Trenton, members of the state Schools Development Authority
unveiled plans to set up webcams to allow residents to monitor
building sites, saying a high-tech site-monitoring network would
increase the program's public "transparency."
Separately, the authority cleared
up tens of millions of dollars in bills left over from three troubled
projects inherited from the panel it replaced, the defunct Schools
Construction Corp.
Authority members got a preview
of the first of what officials hope will be a network of solar-powered
digital cameras to let the public view day-by-day progress at
schools that the agency has under construction.
The demonstration camera, set up
by the Hall Construction Co., offers a panoramic view of work
under way in Trenton, where a new elementary school is being built.
The camera can be accessed at http://oxblue.com/pro/open/hallgc/jeffersonschool.
Barry Zubrow, chairman of the authority's
board of directors, called the camera project "a terrific step
forward."
But Assemblyman Joseph Malone (R-Burlington),
sponsor of the legislation that set up the school building program
eight years ago and a relentless critic of the waste and mismanagement
that characterized its first several years of operation, was less
enthused.
"That's nice," he said. "Does it
also have a counter going there with how much money and how many
change orders are going through?"
The troubled past to which Malone
alluded continued to haunt the school building program yesterday.
Among the matters considered were
three contracts from the ongoing reconstruction of schools, including
two that had to be partially demolished and rebuilt because of
flaws during the initial construction.
One involved the Trenton school
where the work-site camera is located. After spending about $17
million on the new middle school, the construction corporation
had to tear down walls and foundation that had been erected because
soil used for stabilizing the site was tainted with toxins.
Another involved a Neptune middle
school where the corporation is spending about $12 million to
tear down and replace a new facade where mold was growing.
The third involved an Egg Harbor
Township high school that is projected to cost twice what the
Schools Construction Corp. budgeted three years ago. Instead of
$19 million, the authority agreed to pay $40 million toward construction
of the new high school.
"The people responsible for that
error are no longer here," said Scott Weiner, the authority's
chief executive officer. "A ball was dropped at the agency."
Taxpayers so far have spent $6.5
billion on the schools construction program, which was launched
in 2000 in response to a state Supreme Court order to replace
hundreds of decrepit public schools in Trenton, Newark and other
cities.
With hundreds of schools still
awaiting construction, Gov. Jon Corzine has proposed that lawmakers
authorize another $2.5 billion to continue the program.