Last week, the News 12 New Jersey I-Team reported there were irregularities in Irvington?s brownfield program. Now a state senator is demanding answers about what happened to the half-million-dollar state grant.
The state gave Irvington nearly a half a million dollars more than six years ago to clean up contamination, including sites on Cordier and Grove streets. However, work was never completed and the Department of Environmental Protection says not all of the money is accounted for.
Sen. Ronald Rice wrote to the DEP asking for a status report on the properties, including information on how the tax money was spent.
?We don?t know if these are omissions or errors. We don?t know if there?s an integrity problem,? Rice says. ?To be quite frank, I don?t know if there?s a criminal problem.?
Irvington officials say they are working to account for the money. They have said the problem lies in bad record-keeping by the previous administration, which originally received the funds. Rice says after six years in office, the new administration has to take responsibility too.
Clickhere for the first two parts of this I-Team series.