Toms River mayor, councilman clash over repairs needed for city parking garage
It's another controversy in town as the new administration wraps up an at-times contentious first three months.
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How safe is the Toms River parking garage? The answer depends on who you ask.
It's another controversy in town as the new administration wraps up an at-times contentious first three months.
Mayor Dan Rodrick and Councilman David Ciccozzi showed News 12 some of the trouble spots they see in the town garage - with two very different opinions.
"It's been like this for years and years. We are here for three months, again the majority of the prior administration, it's specifications the cost was for paint," said Rodrick.
"This is not about getting new paint. This garage needs hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs," said Ciccozzi.
The council voted to table a bid that would fix areas in need of repair - for $500,000.
The mayor has ordered another look by a local firm. The garage was built in 1977 and over the decades has undergone temporary repairs.
"I just think it's an odd thing to push so hard to paint something that clearly doesn't need paint. The stairwell would not cost a half a million dollars to repair," Rodrick said.
The mayor says most of the damage is from poor draining caused by solar panels on the roof - the water runs into the stairwell and gets into cracks, the harsh freeze-thaw cycle taking a toll. Ciccozzi says it's part of a much larger problem.
"He says paint and stucco. There is no stucco. That is concrete that is falling apart over time and the steel is showing," said Ciccozzi.
A new engineering report should be finalized within about a week. Once that happens new specifications will be drawn out for another round of bidding.
