The Delaware River Port Authority is poised to drain the remaining funds in its controversial economic development pot by allocating $20 million toward civic and community endeavors and returning $10 million to its accounts for debt reduction or future capital projects.
“For most people, it should be recognized as a compromise,” John Matheussen, DRPA chief executive officer, said Monday.
The DRPA’s commissioners have debated for approximately a year what to do with the remains of a pool of money it borrowed and allocated for a variety of projects in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania — from repairs to a rail line between Swedesboro and Salem to construction of the stadium in which the Philadelphia Union soccer teams plays in.
A resolution set to be considered Wednesday by the DRPA’s Finance Committee would allocate:
• $2 million to the Food Bank of South Jersey based in Pennsauken Township.
• $2 million to Rutgers University in Camden as part of its construction of a 12 story, 350 bed student housing facility at the intersection of 4th and Cooper streets. Construction is underway.
• $1 million toward a $105 million “Transit Village” along Haddon Avenue in Camden between the PATCO High Speed Line’s Ferry Avenue station and Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center. The DRPA funding would go toward road improvements.
• $6 million toward a $106 million Cancer Center at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. The four-story building on Haddon Avenue is slated for completion in 2013. George Norcross, considered the “boss” of the South Jersey Democrats, chairs the hospital board of directors.
• $4 million for improvements to the rowing course along the Cooper River in Pennsauken Township and Collingswood. The overall $8 million project includes improved lighting, parking and restroom facilities. The project has been championed by Jeffrey Nash, a Camden County freeholder who also is chair of the DRPA finance committee.
• $4.235 million to the state Economic Development Authority toward redevelopment of the former Riverfront State Prison site along the Delaware River in Camden.
• $400,000 for repairs to Freedom Pier in Gloucester City.
John Hanson, DRPA chief financial officer, said those seven projects represented cases where “we had gone to contract but they were not signed” when the DRPA’s commissioners in August 2010 opted to freeze what it had left. At that time, now former Commissioners as John Dougherty, a labor leader from Philadelphia, wanted to use whatever funds it could pull from the economic development pool to delay a increase in tolls on the four DRPA bridges spanning the Delaware from $4 to $5 — collected westbound only as well as a 10 percent increase in PATCO High Speed Line fares.
The funds, it was determined could stall a fare increase for six months. However, the DRPA was advised that the source of the funds required any unspent money to be used for debt reduction or capital expenditures — not delaying a toll increase. The fare increases went into effect on July 1 — after two delays from the original timetable.
Gloucester County received $5 million from the fund — to go toward sluice gate work along the Delaware River in Greenwich Township and to study the potential for a port to be developed at the former DuPont Repauno Works property, also in Greenwich. The DRPA, while it looked at pulling back the funds it had allocated toward the two projects, later determined there were contracts in place that could not be voided.
Assuming the finance committee approves the resolution on Wednesday, it would go before the full 16 member DRPA commission on Dec. 14.
“If the DRPA funding does come through that would be wonderful and greatly needed because we’re in a deficit funding situation right now,” said Val Traore, Food Bank chief executive officer. The agency has pleaded for release of the DRPA funding, noting it is $300,000 in the red.
“For the present, we’re staying focused on finding food to feed the increased numbers of hungry people in South Jersey,” Traore said.
Sean Leonard, chairman of the DRPA’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee, said the group “is encouraged by the proposed resolution related to the unspent economic development monies. Although it is not perfect, the CAC feels that this is a fair compromise.”
The resolution before the finance committee does not specifically mention the fate of the remaining $10 million in the economic development pool.
Hanson said $1.9 million already has been applied to debt service. Tim Ireland, DRPA spokesman, said funds will also go toward future DRPA capital projects.
Included in the funds “going back” — as Hanson put it —are $3.5 million associated with a possible reopening of the shuttered Franklin Square station along the High Speed Line and $3 million allocated toward Pyne Poynt Park in Camden.