Amsterdam Project Switches Gear After Commission Delay

Hillsborough school officials switched gears on a planned project to fix drainage issues on the parking lot at Amsterdam School, as well as slightly expand and repave the lot, after the Delaware and Raritan Canal Commission rejected the plan.

District Business Administrator Aiman Mahmoud said only the drainage work will be done before school starts, though the district is appealing the DRCC decision.

"We want to complete the job as we originally intended it," Mahmoud said Tuesday. 

The complete project, estimated to total a little more than $200,000, includes drainage to eliminate pools of water that collect after rains—and freeze to solid sheets of ice in winter—as well as repave the lot. Parents and school staff have complained about the treacherous lot for years, and the project is aimed at making it safer.

But the repaving work can't proceed without the DRCC approval because the size of the impervious surface of the lot will increase slightly. The DRCC was created by the state in 1974 to protect water runoff in the watersheds in the area of the canal.

When it became clear the paving work would not possible before school starts, officials switched gears and arranged for contractor Black Rock Construction to only make the drainage repairs.

Mahmoud said the contractor estimated the work will be finished by about Aug. 27.

As for the balance of the work and the funds set aside to pay for it, Mahmoud said the funding will remain in the same line account—since officials still plan to complete the work.