West New York’s Board of Commissioners has approved a resolution authorizing an increase in the contract for the construction of the parking deck project on 57th Street.
The project was first authorized by the commissioners back in 2019. That resolution authorized the design of a parking deck at the municipal parking lot at 57th Street and another at the lot on 67th Street, estimated to bring in over a combined 400 parking spaces to town.
The move to initiate the parking deck installment was the town’s first major project following the dissolution of the West New York Parking Authority. In addition to those, the town is also renovating the municipal parking lot on 51st Street to become a two-story parking deck with 300 more spaces as part of Phase 1 of its Parking Deck program.
Construction commencing?
Special Projects Manager Jonathan Castaneda detailed the current status of the project at the November board meeting. The town already has a contract with Clarke Caton Hintz for $350,000 for this year as Special Project Architects in addition to the contract for this project.
“So the initial award of the contract was for the design,” Castaneda said. “We’re now moving into a construction phase or a preliminary construction phase.”
The increase in the contract for the parking deck is the result of the additional cost of the construction management portion. While this wasn’t in the initial contract, the town is adding it in now as things move from the design phase to shovels in the ground.
“We didn’t initially put that into the award, but we’re adjusting that now as we move towards the construction phase,” Castaneda said.
According to Castaneda, the resolution authorizes an increase in the contract not to exceed $45,000. A contract has not yet been awarded for the deck planned at the 67th Street lot. Meanwhile, in March a contract for renovations to the pre-existing 62nd Street parking deck was awarded to Sealcrete Contracting, LLC for $264,840.
Addressing parking concerns
That conversation was prompted by resident Mark Bloomberg, who has been critical of the town’s repainting of parking space lines in recent months.
Bloomberg has alleged that the parking space repainting initiative, which aims to help provide more parking, has done the opposite. In addition, he contends that the repainted parking spaces are confusing considering the old space lines are still visible underneath.
At the November meeting, Bloomberg said that he recently met with Commissioner Yoleisy Yanez to further evaluate the situation. She had previously inquired about meeting with Bloomberg to investigate the issue on his block and defended the project alongside other officials.
“I want to thank the Commissioners for the many of the things that you’ve done and accomplished over the last year,” Bloomberg said. “I know I can be very vocal at times and I don’t always say thank you.”
Mayor Gabriel Rodriguez and Commissioner Yanez thanked Bloomberg for being vocal about local issues that affect him.
“It is refreshing to see,” Rodriguez said. “We know you care for this community as much as we do. To see that you are acknowledging the things that we’re doing is much appreciated.”
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