The Montclair Local’s substation Q&A is careful and fair. But it treats the Township’s and PSE&G’s answers as the record. The Township’s own agendas, resolutions and contracts tell a different story.
(Disclosure: my wife and I own 201 Claremont Ave., next door. I support a new substation. The question is where.)
This was never a siting study. PSE&G says 205 Claremont “became a potential option” only “after public articles” said the Township might replace its municipal building. On Oct. 20, it called the site “an opportunity to align the township’s municipal facilities’ goals with PSE&G’s critical infrastructure needs.” First, move Town Hall. Second, find a buyer. Third, call it siting.
The due diligence isn’t there. The Q&A says PSE&G “considered nine potential locations.” On Sept. 15, Township Manager Stephen Marks told the Council, “I’m not aware of a formal site selection process.” PSE&G promised its nine-site review “will be shared.” It hasn’t been.
- The Q&A says the station serves 9,000 customers. On Oct. 20, PSE&G said 19,000, then about 10,000, then 19,000 again.
- PSE&G says it needs about two acres. Until 2024, it was buying about two-thirds of an acre on Bloomfield Avenue, beside the existing station. It walked away after losing “municipal and stakeholder support”: politics, not engineering.
The deal came first. The public came last. The Q&A dates PSE&G’s interest to a May 6 letter. The Township’s records:
- April 1: “Status of PSEG interest in 647 Bloomfield/205 Claremont Avenue” is on a Council committee agenda.
- April 21: The Council hires a lawyer for “real estate negotiations specifically in the matter of PSEG electrical substation project.”
- June 2: The Township’s appraiser calls the complex a “sale to PSE&G.”
- July 7: A committee agenda lists “Status of PSEG due diligence on 205 site” and a “Township guarantee for execution of substation siting agreement.”
- Aug. 3: The first draft of the plan already allows public utilities. It is introduced Aug. 11.
- Sept. 15: Residents learn of it from a neighbor’s letter.
Follow the money. Up to $50,000 for that lawyer. $40,500 for two appraisals. $42,000 to study the Mills Building as the new Town Hall. Meanwhile, the building the Township calls “functionally obsolete” got more than $900,000 in Council commitments this year: a $438,000 Senior Hub, $349,000 in security and technology, $117,000 for its parking lot. And on Tuesday’s agenda, beside the rezoning, is $42,000 to assess the building’s condition. The Council is being asked to rezone on a study it hasn’t done yet.
Tuesday is not the start. It is the first time residents have been invited in, and asked to sign off.
Councilor D’Amato is right that this is “not a question of if, but of where and how.” That is why the where should not be settled Tuesday, or quietly next year. Strike Use F. If the Council postpones instead, it must commit on the record that this plan will not return until the site review, subsurface results and appraisals are public, and only with fresh notice and a new Planning Board review.
Appraise first. Site second. Vote last.
Glenn Pascrell has been a resident of Montclair for more than 30 years. Listen to or watch The Montclair Pod’s complete interview with him about PSE&G’s proposed substation and read our coverage here.
