Lautenberg grant deadline looms

On May 21, I pointed out that Plainfield was in danger of having to give back to the Feds a grant of $460, 000 that had been secured by Sen. Frank Lautenberg in his first career as Senator.

The grant, one of two secured by Lautenberg (the other was to the Plainfield Public Library, long since expended) for the city, was to be tied to the Tepper's residential/commercial conversion project into Horizons at Plainfield.

Part of that deal was that the ground floor space -- approximately 17,000 square feet -- was to be rent-free in perpetuity to the City of Plainfield and put to a public use.

As part of her 'transition memo' to the Robinson-Briggs administration, Pat Ballard Fox, Deputy City Administrator for Economic Development under the late Mayor Al McWilliams, the expiration date on the grant monies was pointed out.

And I have pointed it out more than once (see my previous post), including in 2006, Robinson-Briggs' first year in office.

Initially, City Administrator Carlton McGee denied the Robinson-Briggs administration had been informed of the grant deadline.

Since his abrupt departure under a cloud, the tune has changed somewhat. The existence of the memo is no longer in dispute.

The line the Administration is now putting out is that the grant expires at the end of September. Not exactly so, as it was tied to performance within a stated period of the DATE IT WAS SIGNED IN 2002.

Word is that the Robinson-Briggs administration is laboring mightily to have the expire date reset.

I wish them well, but there is just one question.

Given this crew's track record, if the expire date is extended, what are the chances they will have a workable proposal by that date?

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Plainfield Today (May 21): "Will city have to give $460K back to Feds?"

-- Dan Damon

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