STATE GIVES CATERER DUBIOUS CONTRACT EXTENSION FOR SKYLANDS MANOR; RUSSO, RUMANA ABSENT

RINGWOOD – The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has approved a sweetheart contract for a caterer to use Skylands Manor in Ringwood for 30 years and neither state assemblyman from the district bothered to intervene, says GOP Strong  -- a conservative Republican organization

The State House Commission and the DEP this week approved a 10 year contract extension to Mansion Caterers at a meeting in Trenton that neither Assemblyman Scott Rumana or David Russo bothered to attend. they have also failed to address the controversial lease extension, which many people have questioned since the lease extension was raised last summer.          

The contract extension gives Mansion Caterers a 30 year exclusive claim on the Manor that is owned by the state taxpayers.  The lease and its extension have been opposed by members of the Skylands Association, a volunteer group that includes North Haledon Mayor Randy George,  because it gives Mansion Caterers too much control over public access to the state owned manor.

“The contract is just a bad deal for taxpayers and for people who appreciate architectural history,” said George.

GOP Strong Co-Chairman Michael Ramaglia of West Milford questioned why neither Assemblyman Rumana, nor Russo bothered to attend several meetings on the contract extension or to address the lack of public access to the site  or to question the terms of the  contract, which many people find objectionable and one sided.  

“Skylands Manor is in their legislative district. It is a Passaic County landmark. Yet, neither of these legislators could find the time to attend meetings on the contract extension or to write a letter objecting to the contract.  I think that their absence reveals how little concern they have for their district,” said Ramaglia.

Mansion Caterers operates an exclusive catering business out of Skylands Manor – which the company has renamed The Castle at Skylands, according to the company’s web site. 

To service its business, Manson Caterers controls access to the Manor and its immediate grounds 340 days a year, leaving little time for the public to view the stately mansion or for the volunteers to hold fundraising events at the site.  When volunteers want to hold an event at the manor, they need to make requests three months in advance if not more. The caterer even forced the Skylands Association to move  the date for its annual Holiday Party, which serves as a fundraiser for the organization.

Besides operating a catering business Mansion also operates a bed and breakfast facility at the manor, making 24 rooms available to patrons.  But booking one of the rooms is nearly impossible as a check of the company’s web site found that the rooms are booked up through the end of the year.  

Tom Grissom, the president of the Skylands Association said he suspects the rooms are being reserved for the caterer’s clients and generally not available to the public. “It’s rather odd that none of these rooms are available,” he said. “Yet no one at the state questions that.”

Skylands Manor, sits amongst the 1,000 acre New Jersey Botanical Gardens. The site was the first purchased with Green Acres funding in 1966. The Manor was designed by noted American Architect John Russell Pope who was educated at Ecole des Beaux Aris in Paris. The builder was Elliot Brown Company, a New York City firm that also built estates for Franklin Roosevelt and E. Rolland Harriman.

Grissom said people are outraged over the financial aspect of the contract,  which pays the state $100,000 annually for rent until 2025, when it goes up about $3,000 a year to a final fee of $134,392 in 2034. The state is also supposed to get 15 percent of the total gross revenue over $2.3 million.

For the past five years, the state has paid the first $12,000 in electrical costs and split the fuel oil costs.

Many people object to a commercial enterprise being run at a site that was purchased with taxpayer money so it could be preserved for public enjoyment.

“My question is why haven’t Rumana and Russo interceded here and compared this contract to what’s available in the private sector?" asked Ramaglia “Shouldn’t the assemblymen have demanded that the taxpayers get a better deal?”

Grissom said the lease arrangement curtails his organization’s ability to conduct tours of the manor and doing the kind of public education that is needed to help people appreciate the magnificent manor.

“Very simply put, Mansion Caterers wins, the public loses,” said Grissom, who noted that the 30 year lease is “outrageously long.”  He also said the fact that the caterer gets to operate its business at Skylands with no increase in rent for the next 13 years is “quite disturbing.”

“The DEP has once again shown their lack of concern for public interest and has allowed this lease to go on for far too long,” said Grissom.

Even more disturbing said Grissom is that the Skylands lease will become the blueprint that the DEP will use for other publicly owned historic sites in the state.

“If this is the blueprint the state will use elsewhere in the state, the public will lose access to many historic and environmental sites and the state will not be properly compensated for,” said Grissom

Anne Marie Pusterla, a GOP Strong Co-Chair questioned the wisdom of allowing private concerns to take over public facilities.  “I have to question whether running commercial enterprises out of  historic building and limiting public access to a few days a year is a wise endeavor,” say Anne Marie Pusterla, a GOP Strong Co-Chair.