ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS – Capt. Harold Smith of TowBOAT/US is hopeful about reports he might hear at tonight’s night’s meeting of the Atlantic Highlands Harbor Commission. But he isn’t holding out an awful lot of hope.
After all, it’s been since January of 2020, when he began paying his higher rent on the new $1.5. million building where his office is located. And it’s been almost as long since he’s been telling the harbor commission there are major things wrong with it, things that Kappa Construction Co., the firm that built the building, should have corrected before any bonds were released or certificates of occupancy or any other permits issued.
He came to several meetings, told the commissioners about entry door that doesn’t close, the leak at the front, the loose siding, the mold, the air conditioning that isn’t right and the gas valve for emergency shut offs being in the wrong place. He’s been told it would all be fixed.
When it wasn’t, he went to the Mayor and Council, since it is a borough owned building, told them about the lack of action and asked to be released from his lease. Nothing happened.
So he went back to the Mayor and Council again and said he wanted to get out of his lease. They told him that time that it is a Harbor Commission matter and that Commission and their attorney were working on it.
Now Smith has been advised there will be a report at tomorrow’s meeting. He said he has been told that an air conditioning firm will be there on Thursday, and that the gas valve is going to be replaced next week.
But he’s been told other things before that haven’t happened. So while he’s holding out hope for tonight’s Harbor Commission Meeting, he simply doesn’t know whether all the problems, including at the very least the shut off valve location, which are dangerous situations, are really going to be finally taken care of.
It hasn’t all been bad, the mild-mannered businessman who has paid all his rent in a timely fashion and gave a major assist to the Harbor ten years ago after Superstorm Sandy. He said Commission Chair Tom Wal and borough administrator Rob Ferragina has been trying and have been helpful. “When I couldn’t get any answers from management at the Harbor Commission, I turned to them,” he said, “and they tried to do their best. I just hope it all works this time, but who knows?”
Smith said he continues to get his bills from the Harbor Commission without any trouble. But no solutions as of yet.
As to his question to the Mayor and Council about getting out of his lease? “Nope, they never answered that either,” Smith said.
