Mums the Word at Monmouth County
While taxpayers continue to pay the approximate $200 a day for the blue boom to be up against Building 23 at Fort Hancock, the National Park Service confirmed that the Monmouth County Vocational School Board of Education has not contacted them or asked for any assistance in stopping ospreys from nesting for more than four years.
The partially torn down building has been under lease from the Park Service for more than four years, planned to be renovated and historically preserved and used for classrooms, health facilities and indoor drill area for the NJROTC program at MAST, the Marine Academy of Science a& Technology. One of the highest rated schools in the state, along with each of the other four vocational technical schools under the Monmouth County Board of Education, it is the only school in the state where every student is required to be a member of the NJROTC in order to graduate. The NJROTC program results in numerous cadets receiving scholarships to military academies as well as other colleges and universities of their choice throughout the United States.
Planned to be built and in use more than two years ago, the original bids for construction came in too high and the job was re-bid last year. Those bids came in higher than the $15 million set aside for construction and have not been offered again.
In the history of the planned construction, all plans were halted in 2020 when ospreys returned to their nest on top of the building, a former barracks facing Pershing Field. National Park Service officials had been working with MAST officials and their contractor regarding osprey management in the winter and spring of 2020. In February 2020, compliance was completed for installation of bird deterrents to prevent nesting on both buildings, including Building 56. This is the smaller building which has been substantially completed and is in active use to house the more than $1 million in US Navy uniforms and equipment for the program.
The Park Service then granted approval for Monmouth County to remove nesting material from the building to prevent the osprey pair from establishing a nest on April 7, 2020.
The goal was to get ahead of osprey so that nesting did not delay stabilization. No issues or delays related to osprey have been brought to the park’s attention since then, a spokesman for the NPS said.
Schools Business Administrator Kelly Brazelton has not yet responded to queries sent last month asking for confirmation of the National Park Service statement that the County has not sought any assistance in removing ospreys and apparently has installed the boom as its effort to halt any nesting.
Nor has Monmouth County Administrator Teri O’Connor responded to any requests for information on the cost to taxpayers for the boom or the lack of communication with the Park Service for any assistance to ensure safety for the ospreys while moving forward with bids add ultimate construction of the MAST facility.
The nest which has been atop the building was absent last month for the first time, but it is not known who removed it or how. The following day, the boom was put in place and has remained there since then.
In the meantime, there have been several reports of ospreys at the site of the nest. Last week, there were unconfirmed reports of the birds possibly starting a new nest on the top of the boom itself, with the sighting of several large pieces of reeds and grass ospreys use in building. This week, there are still some sticks there, and birds week on the boom Monday afternoon.
