Hopewell Borough Council recently adopted a $775,000 bond ordinance to fund preliminary engineering, final design and construction support services for sidewalk and safety improvement projects covered by the Safe Routes to School program.
The Aug. 10 ordinance is 100% reimbursable. The council also approved a $775,000 professional services agreement with WSP, a Morristown-based engineering consulting firm, to provide the design assistance.
“Despite the fact that we are defeasing all of our debt, we will from time to time have to take out short-term notes to cover expenses especially this large. This is 100% reimbursable $775,000. It is a federal funded grant,” Borough Administrator Jerry Giaimis said.
“Related to that is the professional service agreement with WSP. A while back, a team of us here met with various engineers that were approved by the state for this specific Safe Routes to School program. We settled on WSP Engineering, and this approves them to do the preliminary engineering study that is part of the $775,000.”
The bond ordinance is required because of the amount of the grant, despite the fact that it is 100% reimbursable, Giaimis added.
“Likely that these would be more bond anticipation notes instead of actual bonds,” Mayor Ryan Kennedy said.
The $775,000 for design assistance is in addition to a $1.5 million Safe Routes to School grant awarded to Hopewell Borough in 2024 to implement sidewalk and safety improvements.
Administered by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, the federally funded Safe Routes to School program aims to increase pedestrian safety among motorists and schoolchildren.
Projects covered by the $1.5 million grant include filling gaps in the borough’s sidewalk network and adding sidewalk extensions that would allow pedestrians to safely walk to places such as St. Michael’s Farm Preserve.
Other grant-funded projects include rectangular rapid-flashing beacons at multiple major crossings along Broad Street and Princeton Avenue and upgrades to other crosswalks and overhead flashing lights at Hopewell Elementary School.
