Despite its largesse, DRPA should stop backing non-transportation projects, Pennsauken board member says

Pennsauken Mayor Rick Taylor says he opposes the Delaware River Port Authority's controversial practice of spending toll money on projects unrelated to transportation.

But Taylor, a DRPA commissioner, has nothing but gratitude for a $700,000 grant the authority is giving his township for a football complex.

When the DRPA says, " 'We have $700,000,' I'm not going to say no if it's going to be for the betterment of my town. I certainly wouldn't turn my back on that," said Taylor, who is up for reelection in November.

The authority, which has been under fire for its spending practices, signed a contract with Pennsauken last week that authorized the release of $700,000 in toll money to transform a collection of shoddy athletic fields township residents know as "The Pit."

The DRPA operates four Delaware River toll bridges and the PATCO commuter rail line between Philadelphia and South Jersey.

The $700,000 came from a $1.4 million revolving loan fund established in 1993 for Pennsauken and Gloucester City, which host two of the bridges. The resolution approving that fund made clear that the money was to be spent on economic-development projects.

That all changed during a flurry of activity at the authority's final meeting of 2009.

With Taylor abstaining, commissioners approved a resolution to convert money from the loan fund into an outright grant "to support open-space preservation," records show.

Officials passed the measure as they doled out the last of the DRPA's economic-development funds - more than $20 million - for causes around South Jersey. They pledged that new toll money would no longer go toward such projects.

The DRPA - which plans to raise bridge tolls 25 percent, to $5, next July - has faced public outcry for spending close to $400 million on projects unrelated to its bistate spans and rail line. Pennsylvania State Sen. John Rafferty (R., Chester) on Thursday called for the agency to be stripped of its economic-development spending power altogether.

The authority is preparing to enact a slew of other changes. It has been under pressure from governors on both sides of the river since it was revealed last month that the agency's public safety director allowed his daughter to use another official's free E-ZPass for 18 months, among other controversies.

Obligations made before the DRPA decided to end economic-development projects "need to be fulfilled," Taylor said. "But I think now, in light of everything that's happened, I am sure that things will only be geared to river and bridge projects, and that's the way it should be."

Taylor added that he wasn't involved with the Pennsauken grant.

The DRPA started the revolving loan fund the year after its compact was amended to allow economic-development activities. Noting that Pennsauken and Gloucester City had immediate economic-development needs, the resolution creating the program said the fund would assist enterprises that needed low-interest or specially structured loans.

Officials in Gloucester City said last week that they were unfamiliar with the revolving loan fund and did not know whether they, too, had a portion of it converted into a grant.

In Pennsauken, Chief Financial Officer Ron Crane described the program as successful in rehabilitating properties and businesses on Westfield Avenue between Browning Road and 49th Street. He said the loans all had been repaid.

The DRPA "agreed to convert [money in the loan fund] into a grant as part of its strategy to get out of the economic-development business and close out its economic-development fund," said agency spokesman Ed Kasuba.

But the authority and Pennsauken offered differing accounts of how the grant came to be.

Pennsauken employees asked the DRPA for the grant to put toward the township's football complex, Kasuba said via e-mail.

Crane and Pennsauken's parks and recreation director, Elwood Martz, said in interviews that the DRPA approached the township last year and said it had money for an open-space project.

"They're the ones that came to us . . . and said, 'We have this money and we'd like it to be used for something green, something open-space,' " Crane said.

The project has unfolded quietly as the township prepares for a much larger recreation complex to open next month, complete with soccer fields, a skateboard park, basketball hoops, and a community center.

The Pit, the five-acre site of the DRPA project, is a sunken plateau bordered by a residential neighborhood and G.H. Carson Elementary School and surrounded by a chain-link fence.

The municipal engineer unveiled a conceptual plan for the property in mid-June, featuring a football field surrounded by a four-lane track, biking and walking trails, bleachers, a clubhouse, a picnic area, and a parking lot.

Crane said the athletic fields would have artificial turf, unlike those in the complex to open in September, and would be used for lacrosse and track in addition to football.

He said the project would cost about $2 million. The township submitted an application last week for a Green Acres grant to offset the rest of the cost. It hopes to have the complex in use by 2012.

"It was an excellent project because we didn't have to use township money for it," Crane said.

"This $700,000 is not a whole lot compared to what they spent" on Lincoln Financial Field and the soccer complex in Chester, Crane said, referring to some of the DRPA's prominent economic-development projects.

"But still," he reflected, "it's something."