Prosecutor confiscates construction records

Officers from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office entered Manalapan town hall last week and confiscated records from the construction department. The records deal with the Manalapan Chase development on Craig Road that was built by Calton Homes.

Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye told the News Transcript the search warrant "involved Manalapan Chase and the records of inspections that would relate to the defects that were determined to exist in those homes, primarily focusing on electrical and other construction items — for example, missing trusses, (and) electrical outlets that aren’t even there."

"We determined that we should move on this, and we have," Kaye said. "We’re boxing up the records, bringing them back and analyzing them. Then we’ll go from there."

Only records related to the construction of Manalapan Chase are involved, he said.

The confiscation of the records from the construction department is the latest development in an ongoing effort by Manalapan Chase residents to have authorities look into questions surrounding the construction of their homes.

For years, residents of the development have urged the Township Commit-tee and the state Department of Com-munity Affairs to get involved. Meetings between the residents and officials, reinspections of the homes and some repair work has taken place during that time.

Among the items Manalapan Chase residents have cited are framing problems, leaks, cracked showers and shower pans, green lumber, electric outlets that did not work, toilets with no wax seal, attics that were missing braces and/or trusses, only one out of four nails holding up certain trusses, unprotected electric wires in the attic, plumbing pipes that were not pitched properly and one-half inch compressed lumber holding up the roof.

At one point, residents Steve and Violet Peterson told town officials, "Homeowners have prepared details of the problems at their homes. We want Calton Homes to bring our homes up to code. We just want the problems fixed."

In the hope of getting action on their concerns, the Manalapan Chase homeowners recently turned to the prosecutor.

Violet Peterson said the stucco on her home was the biggest problem and no one was doing anything about it.

"The township came to look at it and a violation notice was given to Calton Homes," she said. "Once the house is finished, then the township is supposed to come and look at it. But now they want the Calton Homes engineer or representative to come and give the inspection. The town is not giving the inspection; they’re just writing it up."

Steve Peterson said that Calton Homes started the repairs in December 2001 or January 2002 and that the township was doing the inspections. Then, starting in August, he noted, the town allowed Calton Homes to do the inspections.

"Now Calton Homes is doing the inspections of the houses and the township is just accepting whatever they say," Peterson said. "The township has put Calton Homes in charge of the inspections. I think we’ve been saying for a long time that there are serious problems here with all the houses at Manalapan Chase and with the township construction office."

Peterson said he was happy the prosecutor is now looking into the matter.

Commenting on the confiscation of the construction department records, Deputy Mayor William Scherer said, "The matter is in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office right now. All questions should be directed to them and all comments should come from them. They are specifically involved in what is going on, and we will wait for the process to play itself out and see what happens."