Firm to contest award of turf field contract in court BY DAN NEWMAN Staff Writer Jim Cody MIDDLETOWN - A turf field sales firm contends the fake grass would be greener with their product than a rival's, and is willing to fight for the right to prove it in court. Following two unsuccessful rounds of bidding for the rights to install a turf field at High School North, the contract to do the work was won by Mondo U.S.A. on Aug. 9. Less than a week later, one of the losing bidders had decided to file a lawsuit, stating that the process was flawed and was geared toward having Mondo win. The winning $753,000 bid came over a month after Parsippany-based IC Improvements thought it had secured the job, only to have the township's Board of Education negate it, saying that the proper paperwork was not submitted along with the bid. James Cody, a township resident and sales consultant with IC Improvements, took issue with the process. "The Board of Education is completely out of control and they did not follow the rules at all," Cody said. "I'm getting tired of this board always wasting taxpayer dollars. It's very frustrating to watch this happen all the time. I also think that the township ought to step in and take over the school district. The district is running things like a mom-and-pop business and it shouldn't be allowed anymore." Prior to the lawsuit being filed, the district's construction manager, Joseph Lucarelli, said that the field would be ready by Oct. 4. "There's no way that field will be ready now at any point for this season," Cody said. Sean Regan, an attorney representing IC Improvements, confirmed that state Superior Court Judge Jamie Perri will hear arguments tomorrow in Freehold as to whether or not the board acted fairly in awarding the bid to Mondo and could potentially change the direction in which this matter is moving. "She may decide that IC should be the winner and thus, they would get the contract because the contract was entered into improperly," Regan explained. "I do anticipate a resolution one way or the other on Thursday. Matters like this don't really require much in the way of testimony. After the decision is made, I'd expect the construction on the field to get going rather quickly." James Landgraf, special counsel for the board, feels that although bid protests are commonplace, IC Improvements doesn't have much of a legal basis for its challenge. "The law states that the contract must go to the lowest bidder and that's exactly what happened," Landgraf said. "The judge wants to determine if IC Improvements has established a good enough case to get the bid, and I don't think that they have."