WIND'S RAIN OF TERROR Fines for construction site after debris crashes into baby's room

Friday, October 31, 2008
By CHARLES HACK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

For many, Saturday's storm was a non-event.

Not so for the Rose family of Jersey City, who returned to their fifth-floor Downtown condo apartment to find a bedroom window blown out and shards of glass on their year-old child's bed - damage done by flying debris from a neighboring construction site.

Wind gusts blew timber and other debris from the Crystal Point waterfront development construction site with such force that shattered glass "embedded" itself in the bedroom's wall and bent the metal window frame, said Anthony Rose, a resident at Mandalay on the Hudson on Second Street.

"If my daughter had been sleeping in that bed it would have been a tragedy," said Rose, whose family of five returned home about 4 p.m. to a chilly apartment with blinds fluttering in the wind. Timber and plywood was found in the patio immediately below their window.

The family's apartment, which faces east, was one of three in the building with broken windows. Debris smashed the outer pain of glass at an apartment on the second floor and punched a hole through a window on the 16th floor of the 25-story building.

Rose said his other children, ages 4 and 5 years old, were left "distraught" by the ordeal and now fear standing anywhere near the window.

The wind also impaled timber 4 feet deep into the development's grass lawn and bent steel railings at the front of the building, according to photos of the wreckage.

AJD Construction, the Leonardo-based company building the 42-story Crystal Point luxury condominium building next door, responded soon after the incident to clean up and secure broken windows, police said.

The developer of Crystal Point is Fisher Development Associates. Phone calls to the builder and developer were not returned.

Prior to the storm, the construction site manager was told by police to secure the site, said city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill.

Morrill said the site was inspected Wednesday and summonses were issued for allowing debris to blow off the building. The violation carries a maximum fine of $2,000, she said.

In August, city inspectors shut down the construction site for two days after similar complaints, Morrill said. The site was reopened after contractors installed netting, she said.

Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop blamed the accident on lax enforcement of city codes, adding that 17 inspectors in the office of Construction Code Official is not enough.

"With all the laws in place, if you don't have enforcement it doesn't make a difference," Fulop said. "Thankfully we dodged a bullet this time and nobody got hurt."

http://photos.nj.com/gallery/4505/Con ... bris%20Damages%20Mandalay