In December 2022, New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG) ripped up parts of two streets in the Pine Brook section of Montville Township in Morris County.

The utility excavated so it could install a two-inch gas main to make natural gas service available to 22 homes, and it sent residents several solicitations to sign on to service.

The work took place only on one side of the street, and when the job was done in September 2023, NJNG repaved up to the median lines.

The repaving job — next to the older pavement on the other side of the streets — is an offensive eyesore to Joe Plechy, one of the homeowners who lives there.

“In a town where the average yearly taxes easily exceed $10,000, it is an embarrassment to have our road looking like it should be named Zebra Street,” Plechy said. “The result looks as ridiculous as can possibly be.”

The road, before the work, was that off-white, grayish-brown color that happens over time when blacktop is exposed to the elements or oxidizes over time. The newly repaved road is a sleek black in the spaces where NJNG did its work.

It left a dramatically two-toned road that Plechy finds distractingly ugly.

He wrote to the township administration to ask about the roads, noting that he understood that the utility was only responsible for replacing the sides of the roads where it excavated.

“Somebody from the township should have had the insight to say that these roads needed resurfacing anyway and contracted (the paving company) to pave the whole street,” he wrote. “If this was your street and you have relatives or business associates over, seeing this half-done street, wouldn’t you be embarrassed?

He asked if the project was considered complete or if there were plans to repave the other sides of the streets.

The answer wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

“The whole idea of holding off on a repave is to allow residents, who haven’t already done so, to connect to the gas main and not be restricted by the Township’s moratorium on road openings,” Township Administrator June Hercek said in an email response. “We will re-evaluate the road in the future and go from there.”

Plechy didn’t think that made sense.

“If people were going to hook up, they would have done so with all of the solicitation that was being pushed by the gas company,” he said, noting he did not switch his home to the new service because he determined it would not be cost-effective and instead, he stuck with his oil heat and propane for the stove.

He just wants his street to look normal.

We asked NJNG about the status of the area.

It said 12 of the 22 homeowners who were offered natural gas service signed up.

“The project is complete,” the company said. “NJNG does not have a main located on the other side of the street, and there are no plans for work by our company in that area at this time.”

If the other homeowners later decided to sign up, the utility would not need to open up the street, it said.

We took that assessment to the town, which said it has limited funds each year to repave roads.

“As stewards of taxpayer funds we have a fiduciary responsibility on how we spend those funds,” said Hercek, the township administrator.

She said the township repaves roads based on a rating system, and the streets in question are not rated as being in the “worst condition.”

“If the Township were to expend funds on paving the entire width, the road would then have a three-year moratorium on opening, meaning the residents wishing to install a service lateral to the main would not be able to do so for three years,” Hercek said.

That didn’t play with Plechy.

“The moratorium of not digging up the road for three years is wonderful,” he said. “It is also a great excuse for leaving the road as is.”

“All the town would need to do is canvas the remaining property owners to ask their intentions if they are considering hooking up to gas or not,” he said.

But NJNG already said it would not need to excavate again.

“If a member of the city council lived in our neighborhood, the priority of repaving would increase,” he said. “I would love to see which roads are slated for repaving in 2024 and what they look like.”

We asked Hercek for more information on how the roads are rated. While she said an outside company assesses the roadway surfaces for conditions such as potholes, cracks and uneven surfaces, she did not provide any detailed rating system used or how the streets Plechy complained about compare to others in the township.

We’re not saying a road repave is the best way to spend taxpayer dollars, but we sure would be irked if that happened in front of our home.

Let us know what you think.