Nydam's sentence date may or may not come off
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP - Former public works director John H. (Jack) Nydam's latest sentencing date is set for Jan. 11 before state Superior Court Judge James A. Citta, sitting in Toms River.

But don't count on it coming off.

"I just don't know if it will go forward on that date," Assistant County Prosecutor William H. Porter said recently.

If it doesn't, it will be the sixth time that Nydam's sentencing on official misconduct, theft and witness tampering charges has been postponed. Porter did not have an answer for that possibility.

"I'm not allowed to speculate," he said.

Nydam pleaded guilty to all three charges on April 3, 2006, and agreed to cooperate with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office. Federal authorities have described his cooperation as "substantial."

The former public works director's downfall began back on Aug. 10, 2004, when resident Mark Austin told Township Council members he saw township employees take down a chain-link fence at a park on Manor Drive and replace it with a board-on-board fence. The fence bordered Nydam's Eastern Lane home.

Austin also told the council there was no permit for the fence on file in the township zoning office.

Nydam, a 13-year township employee, at first denied the fence was on his property. The fence, he said, was on township parkland. He did admit that installing the board-on-board fence "was a mistake."

Then-Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli suspended Nydam for 30 days and ordered that Nydam reimburse the township for the cost of the board-on-board fence. Scarpelli, who was sentenced in federal court on corruption charges Monday, said after Nydam pleaded guilty that he didn't think any other Brick officials would be charged in the investigation.

An Ocean County grand jury later indicted Nydam for official misconduct, four counts of compensation for past official behavior, and witness tampering. Nydam was indicted a second time in April 2005, on three counts of official misconduct and once count of theft. He originally faced 11 charges and up to 90 years in prison before the plea agreement.

The misconduct charge was downgraded from a second- to a third-degree crime, which reduced the maximum sentence associated with the charge from 20 to five years in prison. The remaining counts will be dismissed at sentencing, authorities have said.

Lance Hadley, a landscaping contractor based in Brick, pleaded guilty in August to one count of bribery. Hadley admitted he paid Nydam two checks of $2,000 each, bribes that resulted in more than $40,000 in no-bid snowplowing contracts.

Hadley and Nydam conspired to disguise the payments by making false and fraudulent notes in the memo sections of the checks for a "boat purchase" and a "loader rental," authorities have said.

The charges against Hadley did not name Nydam directly, but Nydam was the public works director at the time.

It was Nydam's job to hire and deploy outside companies to help plow snow in the township during emergency snow conditions, when it snowed more than 5 or 6 inches.

Nydam hired Lancescaping, Hadley's business, to plow snow in the township at least three times between December 2002 and March 2003, authorities have said.