Former public works director to face judge on Feb.1
Sentencing to take place after many postponements
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer
One more time. Former Public Works Director John H. Nydam's Jan. 11 sentencing date didn't come off last week. It was the sixth postponement of the former township employee's sentence.

But Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor William H. Porter doesn't anticipate any more postponements.

Nydam's next sentencing date is set for Feb. 1. "I very much anticipate it will go Feb. 1," Porter said.

The Jan. 11 date was postponed because Nydam's attorney had a scheduling conflict, he said.

Nydam's sentencing will come just a few days after former Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli reports to federal prison to begin serving his 18-month term.

Nydam, a 13-year township employee, pleaded guilty to official misconduct, theft and witness tampering on April 3, 2006. Each charge carries a potential five-year term, authorities have said.

Nydam agreed to cooperate with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in exchange for his plea. Federal authorities have characterized his cooperation as "substantial."

His downfall began on Aug. 10, 2004, when a resident told Township Council members he saw township employees take down a chainlink fence at a park on Manor Drive and replace it with a board-on-board fence. The fence bordered Nydam's Eastern Lane home.

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

Scarpelli suspended Nydam for 30 days and ordered that he reimburse the township for the cost of the fence. The former mayor said after Nydam's plea that he didn't think any other Brick officials would be charged in the investigation.

A

n Ocean County grand jury later indicted

Nydam for official misconduct, four counts of compensation for past behavior, and witness tampering

Nydam was indicted a second time, in April 2005, on three counts of official misconduct and one count of theft. He originally faced 11 charges and up to 90 years in prison before the plea agreement, authorities said.

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

Nydam, as public works director, hired and deployed outside companies to help plow snow during emergency snow conditions, when it snowed more than 5 or 6 inches.

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