The De Hart Field project has been pushed back by as much as a year after the Township Committee voted to reject all three bidders for the project and put the plan out for re-bid.

The move was done, in part, to end a lawsuit filed by the lowest bidder, Andy Matt Inc., who was rejected after being considered unqualified.

TC member Jerry Ryan said Andy Matt agreed to withdraw its lawsuit if the project was re-bid, a move likely to occur in early October. "We know all of the parties who will bid and we expect it to be much faster," Ryan said after the meeting.

The lawsuit and a re-bid is yet another potential delay in the project that was first voted down by voters last fall when it was for an artificial field. The newest plan, approved this spring, is for a real grass field.

Andy Matt Inc. was the lowest of 11 bidders that submitted proposals last summer at $1.19 million, but was deemed unqualified because it had not completed 10 previous similar projects

Turco Golf, which offered the second-lowest bid at $1.275 million, was initially not awarded the contract because of questions about their qualifications. But they received the contract after providing information on numerous past projects.

The project includes two overlapping soccer fields, a softball field, and other park improvements. This plan, which will use a combination of grants and bonded funds, is for natural grass.

Andy Matt's lawsuit asked that the Turco contract award be rejected and that the TC be ordered to award the contract to them. Instead, the TC voted Tuesday, 5-0, to cancel the bidding and re-bid.

Ryan believed the TC would be able to award the contract before the end of October. He said it would delay the project further, but did not know by how much.