The company that ran into trouble for the asphalt it laid along River Road in Fair Haven last year is in the news today in connection with former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s hooker.
Thomas J. “TJ” Earle, the vice president of Earle Cos. of Farmingdale, had the misfortune to arrive at and leave the Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan with call girl Ashley Dupré (nee Youmans) just as a pack of paparazzi was parked outside hoping for a glimpse of Lindsay Lohan, according to Fox News.
The New York Post broke the story with this:
The pretty woman, 23, and 35-year-old Thomas J. “TJ” Earle were spied ducking into the Gramercy Park Hotel, where they rented a room Tuesday after a long day drinking, dining, shopping and snuggling together in limos around the Big Apple, sources told The Post.
The two then separately left the Gramercy the next afternoon, after spending much of 24 hours in each other’s company. They walked out of the hotel 10 minutes apart, seemingly to avoid being photographed together.
Dupre, the curvy prostitute known as “Kristen,” whose trysts with Spitzer led to his resignation, then hopped into a black Range Rover and sped off. She refused to answer questions from a reporter. A closed-mouthed Earle caught a ride home in a black Chevy Suburban.
Within two hours, Earle, who is vice president of The Earle Companies construction business, showed up alone at his McMansion in Wall, NJ. He parked in back, went inside and then walked upstairs to a room where his gorgeous blond wife, Alisa, was waiting.
The paving and recycling company Earle runs with his two brothers ran into some speed bumps in Fair Haven last fall for asphalt it put down so thickly that it nearly met the tops of the curbs. Mayor Mike Halfacre and the council ordered the company to do the job over in order to get paid for its part of a $516,000 makeover at the intersection of Fair Haven Road. The job was quickly redone, but as Halfacre reports on his blog tonight:
At our last Council Meeting, we authorized the Borough Attorney to make a claim against the performance bond of Earle Asphalt Paving for defects in the River Road Streetscape project.
He adds, in response to a redbankgreen inquiry:
As I understand it, the first step in forcing performance in a public
contract dispute is to make a claim to the bond company that they did not
perform under the terms of the contract.We are not satisfied with their performance, so we are seeking the bond
to either force them to redo the road entirely, or pay for someone else
to do it.
Earle Asphalt was also a party in the first major court test of New Jersey’s limits on “pay to play” political contributions last month.
Earle Cos. was founded in in 1968 as a small paving business by Earle’s father, Walter Earle. Here’s an excerpt from the ‘values’ section of the company website:
At the Earle Companies, we understand that our reputation for honesty and integrity took many years to build, but that it can be destroyed in just a few moments. For nearly 40 years, we have been known and respected for the honest and fair manner in which we conduct our business and ourselves. It is a value that has roots in the very core of our organization and is an integral part of our success.