A Huge Step Closer: Council Commits on Part of Municipal Complex Project

Township Council gave a long-awaited green light to plans for the municipal complex, recreation center and police building, with costs scaled back to an estimated $16 million.

For almost two hours Monday night, Rick Ragan of the Ragan Design Group in Medford showed council renderings and schematics of two plans, each one totaling nearly 47,120 square feet. The first plan, Plan A, would combine the library, township offices and council chambers. A second building would house the police department and municipal court.

Council decided to follow the second plan, Plan B(1)——which will combine the library, administrative offices and municipal court into one building.

The police department would have a separate building, and the existing recreation center would receive an overhaul.

In Plan B(1), the conference rooms were identical to previous plans—620 square feet—but the courtroom was reduced slightly by several feet.

Deciding to follow a recommendation from citizen task force groups, who said the proposed municipal complex would not conform in aesthetics to other buildings in town—it would appear too long—Ragan modeled the library building into an L shape, which turns down Third Street.

The new plans allow for an outside reading terrace at the library.

Mayor John Button and Councilman Chris Chiacchio expressed satisfaction with the L-shape complex.

“These plans flow nicely,” said Chiacchio.

One resident at the special meeting told council he was concerned if the library was built as an L shape there might be a noise factor—it would be right along the train tracks, which has activity once a day.

With this revised plan, the courtroom and the library’s archive storage rooms were modified slightly. Several residents conveyed disappointment the library may lose some space needed for archives.

Council spent some time speaking to members of the library, who confirmed the Friends of the Library would give $250,000 toward the library building and would proceed with fundraising to raise additional money in the hopes of keeping extra space.

Ragan also focused on improvements to the recreation center, with updates such as audio equipment, cameras and a police button for added security. New flooring would cost $90,000.

Old radiators could be replaced with modern heating and air conditioning in the corners of the basketball courts, so wrestling mats could be used for matches. Currently, it's unsafe to hold matches there given the proximity of the radiators. These improvements, along with other infrastructure costs, would total $349,000. An additional $200,000 would be needed to update the offices.

Deputy Mayor Greg Gallo expressed reservations about proceeding with the recreation center.

“Do we want to make modifications on the third floor and make more offices and a kitchen?” Gallo asked. “Do we have to do that at this time?”

Council decided to wait until the next meeting to further discuss the recreation center and police department building.

Ragan said he and his team will work on the design development through December and figure in a rough budget. Detailed drawings—with construction, lighting, etc.—will be finished by the end of February 2012, and the project should be ready to be put out to bid by March.

“This is the most we have accomplished in a long time,” said Button. “Let’s keep moving this ahead."

The next special meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m. Oct. 17 at