Politics & Government

Council Considers Tweaks to $18M Municipal Complex Plan

No decisions were made Monday and another meeting is scheduled for next week.

It’ll be at least another week before township council makes a decision on when and how to move forward with its long-gestating municipal complex project.

Rick Ragan, principal of architectural firm Ragan Design Group, presented two plans to council Monday night. The first was nearly identical to the plan council has been : combining the library and township administrative offices and council chambers in one building, and a second building, the Justice Center, to house the police department and municipal court.

Plan A, as Ragan dubbed it, also includes 10,700 square feet of renovations to the existing recreation center behind the library, plus an additional 1,600 square feet of new construction including an office and a new, more handicap-accessible entrance.

The total price tag on Plan A would be $18.2 million, according to Ragan, with approximately $12.3 million for the administration building/library alone.

Council had asked Ragan to see if he could reduce the square footage—and subsequently, the cost—of the project by combining elements of it, so Ragan came back Monday with a Plan B that combined the library, administrative offices and municipal court into one building.

With this second plan, the courtroom would double as council’s meeting chambers, the police would have a separate building and the recreation center plans would be identical to Plan A.

However, Ragan’s estimates showed the savings in both square footage—only a few thousand feet—and price—about $300,000—were negligible.

A few council members expressed reservations about pairing the administrative offices and the library with court.

“I don’t want prisoners being brought in while citizens are going to pay their bills,” said Councilman Chris Chiacchio.

A couple residents in attendance also told council it would be ill-advised to combine other uses with the municipal court.

Chiacchio and Mayor John Button said they liked the idea of having the municipal court and township council use the same room, but suggested it be kept in Plan A’s Justice Center.

Council spent an hour and a half discussing the project in a workshop prior to their regular action meeting, but were unable to come to a decision.

Button to make some kind of progress Monday. Instead, council scheduled another special meeting for 8 a.m. next Monday, Sept. 19.

“I’m going to keep having special meetings until we solve it,” the mayor said. “What we really tried to do … is keep this process moving forward because, plain and simple, we want to get a shovel in the ground.”

Ragan said demolition of the defunct town hall building can begin as soon as the electrical service is disconnected, which presumably should take place within 10 to 14 days.


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