Moorestown Council Applauds Opening of New Town Hall Monday Night

For the first time in seven years, Moorestown Council met somewhere other than a local school.

Council convened at the new town hall at 111 West Second Street Monday night. Discussion at the meeting was dominated by the new 46,000 square foot building council and the public gathered in.

“This is a new chapter in the township,” Moorestown Mayor Chris Chiacchio said.
We’re proud of this investment.”

A fire destroyed the previous town hall in 2007. Since then, council met at two district schools, including the high school for the last several months.

Chiacchio said the township assembled a “blue ribbon panel of residents” with backgrounds in various fields, including real estate and construction, and the township came to the determination that the new building was the best for residents.

“This was a great decision and I stand by it,” Chiacchio said.

“This project has come a long way,” Deputy Mayor Stacey Jordan said. “I’m excited to be able to keep a promise Chris and I made, that this building was built and I want to thank everyone involved for getting it built on time. I’m happy to be a part of it. It’s going to be a true gem.”

Ragan Design and Greyhawk were involved in the design, coordination, engineering and facilitation of the $11,410,723 project. The project was budgeted for an additional 5 percent in additional costs, but additional costs have come to just over 2 percent so far, according to Greyhawk’s Rob Notley.
The building is the first in Moorestown to feature solar panels on the roof. The panels provide hot water for the building and heats certain portions of the floors. Rick Ragan characterized the technology as basically providing “free heating for the building.”

Councilman Greg Newcomer added that the panels were “over performing” and needed to be  restricted.

During the meeting, he leant his voice to other council members who thanked everyone involved in making the building a reality.

“This town hall and council chambers are the work of many hands,” Councilman Greg Newcomer said, referring to the many town councils, planning boards, appearance committees, Sustainable Moorestown, the public, the town hall planning committee, Ragan, Greyhawk and Township Manager Scott Carew. “All of these people have made this new town hall a place that will not only serve the people of our town but our children’s children as well.”

“Like many people, I was wondering if this was ever going to happen,” Councilwoman Victoria Napolitano said. “We talked about it so  much, it started to seem like it was just a dream. I’m glad to finally be here and as the building opens up, we’re going to learn all the wonderful things about it.”

“I’m really proud of this building,” Councilman Phil Garwood said. “It’s a great building and it’s going to be a destination for the downtown.”

Carew credited Mike Schaeffer with working tirelessly, and being on site every day to make sure everything’s going well.

“I desperately wanted to be the first one at work (Monday) morning,” Carew said. “I got here are 7:30 and Mike was already here working.”

There are still minor improvements that still need to be made to the building, and the library still needs to make the transition. The library will occupy 24,000 square feet of the new building.

An official grand opening will take place shortly after the library’s transition is complete, in June.