Borough Hall Facilities Committee

October 9th, 2007 minutes

Borough Hall Meeting Room.  Gary Webb, Doug McWilliams, Bob Tovo, Ellen Emr and Steve Shaw, Richard Urankar (chair), Pat Rusak, Mark Cohen, Joan Nix

Meeting called to order at 11:00am

 

 

I.                    Minutes of the September 21, 2007 meeting were approved as presented.

 

II.                 Bob Tovo reviewed the options list presented last meeting with the addition of two sites.   The advantages and disadvantages of each site were reviewed and discussed.   Updated materials were also distributed. 

 

One of the two additional sites was the possible purchase of a residence currently for sale (asking price $699,000) at 57 Powerville Road, which is  across from the high school.  The building is approximately 2400 square feet of finished interior space.  The interior condition is good, but it would need to be remodeled and updated to be used for commercial purposes.  While space for parking may be limited, it was noted that parking space across the street at the High School might be available for additional parking needs; especially if the Board of Education moved into this location.  It was also noted that other Borough functions could occupy this building, if acquired, but after some discussion it was agreed that this location did not lend itself to Borough administration nor the Police Department.  The question was also asked if acquiring this building would satisfy all the perceived space needs of other departments if the Board of Education moved out of ‘Borough Hall?  The committee thought additional information about the costs to acquire and renovate should be presented to the committee at our next meeting. Stephen Shaw questioned the feasibility of converting a residential wood framed structure to an institutional use. 

 

Mark Cohen will make the Board of Education aware of this discussion and the opportunity to acquire this property.

 

The second ‘new’ site discussed is a portion of the borough owned property on the south east corner of the Boulevard and Crane Road.  It was noted that wetlands are adjacent to the site and would limit the available building envelope to a relatively small site that would front the Boulevard and boarder a residence.  Parking on or near the site is also very limited.

 

Bob went on further to state that all the sites we have looked at have limited building envelopes and he suggested the committee consider a 3 level floor building with a smaller footprint that the previously considered two floor building.  The building, in his opinion, could have one fully usable level below grade and two above.  This would help us maximize our interior space as well as helping us meet our parking needs, if a building is constructed.

 

III.               Doug McWilliams handed out a study of commercial space currently for sale or lease in Mountain Lakes.  The committee reviewed every available lease site presented and noted the advantages and disadvantages of each; similar to the evaluation of Bob’s earlier ‘build or purchase’ site options list. 

 

It was noted that all leased properties have the disadvantage of non-ownership which may require another space evaluation need at the end of the lease, and, would have the Borough spend public funds without ownership.  The general consensus of the committee is that any additional space acquired for the Borough should be economic and usable for about 50 years or more

 

There were also concerns that lease space may not provide the security needed by the police department nor the garage bays needed by the fire department; if either of those departments were to relocate into leased space.  Other town office functions might work in some of these buildings, however.

 

Two  properties for sale were considered.  One is the residential property on Powerville Road mentioned earlier that would need to be converted to commercial space, and the other is the ‘Burgdorff Office Building’ on Old Bloomfield Ave. at Rt. 46 & Cherry Hill Road.  The ‘Burgdorf’ building has many of the same issues of space, renovation, ADA compliance and lack of parking as the residence on Powerville Road.  The committee also noted that the ‘Burgdorff’ site is very remote and has poor ingress and egress.

 

Several members of the committee expressed concern for any property located on Route 46 being appropriate for  the Police or Fire Departments due to the divided highway.  All traffic entering or exiting the location could only go one direction thus lengthening emergency response times.  These locations would also be inconvenient for residents due to the one way access onto Rt. 46.

 

IV.              Stephen Shaw presented an updated analysis of existing conditions and user needs.  More data is forthcoming from the fire department. It was suggested that a brief analysis be completed fro the BOE space with existing data measuements from Gary.  Additionally, the parking needs evaluation of all users is incomplete.  Steve  pointed out that this will be a continuing process, but the current anaylisis gives us a generall understanding of the space shortfall measured against objective standards.

 

-Ellen pointed out that a needs study on the same subject was done just a few years ago and we should use that as well.  It was agreed that it could be helpful but a concern was expressed that the referenced study was based on what each department requested rather than the more objective approach using architectural standards  of Steve’s review.  However, it was agreed that using the two studies together should help apportion any additional space that is being considered.       

 

-         Mark commented that this detailed information may be premature.  In his opinion, if a shortage of space exits for several departments, than this committee should focus on finding that total needed space and let the actual space designs for each department be a part of the architects future work.

 

 

V.                 On Communications, Richard is working with Mark on an outline of our public presentation and they presented a possible outline.  The next meeting will discuss in detail the public presentation.

 

VI.              Gary indicated that we continue to meet our timeline goals and that he will continually review, refine and advise it as needed. 

 

 

VII.            Action items for the next meeting;

                 -Doug, minutes, fire department needs data updated, do a square foot

                      cost study for lease and purchase options and talk to the owner of the

Powerville Road house about possible renovations

 

                 -Bob, update options as needed

 

                 -Steve, refine user needs analysis further

 

                 -Mark, report to BOE and bring us feedback

 

                 - Richard to work on a draft of the presentation to the public and Borough

Council, other communication items and committee administrative matters

 

                 -Joan Nix, report to Planning Board and bring us feedback

 

                 -Pat, report to HPC and bring us feedback

 

                 -Gary, keep tuning our timeline, get wetlands study started and work up a

                        per square foot cost of bonding our proposed project.

 

                 

 

 

 

 Next meeting scheduled for Friday, October 19^th  , 2007 at 8:30AM in Borough Hall

Meeting adjourned at 1:00pm

Respectfully submitted by Doug McWilliams