Borough Hall Facilities Committee

October 19th, 2007 minutes

 

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

Guest observer was Dana Pogorzelski of the League of Women voters

 

Meeting called to order at 8:35am

 

 

I.                    Minutes of the October 9, 2007 meeting were approved with minor changes.

 

II.                 In Bob Tovo’s absence, Richard reviewed the previously identified site options and asked the committee for comments and new ideas.

 

-No new options were identified.

-A discussion comparing the options to lease new space, purchase new space or build new space noted that leasing new space does not seem to be a long term solution, and that the only seemingly viable new space for purchase is the house at 57 Powerville Road.

 

Richard Urankar toured the Powerville Road property with the owner, who is also a builder in the area, and reported that in his opinion extensive renovations would be necessary to make it usable for commercial space.  The asking price is $699,000 and contains approximately 2000 usable square feet of space.   Several members of the committee expressed doubt that purchasing this property would solve the total space needs of the Borough and thought this was an expensive option.

 

-Gary Webb informed the committee that stakes have been placed in the upper parking lot area to identify the wetlands areas.  Committee members were encouraged to view the stakes after the meeting.

 

-Gary Webb distributed a list of repairs to the existing Borough Hall that are necessary, in his opinion.  The report included cost estimates for those repairs, which totaled almost $550,000.  Gary emphasized that these repairs to the existing building are in addition to any additional new space leased, purchased or built for Borough use.

 

-Gary Webb presented an analysis of possible financing costs if General Improvement Bonds were issued by Mountain Lakes to build new space.  Assuming current market interest rates, the annual debt service would be about $92,000 (P&I level payments) for $1,500,000 in Bonds.   Gary presented various options for accelerating or extending principal payments and discussed the cash flow affect.  Compared to leasing, with the current market rates ranging from $14 per square foot to $25 per square foot, and based on needing 8,000 square feet, (6,000 usable square feet plus 2,000 general space) the lease payments would likely fall between $112,000 and  $200,000 annually depending on the building.  It was noted that this analysis showed a likely lease payment would exceed a likely debt service payment for comparable space. 

 

-The committee discussed briefly if an evaluation of merging either the Police or Fire Departments with neighboring communities should be evaluated by our study and it was generally felt that this was outside the purview of the committee.  However, Ellen Emr mentioned that a recent newspaper report about a possible police merger between Mt. Arlington and one of its neighbors showed that it might not save Mt Arlington money.

 

III.               In Steve Shaw’s absence Richard Urankar recommended, and the committee agreed, to make two minor changes to the needs analysis.  The committee decided to release the document to the public but will continue to review and updated if more information becomes available.

 

IV.              On Communications, Richard Urankar and Mark Cohen presented a possible outline for our public presentation.  The committee generally agreed with the outline but suggested a consolidation of some points and that only Council Members and the Manager make presentations.   

 

-It was decided that a Special mailing would be sent to every resident announcing the public presentation and encourage everyone to attend. It will also be posted on the Borough Web Site. Richard will draft a flyer and send it to all committee members for comment.  The committee went on to discuss possible presentation dates and chose November 13^th as a target date to present our findings to the Borough Council and the Public.  If that date is not possible, November 19^th will be the back-up date.

 

V.                 Gary indicated that we are meeting our timeline goals and that he will continue to review, refine and revise it as needed. 

 

VI.              Action items for the next meeting;

                 -Doug, minutes and further refinement of the FD needs

 

                 -Bob, refine options further as needed

 

                 -Steve, refine user needs analysis as needed

 

                 -Mark, report to BOE and bring us feedback as able

 

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

Council, the flyer, other communication items and committee administrative matters

 

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

 

                 -Pat, report to HPC and bring us feedback as able

 

                 -Gary, keep tuning our timeline, get wetlands study started

 

                 

 

 

 

 Next meeting scheduled for Friday, November 2^nd, 2007 at 8:30AM in Borough Hall

Meeting adjourned at 11:00am

Respectfully submitted by Doug McWilliams