By Stephen Appezzato
FAIR HAVEN – Roughly a decade in the making, the borough is on track to finish its new police department, community center and Department of Public Works (DPW) buildings, with completion expected in the second quarter of 2025.
It’s not often a town undertakes the construction of two brand-new municipal buildings alongside the renovation of its DPW site, but in Fair Haven, everything is going as planned.
Ahead of the town’s fast-approaching milestone, The Two River Times caught up with council member Andrew “Drew” LaBarbera, who chairs the borough’s Facilities Committee.
In October 2023 Fair Haven broke ground on the three projects.
“There was so much phenomenal work and insight that was done on all three” buildings in prior years, LaBarbera said, but “it was at a point from the lifespan of the buildings that action needed to be taken.”
DPW Facility
Initially, the governing body expected to rebuild the DPW facility from the ground up, assuming the main building was no longer structurally sound. After a closer evaluation, the structure was deemed sound, allowing the borough to avoid unnecessary costs and pursue a renovation.
“There was consensus amongst all the stakeholders that renovating would be far more advantageous from a fiscal perspective. It’s hard to compare prices and cross-comparison, but we’re talking a magnitude of, you know, millions of dollars” in savings, LaBarbera explained.
After the building was gutted, it was rebuilt to better accommodate DPW operations and reduce its industrial footprint. As the site is located in a residential neighborhood, borough officials recognized the importance of engaging with nearby residents throughout the process. At this time, building crews are conducting a “punch list” to ensure everything is built to specifications.
“When you get towards the end of the building and prior to accepting it from the construction company, there’s a punch list that’s put together, and you go through and ensure that everything was done by the plan, everything was done as agreed upon. So that’s the stage that we’re at right now,” LaBarbera said.
When the ground thaws, crews will soon conduct site work to improve landscaping and green space along Third Street and Maple Avenue. While construction is ongoing, instead of renting trailers, the DPW has operated from the Fair Haven Fields concession building, which also helped reduce project costs.
Police Department and Community Center
For Fair Haven’s new police department and community center buildings, the borough opted for full ground-up builds, approving an $8.2 million bid from Hall Building Corp. Farmingdale in 2023. Residents will notice the new police department abuts Fisk Street, just west of the original building, with the community center situated directly south, where the prior parking lot and basketball court existed.
At this time construction crews are booting up permanent utilities, like water and electricity, and will begin more site work, like demolishing the old police department building, landscaping and expanding Fisk Street to ameliorate a bottleneck in the roadway, all when the weather cooperates.
Helping bring the community center to fruition is a $1.25 million federal grant.
“We wanted to exhaust every option to do these correctly … but also be really cognizant of the impact of the taxpayer,” LaBarbera said.
Once completed, the new police department’s footprint will be slightly smaller than before while still meeting rigorous regulatory bodies’ standards.
Another key piece to this site is its historic significance.
The original Fisk Chapel (now Bicentennial Hall) was located at 38 Fisk St. before it was relocated to Cedar Avenue in the 1970s. According to the New Jersey Historic Trust, the chapel was originally named for a Civil War veteran who provided the land and building to the AME Bethel congregation in an area of the borough originally settled by a free Black congregation. The chapel also played a key part in the Fair Haven Ruling, an 1881 state law that required school boards to provide all children equal access to public education, “resulting in separate but equal schools.”
“There’s a tremendous amount of history with Brown v. Board of Ed. and when you look at the Supreme Court cases,” LaBarbera said. Prior to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling, the Fair Haven Ruling served as a legal precedent.
“We’ve developed this really phenomenal partnership with Fisk Chapel AME there,” LaBarbera said. As part of the community center and police department projects, a memorial will be constructed at the site and the borough will enhance the parking lot around the Fisk Chapel AME Church.
After roughly a decade and the involvement of countless members of the governing body, committees, professionals and residents, Fair Haven’s new facilities are on the verge of completion.
“These types of projects, especially from a municipality perspective, are significant and no stone can be left unturned,” he said. “It’s just such a proud moment for all of us, for the facilities committees that have worked on it, for the residents who have worked on it, for the borough staff that has worked on it, because it is just a prime example of stewardship and the responsibility placed on us. I feel a tremendous amount of proudness and appreciation for all the work everybody has done,” LaBarbera said.
The article originally appeared in the January 23 – 29, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
