By Laura D.C. Kolnoski
COLTS NECK – The township committee unveiled plans to an overflow crowd Wednesday for a new two-story municipal building estimated to cost approximately $12.5 million.
Committee members, led by Mayor Frank Rizzuto, along with the project’s architects and engineers, detailed and answered questions about the plan, which they said has been under study for some five years.
The new 16,000-squarefoot building would be located on the same footprint of the current one-story municipal court. The township’s police department would occupy the first floor and a portion of the second floor, where a multipurpose meeting room that would also serve as the new municipal courtroom, would be located. Local finance and administrative offices would be housed on the second floor as well, moving over from the existing one-story town hall building next door.
The anticipated tax impact from the project, based on the average local home value of $800,000, will be $40 to $89 annually. Officials said variables of the financial plan taken into account include the township’s debt schedule, timing for interest rates, years of debt and duration of bonds.
The proposed timeline sets bid solicitation for this May with a contract awarded by August. Demolition of the existing municipal court building would take place in September, with construction beginning in October. The target completion date is January 2022. During construction, the police department will share the first aid squad building located within the municipal complex. The municipal court will operate out of the Freehold Borough Municipal Court facility at 38 Jackson St. off Route 537.
“We have outgrown this building,” Rizzuto said, adding that design flaws have contributed to structural deficiencies. “We weighed all options. The time has come to replace the aging, substandard buildings. Despite the township taking ongoing measures and short term remedies, the police department and basement have been rendered unusable by floods.” Rizzuto said six sump pumps are currently working at the police department, where temporary trailers are also in use.
“The existing cells are grandfathered in because they don’t meet current standards,” continued Rizzuto, a police captain in Long Branch who noted Colts Neck’s current building is out of state compliance. The new structure will meet energy codes and state Department of Corrections criteria. Features will include heavily insulated exterior walls and roof, high-performance HVAC systems, LED lighting with occupancy sensors, metered faucets, a high efficiency gas-fired condensing boiler, a wastewater treatment system and low-maintenance landscaping, Rizzuto told the crowd, who filled the seats, lined the walls and crowded the vestibule, that the current municipal building was constructed in the 1960s in the park-like complex that grew to include the adjacent courtroom building, library and first aid squad facility. It was designed for 3,000 residents, but now serves the township’s current population of 10,142.
The new steel-framed building would mirror the Jeffersonian style of the current town hall, with red brick and a Colonial-style cupola atop the roof, where a skylight will illuminate the two-story main lobby below. The inside will also have a historic character.
There will be no new impervious coverage other than new driveways.
Offices currently located in the municipal building’s basement – planning/zoning, code enforcement, fire marshal and construction – will relocate to the first floor of the current municipal building.
Eli Goldstein, managing partner of Goldstein Partnership Architects and Planners of Maplewood, said his firm is “specialists in designing a number of other such facilities around New Jersey.” The firm has designed or consulted on projects in 15 other states. Their New Jersey projects include the Union County Police Academy in Scotch Plains, the NJ Transit Rail Station in Elberon, the Atlantic Highlands Municipal Building and the ongoing project in Oceanport creating new municipal facilities on the former Fort Monmouth.
While some residents praised the plan, others expressed concerns and had more questions than time allotted. When asked if the proposal would go to public referendum, Committeeman Michael Viola said that, unlike schools in New Jersey, municipalities are not required to hold a public vote on capital construction projects.
“It seems it’s being rammed through,” said resident Stuart Flamberg. “It’s a large percentage of the budget. There are other township costs. I’m an attorney and a CPA. I would like an independent third party to review the plan. I would like to see a referendum.”
In response to a reporter’s question about the state’s current trend toward shared services and consolidation of local police, emergency personnel and courtrooms, Rizzuto said, “We hope to attract shared services from other towns and create new revenue. This doesn’t preclude us from sharing services in the future.”
“The buildings here need a lot of work,” Roseann Scotti, a former township committeewoman who served as mayor in 1993 and 95, said after the presentation. “People need to understand the costs. There are a lot of questions. While we don’t have to go to referendum by law, some people may want that.” Another resident suggested moving future meetings to a local school “so all can be accommodated and heard.”
“This is an ongoing dialogue, just the beginning of this process,” Rizzuto told residents, adding, “Feel free to contact us.”
The full presentation is available on the township website at colts-neck.nj.us. The next township committee meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 12, at town hall.
