By Sunayana Prabhu
FAIR HAVEN – On National Law Enforcement Day, the borough council met to review the existing condition of Fair Haven’s police department and public works facilities to determine if renovations or rebuilding are in order. The governing body reviewed professional reports on both the facilities at the special meeting Jan. 9 held in-person and livestreamed on Zoom.
The borough’s department of public works (DPW) structure at 1 Allen St. was built in 1974. It covers approximately 2.27 acres. The department consists of 10 full-time employees, including two foremen, a building maintenance technician and a mechanic. The discussion regarding renovating or building a new DPW structure started in 2014.
The borough has hired Brian Meade as owner representative to work on the two projects. In construction terms, an owner representative, or owner’s rep, is an industry expert hired by the owner of a building or site – in this case the borough of Fair Haven – to act as an advocate and represent their best interests.
Meade was tasked by the borough with putting together two estimates, one for renovating the existing DPW building and the second for replacing it with a pre-engineered building on the site. Meade presented the findings in a PowerPoint presentation at the meeting.
If the building has to be replaced, the scope of work entails a lot of construction, like demolition of the existing structure and replacement with the pre-engineered building of roughly the same 7,000-square-foot footprint. New office spaces, storage facilities, plumbing and electrical work, an HVAC system and more, will also need to be constructed within the new building.
Meade detailed some “soft costs” like architectural and engineering work, attorney or bonding fees. With inflation adjustment, the total estimate of constructing a new building “comes out to about $4.4 million,” Meade said. “Conversely, renovating the building (has) much less scope of work.”
Meade said renovations would include replacement of the roof as well as all exterior siding and windows. Inside the building, existing office spaces will be gutted to be replaced with new offices, new sheetrock and light fixtures, and the HVAC system would be updated, among other changes.
The estimated costs for renovation were between $2.79 million and $2.9 million, nearly half of the cost of a new building. But “the DPW could offset some of those costs,” said borough councilman Andrew LaBarbera, currently co-chair for both the DPW and police department projects.
“Depending on the phasing of the project, there can be additional costs that are saved,” added councilwoman Kristen Hoey.
LaBarbera presented an executive summary on both the facilities. Due to safety requirements at both facilities, LaBarbera said “there is no more time” to stall on a decision. According to the report, the roof of the DPW building has been “deteriorating” and “is rated at 20 years, and reached its end of life in 2016.” The report also noted that four DPW employees in an upstairs office have “no proper egress” in the current building.
Over the course of the past 10 to 15 years, the DPW has supported the borough’s essential services including recycling; maintenance of parks, streets, vehicles, buildings and ground; brush and leaf collection; and snow removal.
According to the PowerPoint on the police department facilities, a “systemic mold issue” was detected throughout the building requiring immediate remediation. In addition, safety assessments of the building called for a redesign of the layout to make it code compliant per New Jersey Rehabilitation Code to ensure physical security of police officers and the community.
Additional areas requiring attention to ensure compliance include installing a female locker room; ADA-compliant building structure protocols; and the replacing of outdated items not up to Department of Justice guidelines, such as HVAC and camera systems. The interview room and dispatch room were listed among other required updates.
According to facts presented at the meeting, the police department building, located at 35 Fisk St., was built in 1965 and renovated in 1983. Since its inception, the FHPD continues to employ 13 police officers.
The council is in consultation with a structural architect to determine actual costs of work to decide whether a renovation could be a viable alternative to the expense of constructing a new building.
At the Jan. 23 council meeting, LaBarbera said he will be presenting assessments and more analysis on the current building and redesigns to work on the firmer cost for both projects. Residents can find the PowerPoint presentations on the borough’s website for more information.
The article originally appeared in the January 19 – 25, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
