FAIR HAVEN – Planned enhancements to the borough’s police department, public works yard and town hall facilities could also bring significant upgrades to the public library and community center, as well as the possible relocation of the community center.
According to Fair Haven Mayor Benjamin Lucarelli, the borough is constructing a three-phase development plan that begins with previously announced initiatives to shrink the size of the Department of Public Works building by a third and move it to a northerly portion of its 2.3-acre property near Third and Allen streets.
The borough would then shift its focus to acquiring a piece of land on River Road at the corner of Cedar Avenue, where a former Sunoco gas station was situated before closing its pumps in 2011. The lot is targeted for a new borough hall facility and police station.
Phase 3 would focus on the redevelopment of the community center and library. After moving out of the municipal building at 748 River Road, next to a set of shops and the Raven & the Peach restaurant, Lucarelli said the library would be resting on half of a borough hall property that was built in 1963.
After the police department makes its transition, the community center would be all that remains inside a Fisk Street facility that is a repurposed, century-old school house.
“The idea is to take the library and expand its footprint at its current site, and in the remaining space is where we would attach the community center,” Lucarelli explained.
Lucarelli noted that if all phases go according to plan, Phase 3 would put an upgraded library and community center within walking distance of Viola L. Sickles School, a facility that serves pre-K through third-grade students and sits approximately 500 feet from a library site at 25 Willow St.
Photo by Chris Rotolo
Knollwood School, which accommodates the borough’s fourth through eighth-grade students is less than a mile away from the site at 224 Hance Road.
“We hope to get grant money to offset the costs of the majority of the project,” Lucarelli said. “We can use funds from a referendum that was passed last year to also help with costs.”
Lucarelli added that the restructuring of the public works facility and where it will be situated on the Third Street lot would allow the borough to subdivide the remaining acreage of the parcel and develop nine or 10 properties. The sale of those lots will also help with funding the project.
Revenue generated from the eventual sale of the police headquarters and community center facility would also help with funding.
The projected timeline for the completion of the first two phases of the plan extends through 2021, according to Lucarelli.
Borough administrator Teresa Casagrande said the start of Phase 3 is unknown. “We’re still in the very infancy stages, but we’re working on it. (Phase 3) would only come behind the series of other facilities upgrades we need to make. We’ve presented a minimal concept plan to the state of New Jersey, but we’re still years away,” Casagrande said.
Lucarelli said the borough is still negotiating the purchase of the Sunoco property. A conceptual design of the new public works site, borough hall and police station were presented in January by Maplewood architect Eli Goldstein.
