municipal building
Committee considers
moving to Clarksburg
Officials to study option to lease, sell present
municipal building
By alison granito
Staff Writer
MILLSTONE — The Township Committee held a special meeting Monday night to discuss the future of several municipal properties, including the current municipal building on Millstone Road and the annex at the old Clarksburg School.
After approximately two hours of discussion on the topic, Committeemen Charles Abate, William Nurko and John Pfefferkorn agreed to look at several options for the buildings, specifically the lease or sale of either the current municipal building or the Clarksburg annex.
Mayor Evan Maltz and Deputy Mayor Cory Wingerter were not present.
The members of the committee present agreed to authorize several real estate firms to make a determination on the viability of leasing each property, and the market value each property could potentially bring in if it were put up for sale.
Officials discussed several scenarios, including leasing the current municipal building and moving all municipal offices over to the Clarksburg annex.
According to Township Engineer Gordon Milnes, the annex building and the on-site trailer offer a total of 7,800 square feet of space in comparison to 6,000 square feet at the current municipal building.
Due to the unusual layout of the Clarksburg building, which was formerly an elementary school, Milnes said that the amount of functional space would be equal to what the offices already have.
In discussing the relocation of municipal offices to the annex, officials cited the future possibility of a police force in Millstone.
"We have to think that potentially, one day down the road, we may be looking at police services," Pfefferkorn said. "If we look at most other towns our size, they’ve had to go to their own police forces.
"We’ve been lucky, so far," he added.
Officials discussed the possibility of leasing the current municipal building on Millstone Road rather than selling it. They discussed holding onto it for future use as a police department if the need should arise.
According to Milnes, the municipal building would "make a very good police building."
Some questions were raised about how well the Clarksburg annex, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, would support the high technology demands of a modern office.
Officials determined that a new phone system would have to be installed, but with some modifications, the building would be able to support the different computer systems used in the municipal offices.
In addition, questions were raised about whether the number of parking spaces available at the annex would be sufficient when township meetings became crowded.
At the current municipal building, overflow parking is available in the adjoining church parking lot. Officials determined that the only site viable for an overflow parking at the Clarksburg location was the community center, which is across the street.
Currently the Clarksburg building is undergoing renovations, which are expected to cost approximately $1.2 million.
According to Milnes, approximately $800,000 has been expended on the building so far, with another $380,000 in work necessary to make the building inhabitable.
"The issue that is facing us right now, as committeemen, is what we are going to do with this thing," Nurko said of the Clarksburg School.
"We’ve got some direction on where we want to go, but this is not going to be a quick decision," Abate said.
"We are not going to rush this thing. We’ll study it for three months, six months, nine months — whatever it takes to get this right the first time," Nurko said.
Pfefferkorn said he sees the use of the Clarksburg School as a municipal building as a possible "medium term" remedy for the township.
Abate said that, structurally, the Clarksburg building was in very good shape, despite its age.
However, several problems exist on the site, including the recent discovery of mold and mildew in the building’s basement, which officials said would need to be tested for health reasons.
This summer, Emergency Management Coordinator Ron Trust wrote the Monmouth County Health Department to complain about conditions in the building, including mold, after emergency management personnel became ill.
During its use as a former Board of Education site where school buses were stored, underground oil and gas storage tanks ruptured, creating a plume of contamination underground.
Currently the school board, which is charged with cleaning up the pollution, is paying for a study of the site.