BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
METUCHEN — Work on the new borough hall goes on.
Borough Administrator William E. Boerth said at last week’s Borough Council meeting that work on the building at 500 Main St., which officials expected to be ready by the beginning of this year, passed an important milestone recently.
"We now have permanent power in our new building and we also have heat."
Those developments have helped speed the progress on interior work, Boerth said.
"A lot of finishing type things are going on now," Boerth said, including tile work and installation of bathroom fixtures.
Boerth also said the jail cells for the police department are nearing completion, and that installation of elevators is expected to begin shortly.
The number of workers on-site will increase significantly in the upcoming weeks, Boerth said.
Last month, Boerth indicated that the borough hoped to move in to the new building by the end of March.
The borough began work on the $6.4 million project to more than double the size of the existing building in spring 2002.
The building is slated to expand from 12,000 to 26,000 square feet.
However, the project hit a roadblock in December when Crain Construction Co., Hackensack, declared bankruptcy and work on the project stopped.
Borough offices remain in temporary space at 212 Durham St., where they have been since the renovations began.