The renovation project is expected to cost $972,360.
By: Linda Seida
LAMBERTVILLE The City Council has authorized the issuance of almost $1 million in bonds to finance structural improvements to City Hall.
The ordinance passed unanimously Jan. 18 with no comment from the public. It appropriates $972,360 for the renovations and authorizes the issuance of $963,050 in bonds for the project.
The city had to put down 5 percent of its contribution, or $9,310, before it could authorize the bonds.
Lambertville will pay $186,180 in city funds, including the $9,310. The remainder is expected in the form of a $300,000 grant from the Department of Community Affairs and a $486,180 grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust.
The improvements to City Hall will include a new roof, gutters, exterior stonework, windows and doors. The addition of an elevator and modifications to the restrooms will bring the building into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act and make all public areas handicapped accessible.
During the city’s annual reorganization meeting Jan. 1, the council appointed the architectural firm Holt Morgan Russell of Princeton to oversee the project.
Mayor Del Vecchio said work could begin in February on City Hall, which sits at the corner of York and North Union streets and also is known as the Holcombe House.
"This is the first thing we’re doing this year, but it certainly won’t be the last," Mayor Del Vecchio said.
Councilwoman Cynthia Ege thanked John Hencheck of the Friends of the A.J. Holcombe House for his years of volunteer service to the cause of preserving the historic structure.
The Holcombe House was constructed in the French Second Empire style. The building became City Hall in 1950.
Lambertville successfully pursued another grant for the building in 2001 when the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust Fund awarded the city a $40,500 grant to devise a preservation plan for Holcombe House.

