Renovations, Senior Center helping drive 2004 budget.
By: Leon Tovey
MONROE Planned capital improvement projects around the township are a large part of what’s driving a 13.7 percent increase in municipal spending.
The Township Council will hold a public hearing Monday on its proposed $32.09 million 2005 municipal budget. The proposed $3.89 million increase in spending which would be offset by a surge in the tax ratable base would also cover increases in salaries and wages and debt service payments.
The proposed spending plan would decrease the municipal tax rate from 57 cents to 56 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. At that rate, the owner of a home assessed at the township average of $160,108 would pay around $897 in taxes, $16 less than in 2004.
The township plans to spend $1 million on capital improvements this year, $880,000 more than last year.
Township Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton said Monday that in addition to a number of improvements and repairs to roads, curbs and sidewalks, and drains, much of that money will go toward planning for expansions to the Public Library and the Community Center, and a free-standing Senior Center.
Mr. Hamilton said planning for all three projects, which are considered high priorities, is currently under way, with planning for the Community Center expansion being furthest along.
"The floor plan has been completed and I would anticipate that we should have a preliminary budget within the next 10 days," he said.
Mr. Hamilton declined to discuss cost estimates or give a timeline for the project, but Anthony Wilcenski, director of the Recreation Department, said he thought the township could probably begin awarding bids for the project in the fall.
Mr. Wilcenski said Tuesday that the planned expansion would double the size of the center, from 15,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet. The addition would give the center a second 10,000-square-foot gymnasium, a weight room, a room for gymnastics and two new classrooms.
The planned expansion of the library would double that building’s size as well, from 20,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet, Library Director Irene Goldberg said Tuesday.
Ms. Goldberg declined to discuss cost estimates for the project, but said the expansion of the new library, which opened in 1997, has been necessitated by an increase in the number of library patrons in recent years and a shift toward electronic media in the library’s collection.
The library had 19,264 cardholders in 2000, Ms. Goldberg said. In 2004, there were more than 24,000. And the library’s patronage has not only increased, Ms. Goldberg said, its tastes have changed; the demand for computers, audio recordings and videos is higher now than it has ever been.
"People have turned to libraries for that stuff," Ms. Goldberg said. "And it takes up space, so we need more."
Ms. Goldberg said the project is in the "conceptual design phase," with library officials fine tuning a preliminary floor plan by the Little Ferry-based architecture firm Arcari Iovino. She said work on the expansion, which won’t begin for another year, could take up to 18 months to complete because the library will remain open during construction.
Planning on the Senior Center is the least advanced of the three projects, largely because it is a new build rather than an expansion, Mr. Hamilton said.
"One thing that really slows us down is that we haven’t picked a property," Mr. Hamilton said.
Mr. Hamilton said township officials originally wanted to build the new center in the township municipal complex, but a preliminary needs assessment conducted by the Englishtown-based architecture firm M.J. Barone & Associates determined that not enough space is available.
The Senior Center currently occupies 6,500 square feet on the ground floor of the Municipal Building a space that patrons, volunteers and employees agree is too small to meet the needs of the more than 9,600 seniors who have registered for events at the center.
Mr. Hamilton said the township is looking for a 6-acre parcel nearby on which to build the new center.
Township Engineer Ernie Feist said in March that the township is looking at several parcels of land around the township some of which are privately owned.

