Tearing down the wall

Municipal officials take a whack at the old portion of Town Hall in anticipation of the 24-month construction period for the new addition.

By: Lea Khan Staff Writer
With a mighty swing of the sledgehammer, Mayor Pam Mount knocked out a brick in the former Police Department wing of the Municipal Building as Councilmen Mark Holmes and Michael Powers watched.
   The two councilmen also took turns swinging a sledgehammer Friday morning, symbolically marking the start of the $3.7 million addition and renovation project at the Municipal Building. It is expected to take 24 months to complete.
   "We are thrilled to have this (project) finally beginning," Mayor Mount said. "It has been many years in coming. I am sure it will come in under budget and on time."
   The Cherry Hill-based firm of Wu & Associates is expected to begin demolition work on a portion of the building Tuesday, said architect Stanislaw A. Guzikowski of the architectural firm of Clarke Caton Hintz. The firm is based in Trenton.
   The project calls for demolishing the former Police Department headquarters in the building and constructing a 5,500-square-foot addition. It also calls for renovating 19,000 square feet of the existing building.
   The Police Department and Municipal Court moved into a new, 42,210-square-foot building in 2002. The building is located on the north side of the municipal campus, across the parking lot from the Municipal Building. The project cost $9.3 million.
   The original section of the Municipal Building was constructed in the 1960s. The North Wing was added several years later. The 36,000-square-foot building contains 22,000 square feet on the ground floor and 14,000 square feet on the lower level. The project does not include renovations to the lower level of the building.
   The goal of the project is to make the Municipal Building more accommodating and user-friendly to the public by rearranging the location of various departments. Departments whose functions are complementary — such as the tax assessor and the tax collector — would be located adjacent to each other, for example.
   The first phase of the three-phase project involves the demolition of the former Police Department headquarters and construction of a 5,500-square-foot addition. Once that work has been completed, the Engineering Department, the Health Department and the Tax Assessor’s Office will move into the addition.
   The Engineering Department will be permanently located in the new addition, but the Health Department and the Tax Assessor’s Office will be located there on a temporary basis while renovation work is under way on the North Wing of the Municipal Building.
   The second phase of the project calls for renovations to the North Wing. Once that work has been completed, the Finance Department, the Municipal Manager’s Office and the Health Department will move into that space on a temporary basis. The Finance Department and the Municipal Manager’s Office are now located in the original portion of the Municipal Building.
   The third and final phase involves renovations to the original portion of the Municipal Building. In addition to the Finance Department and the Municipal Manager’s Office, it houses the Recreation Department and the Tax Collector’s Office.
   While work is under way on that portion of the building, the Tax Collector’s Office, the Recreation Department and the Municipal Clerk’s Office will be relocated to the addition on a temporary basis.
   Once the third phase is finished, the Tax Collector’s Office, the Tax Assessor’s Office, the Municipal Clerk’s Office and the Recreation Department will move back to the original portion of the Municipal Building.
   The Construction Department and the Fire Marshal’s Office, which are located in temporary trailers on the south side of the Municipal Building, will be relocated to the new addition after all of the renovations are finished. The trailers will be removed.
   Officials said the small gravel parking lot that was used for overflow parking will be removed once all the construction is completed. The parking lot, which is accessible from West Long Drive, will be replanted with grass.