Building designated for municipal space

Washington officials prepare to move municipal operations to office space on Washington Boulevard (Dec. 22)

By: Lauren Burgoon
   WASHINGTON — Unsure whether town hall will have to be rebuilt due to mold infestation and water damage, Washington officials are preparing to move municipal operations to office space on Washington Boulevard for five years.
   Plans are set in place for most municipal offices to move to 1 Washington Blvd. under a five-year lease, which had not been signed as of early this week.
   Offices will occupy the basement and second floor with the higher visibility offices, such as the clerk’s office, on the second floor. Other tenants in the building include a doctor’s office, engineering firm and Sharbell Development Corp., which owns the building.
   The basement includes a meeting room suitable for staff or committee meetings, something the town is lacking under the temporary arrangement. Town council meetings are being held in the senior center for now and could remain there for the foreseeable future.
   The projected move in date is late January to allow enough time to outfit the space for municipal use.
   The council canceled more than half of a previous emergency spending fund on Dec. 8, leaving up to $359,000 to spend over the five years on the lease. Sale of the Edelweiss building (and current construction office) on Robbinsville-Allentown Road will create "almost a zero-sum game" in offsetting the lease costs, Mayor Dave Fried said.
   The building will go up for auction, as is required by law for municipal-owned property, sometime in January or February. Prospective buyers have toured the property and sale prices from $300,000 to $350,000 have been floated, Township Administrator Mary Caffrey said.
   Officials researched a number of options for municipal space, Ms. Caffrey said, but found "the best solution would be to consolidate municipal offices under one roof."
   Employees were forced from the Route 130 building following a mold outbreak after an October flood. Individual offices were farmed out to various township-owned properties, creating problems for employees whose offices shared technology and files and for the public who had to travel to different sites to conduct business.
   Some municipal offices — most likely, the fFinance dDepartment, tax assessor and tax collector — will still be separated from the main group due to space constraints. They will be housed at the police substation on Washington Boulevard, Ms. Caffrey said.
   Officials had considered purchasing space for the interim but were unable to secure tax-exempt status.
   Meanwhile, research into Washington’s future municipal operations continues. While mold had long been a problem at the municipal building, a deeper investigation uncovered building-wide water damage, black mold and waterproofing problems. Now the town is deciding whether to fix the building, raze and rebuild or sell the valuable land to a commercial entity and move to a less visible section of town.
   Ms. Caffrey said Washington will hire an architectural firm to make recommendations on rebuilding or renovating the current municipal building. The firm will be barred from receiving further contracts on the project to prevent self-serving recommendations in the initial report.