The $3.7 million addition and rennovation project is slated to be completed next year.
By:Lea Kahn Staff Writer
Behind the chain-link fence and a sea of mud, work on the first phase of the $3.7 million addition and renovation project at the Municipal Building is wrapping up and should be completed by June.
Work on the renovation and addition project, which is expected to take about 24 months, is being carried out in three phases, Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun said. The project should be completed in the summer of 2007.
Wu & Associates, the Cherry Hill-based contractor hired to oversee the project, began work on the first phase in August 2005. Work on the second phase is expected to begin in July, and the third phase will follow later this year, Mr. Krawczun said.
The Municipal Building was constructed in 1964, and a wing was added on the north side of the building in the 1970s. 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 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, Mr. Krawczun said. 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 addition and renovation project involves demolishing the former Police Department headquarters and constructing a 5,500-square-foot addition. The second and third phases call for renovating 19,000 square feet of the 36,000-square-foot building.
The Police Department and Municipal Court moved into a new 42,210-square-foot building in 2002. The building, which cost $9.3 million, is located on the north side of the municipal campus across the parking lot from the Municipal Building.
| Security upgrade proposed for court Responding to the changing times, township officials are planning to beef up security measures outside the Lawrence Township Municipal Court, according to Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun. Those measures include purchasing a metal detector and hiring two part-time employees in lieu of assigning police officers to assist in screening visitors to the Municipal Court, Mr. Krawczun said. Visitors are screened before they enter the courtroom. "The times have changed," he said. "The Municipal Court is very busy. There are times when there are a lot of people in the courtroom. As a matter of safety, we felt it would be prudent to initiate higher levels of safety standards to protect visitors and court personnel in the event someone entered the courtroom with prohibited contraband (weapons)." Mr. Krawzcun continued, "There have never been any incidents, but we want to reduce our risk by reducing our exposure (to the possibility that someone could sneak a weapon into the courtroom)." Presently, a police officer is assigned to search visitors’ bags and briefcases for weapons outside of the courtroom, Mr. Krawczun said. But training civilians and hiring them on a part-time basis to provide security would free up a police officer for other duties, he said. The proposed 2006 municipal budget contains money for the part-time security guards’ salaries and about $5,000 to buy a metal detector, Mr. Krawczun said. The money to purchase a metal detector is available by reallocating money generated by a previous bond ordinance that was not spent, he said. The new personnel will be hired and trained after the budget is adopted, he said. One or both of the two new personnel would be stationed outside the courtroom, "depending on how busy it is," he added. |
Noting that work on the first phase of the project is nearly complete, Mr. Krawczun said the exterior and interior walls are in place and new doors have been installed in the addition. Workers are painting the interior walls and installing the ceiling.
Mr. Krawczun said the first phase should be ready for occupancy in the latter part of June. The Community Development Department will be relocated to the new addition on a permanent basis, he said. The Health Department and the Tax Assessor’s Office will move into the addition on a temporary basis while work on phase two gets underway.
Work on phase two which consists of renovations to the north wing of the Municipal Building will begin in July, Mr. Krawczun said. The Health Department and the Tax Assessor’s Office are located in the north wing, and that’s why they are being relocated to the new addition temporarily.
Once work on the north wing has been completed a task that is expected to take about four months the Health Department, the Finance Department and the Municipal Manager’s Office will move into their new offices in the north wing. The Finance Department and the Municipal Manager’s Office are now located in the 1964 portion of the Municipal Building.
The third and final phase involves renovations to the 1964 portion of the Municipal Building. In addition to the Finance Department and the Municipal Manager’s Office, the 1964 portion now houses the Municipal Clerk’s Office, the Recreation Department and the Tax Collector’s Office.
While renovations are under way in the 1964 portion of the Municipal Building, the Municipal Clerk’s Office, the Recreation Department and the Tax Collector’s Office will be relocated to the new 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 1964 portion of the Municipal Building on a permanent basis.
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, Mr. Krawczun said. Those offices have been located in the trailers since the early 1990s.
The small gravel parking lot accessible from West Long Drive that was used for overflow parking will be removed once all the construction is complete. The area will be replanted with grass.

