Manville wants to know what it would cost to restore the building to house its Office of Emergency Management.
By: Charlie Olsen
When the borough signed the Rustic Mall redevelopment plan agreement at the Sept. 25 meeting, the borough also authorized the receipt of $1 million from the redeveloper, Rustic Mall LLC, to build a community center in the mall.
At the Sept. 25 meeting, Borough Council members discussed combining the recreation center and community center into one building at the Rustic Mall because they are functionally similar. The Weiss Street recreation building that was gutted by a fire in March would be used to house the Office of Emergency Management (OEM).
On Monday, the council moved in that direction by passing a resolution to enter into a $5,500 contract with South Plainfield-based Cornerstone Architectural Group LLC to perform a feasibility study on using the Weiss Street building to house the OEM.
The study will provide the town with an estimate of how much it will cost to renovate the Weiss Street building into an OEM office basically just a garage and a meeting space, Borough Administrator Gary Garwacke has said.
Before the fire, the building served as a recreation center, and the offices for the Recreation Department and the OEM.
Mr. Garwacke has said that the building’s interior is the only part that needs work, because only one part of the building’s steel frame was destroyed by the fire.
Mr. Garwacke also has said the functions of the two buildings, recreation center and community center, overlap. Because the Rustic Mall is centrally located in town and has better parking arrangements, that location makes more sense as a community center.
Because the OEM has no physical building or office of its own, its equipment, offices and records are being stored with the Fire Department. Because the Weiss building is located in the Lost Valley floodplain, it is closer to the most flood-prone sections of town that most likely would need OEM’s services should a disaster arise.
Insurance funds, about $300,000, will cover the cost of reconstruction and Cornerstone’s contract, Mr. Garwacke said.

