New center to be part of general development of area
By: Stephanie Brown
MONROE The Township Council accepted 20 acres on the corner of Applegarth and Halsey Reed roads from Stratford Developers LLC on Monday that will be used for a new senior center and fire station/EMS facility.
Stratford Developers provided the property as part of its general development plan approval for Stratford at Monroe.
The new senior center would occupy about 17- to 18-acres of the parcel and the fire station/EMS facility will occupy about 3 acres, Township Engineer Ernie Feist said.
Mr. Feist said the township may go out to bid for the senior center project in late 2007, early 2008. He said construction could take at least a year.
Fire District 2 Commissioner Glenn Borsuk said the district has been meeting with architects for the fire station/EMS facility, but thought it wouldn’t be prudent to project a timeline at this time.
The township had originally intended for the fire station/EMS facility to be located at the corner of Applegarth and Cranbury-Half Acre roads, Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton said.
The facility was to be built in conjunction with Fire District 2, where voters approved a $3.8 million referendum in February to cover its share of a 16,031-square-foot, $5.4 million fire station/EMS facility.
Mr. Hamilton said the original site was supposed to be donated by Edgewood Property as part of its general development plan approval for Applegarth Professional Center.
However, that site contains contaminated fill from the decommissioned Ford Motor Co. in Edison. The state Department of Environmental Protection ordered Ford in March to clean up the site. The state and Ford are still working on a cleanup plan.
"We, the township, have not accepted the property due to the contamination issue," Mr. Hamilton said.
Commissioner Borsuk said the original plan was to split the cost based on the amount of square footage. The fire district was to pay its share based on the facility’s square footage allotted to the fire station and the township was to pay its share based on the square-footage of the EMS portion. He said it came out to about one third township and about two thirds fire district.
Mr. Hamilton said the fire station/EMS facility will still be a combination project with the township and the fire district.
However, Commissioner Borsuk said voters will most likely be asked to approve another referendum, because the first one was site specific.
"Unfortunately, we’re pretty much going to have to start from scratch," Commissioner Borsuk said.
The new senior center will house the Office on Aging and Transportation Department, which currently occupies approximately 6,500 square feet on the lower level of the Municipal Building.
The new senior center will be paid for through a $20 million bond ordinance that also includes renovations to the library and community center. The Township Council set aside $7.5 million each for construction of the senior center and expanded library, and $5 million for the expanded Community Center.
The library expansion will double the size of the existing 19,461-square-foot facility and add a drive-through window. The Community Center expansion, which would double the size of the existing 15,224-square-foot building, will include a new gymnasium, weight room, an exercise room and two meeting rooms.

