BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
LITTLE SILVER – What will and will not remain as a part of the borough’s capital project budget this year was a topic of discussion at last week’s Borough Council workshop meeting.
After discussion of some of the projects, the council decided to remove about $200,000 worth of capital projects from the budget, including the relocation of the Post Office Museum and the rotating of the barns on the Benevides property, near the entrance to Sickles Park.
The relocation of the Post Office Museum from its place behind Borough Hall to Rumson Road was estimated to have cost the borough about $130,000, but Mayor Suzanne Castleman said that she is unsure of whether or not the historic building would even survive the trip.
Councilman Jon Bitman said he would want to hear a firm plan for where the museum would be moved before he would vote to allocate any money for the move.
The rotating of structures on the Benevides property at the entrance of Sickles Park would be done only if the council decided to move the main entrance from the existing curved road to Harrison Avenue, which is a straight-away and would need to be widened.
Castleman said that she was advised by the borough’s professionals that it would be better to keep the main entrance, which is a curved road.
“I do not think we would want a straight-away through the park,” she said. “The curved road is much better. The police don’t want it to be a straight-away. They think it would turn into a drag-strip, and I agree.”
Castleman said that the structure on the Benevides property was built in 1864 and is in great shape.
“We could always put a small parking lot behind it and use it for office space for the Parks and Recreation Department,” she said.
Councilman Donald Galante said that he would like to see multiple options before he decides on one.
“I would like to see what it would look like if it wasn’t there,” he said. “I’ve walked it and I think the building visually blocks entrance to that whole area.”
Castleman said the idea of moving the structure would have been in order to move the entrance to the straight-away.
“If we don’t move it,” she said, “that’s $80,000 we don’t have to spend.”
The council also discussed the possibility of purchasing a generator, which has been a topic of discussion for several years, according to Borough Administrator Michael Biehl.
The generator would be housed at the Department of Public Works garage, but there is a discrepancy as to what it should cost.
Biehl said that a borough employee estimated the cost of a generator at $25,000, but the borough engineer
estimated the cost at $150,000.
Because the council is considering future plans to reconstruct the DPW garage, or even move it to another site, it was decided to take a further look into pricing a generator before including it in the 2007 municipal budget.
“I would stand by purchasing a generator 1,000 percent,” said Bitman, “if we were talking about the new building.”
The projects and purchases that met with the council’s approval include drainage and curbing repair at Little Silver Point Road in the amount of $250,000; constructing a parking lot at the Parker Homestead for $100,000; drainage improvements at Howard’s Beach for $45,000; slope protection for Little Silver Point Road and South Prospect Avenue for $35,000; and improvements at Memorial Park for $75,000.
The council also agreed that the borough tennis courts should receive some repair.
The tennis courts at Sentelle Park are planned to be reconstructed for $150,000, and the Rumson Road tennis courts at Markham Fields would cost the borough $35,000 for refurbishment.
“The tennis courts need to be done,” said Bitman.
“The police are going to have to watch out though,” said Castleman. “There’s no sense in resurfacing the courts if we let kids play roller hockey or skateboard on them.”
In the end, the council decided that out of the $1 million worth of projects discussed at the meeting, which didn’t include projects and purchases for the police department or first aid squad, $800,000 in projects were worth pursuing and including in this year’s budget.
Some police purchases were discussed during the workshop meeting, but those costs are not included in the $800,000.
Bitman said that some of the requests by the police department did not seem to make sense for the municipality, including an $1,100 digital crime scene camera and navigational software for police vehicles.
“If our police are going around in town,” said Bitman, “they should know how to get around. I don’t know if we’ve gotten a little “CSI” crazy, but $1,100 is a lot of money for a camera. Maybe we do need it, but I want to have a little more discussion about it.”
Biehl said that the general budget is still being worked on and will be presented at a future meeting.