City, township may share court facilities

By: Stephanie Prokop
   BORDENTOWN CITY—The city is looking at utilizing interlocal services with Bordentown Township for use of its courtroom, commissioners said Monday night.
   Commissioner James Lynch explained that the current Bordentown City Hall building at 324 Farnsworth Ave. lacks handicapped accessibility, and is short on both court staff and seating capacity.
   An interlocal service agreement had been delivered from the township to the city, and the next step is to have their attorneys look over the agreement, he said Tuesday.
   "Bordentown Township Mayor George Chidley asked both myself and Mayor John Collom to look over the agreement, and in the next few weeks we will be sharing it with our attorneys," said Mr. Lynch.
   The main reason the city is looking to the township is because there is an issue of having enough staff to cover court needs, explained Mr. Lynch.
   "Bordentown Township is happy with their court clerks, and they had made an overture to us that we may be able to utilize their space for our court needs," said Mr. Lynch.
   Mr. Lynch said that there also had been discussions extended to Mayor Edward "Buddy" Tyler of Fieldsboro, as staffing may be an issue with the borough as well.
   In addition to services being in short supply in Bordentown City, the building holds some logistical problems and Mr. Lynch said he suspects that the building may soon have to have an elevator installed, or some other costly way to make it handicapped accessible.
   "We have been ‘grandfathered’ in, (for usage of the building on 324 Farnsworth Ave.), but soon we may have to change this," he said.
   The current courtroom in which municipal meetings, local court proceedings and other city business are conducted is located on the second floor of the building. Not only is the building inaccessible to handicapped visitors, but the capacity of the room is about 60 people.
   Although the commissioners said they do not know how much it will cost to join the interlocal agreement, Mr. Lynch said he thinks it will ultimately save the city money.
   "We need to make a move," he said.