Sticker shock for WW senior center

Project bids come in too high

By: Greg Forester
WEST WINDSOR — Township officials are expected to reject all bids received for renovation work on the township’s Senior Center today after all the responses were significantly more than what the township was looking to pay for the work.
   Three bids came in, and all were at least $1 million over the $1.5 million projected cost for the multi-faceted renovation project. West Windsor received bids of $2,499,520, $2,970,000, and a bid of $3,650,000, according to township officials.
   Now the township plans to have the project completed in phases, which means West Windsor seniors won’t need to wait for new classrooms and activity rooms in the building, which dates back to 1989.
   "Now we will have to focus on phase one, and once we have an additional budget, we will look at phase two," Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh said.
   Township officials said the first phase should see some renovation to the front of the existing structure, in addition to some internal renovations and the construction of additional classrooms for use by the seniors.
   The second phase would see an existing activity room converted to classroom space, and the construction of a larger activity room with a connector to other portions of the structure, according to Business Administrator Christopher Marion.
   The township has turned to the phasing of the project, so at least some of the improvements called for in the original $1.5 million budget can be completed without much delay, Mr. Marion said.
   The funds for the rest of the improvements will have to be included in future capital budgets, he added.
   Bids for the first phase of the revised project are expected to go out in late September or October, Mr. Marion said.
   Township officials said they expect a significant discussion about the inclusion of money in future capital budgets for the second phase of the renovation, and plan on keeping the project at the forefront of their efforts in West Windsor.
   "We want to make sure this project moves forward, and that we have a sense of urgency," said Mr. Marion. "We need to make sure we’re not building something that doesn’t meet the needs of our seniors."
   Mr. Marion said there will be a discussion about the phasing of the project among township officials, and representatives from the senior community and the architecture firm that created the plans, Saizan-Winkler of Freehold.
   Mayor Hsueh said he has always been concerned about the needs of the seniors, noting that he discovered they had been occupying the Senior Center for nearly 12 years without a certificate of occupancy when he became mayor in 2001.
   "They just never received a certificate from the construction office when the building was completed in the late 1980s," Mayor Hsueh said.