PRINCETON: Most offices to be located in township building

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Most major government departments of the consolidated Princeton will be housed in the township building on Witherspoon Street, borough and township officials agreed Monday.
   The decision, coming at a joint meeting of the two governing bodies, followed a presentation by the architectural firm that analyzed the space needs of all government agencies and other factors.
   ”We literally went through each the departments and tabulated their space and where they were in the two buildings,” said Edmund P. Klimek, a partner with Princeton-based KSS Architects. “But we really wanted to do more than just tabulate the space. It was important to understand in the reallocation of space how the various components worked with another.”
   To that end, the firm put together focus groups to understand the interplay between departments, such as between the police and municipal court.
   After weighing the options, the conclusion was to have the police department, mayor, administrator, municipal clerk, municipal court, violations bureau, engineering, planning, building and construction departments at the Witherspoon Street building.
   Borough Hall will house affordable housing, human services, the health department, fire inspection, the youth services program Corner House, public works and satellite office space for the mayor and the administrator.
   ”We wanted to make sure that these facilities didn’t just house the functions but housed them well,” said Mr. Klimek. “So program relationships were considered, how all of the functions would come together and could they reinforce the working relationships.”
   In addition, officials said they plan to approach public access TV-30 about leasing space in Borough Hall.
   The movement of departments will occur in sequences, not happening all at once, said Township Committeeman Bernard P. Miller, the chairman of the Transition Task Force Facilities Subcommittee.
   Mr. Miller said it would be “a real task” of getting information to the public about what departments are where. He said that would entail good job of using of signage and other steps.
   For his part, Mr. Miller felt it was desirable to have a government presence in Borough Hall to show “we have not walked away from downtown.”
   As part of their next steps, officials agreed to have a study to look at the parking problems at both buildings and find solutions. Also, KSS will do more work related to relocating departments and the necessary building renovations.
   In his remarks, Mr. Klimek called Borough Hall as “Monument Hall” and the township building as the “Witherspoon Building.”
   ”We’ve tried to be very careful to get away from using borough and township to designate the buildings,” Mr. Miller said.
   He was quick to add that the naming of the buildings would be up to a “higher authority.”