PRINCETON: Departments to start moving next month

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Municipal departments will start moving to different buildings next month as part of the planned relocation to have the government of the consolidated Princeton running in January.
   KSS Architects, a Princeton-based firm that officials hired, has been meeting with each municipal department to assess space needs and what modifications Borough Hall and the township building need to accommodate everyone. About 120 employees combined will work in both buildings.
   Details still need to be worked out. Andrew Tucker, an architect from the firm, said Friday that by the end of this month, KSS would provide officials an implementation plan that officials can follow for sequencing all the moves.
   While the two government buildings will need some modifications, Mr. Tucker said those changes are “limited” and range from moving filing cabinets to removing or adding a door or wall. He said the Police Department headquarters in the township building was designed to accommodate growth, so Mr. Tucker said any renovations would be minor.
   Officials in both towns have been working all year on the anticipated merger of the two municipalities starting on Jan. 1. This summer, they decided where to locate the departments in the two municipal buildings.
   Police, administration, clerk, municipal court, and planning, zoning, building, construction and engineering departments will be in the township building on Witherspoon Street. The former Borough Hall will house health, human services, affordable housing, public works administration and Corner House, the youth-services agency.
   Some of those department will need to get their moving boxes out, if they haven’t already. Acting Township Administrator Kathryn Monzo said Friday that the first agencies to move would be the current borough engineering, tax and finance and municipal court into the township building sometime in mid to late September.