By Christina Whittington, Special Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — Borough employees are still feeling the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, which hit the area as a tropical storm and severely flooded the downtown in 2011.
Today, employees are seeking a return to normalcy.
Borough administrative employees have worked for 15 months in very close and cramped quarters within the Public Works building on Bank Street.
During Irene, Borough Hall was flooded, and for more than a year, the 148 N. Main St. facility has remained closed.
In September, Lexington Insurance agreed to pay $3.5 million to rebuild the complex and fund temporary housing for municipal employees.
Now, talks have begun to get these employees a space of their own — at least temporarily. Debate still is continuing as to the future of the Borough Hall with different groups advocating different visions.
At the Nov. 19 Borough Council meeting, council members and Mayor Steven Kirson listened to a report by Borough Engineer Carmela Roberts. Ms. Roberts presented various locations to relocate employees.
Finding a temporary relocation for borough administrative employees was discussed at the Nov. 5 meeting.
Mayor Kirson said the borough received a letter by the local union asking for consideration to be given to find employees a better temporary home.
Ms. Roberts’ report consisted of exploring the option of temporary trailers for a period of up to three years. She said this time period would give the borough adequate time to negotiate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, demolish the existing Borough Hall and rebuild.
Ms. Roberts said that leasing trailers for three years would be more cost effective than purchasing them.
She said she received input for her report from Borough Clerk Debra Sopronyi, Borough Administrator Michael Theokas and Construction Officer George Chin to find out which administrative employees needed what office space.
Ms. Roberts also referred to a spatial analysis prepared for the borough by Ric Perez of Perez and Radosti to find out how much office space would be needed in a formal, permanent setting and used that as a guide.
As a result, Ms. Roberts said she determined a total of seven individual offices would be needed for certain employees, including the clerk, borough administrator, treasurer and CFO, Planning Board secretary, construction official and administrative assistants as well as tax assessor and tax and water sewer collector.
A large common area with desks also would be needed for the fire subcode, electrical subcode and plumbing subcode officials.
Ms. Robert’s suggestion was to lease one trailer that provided four offices, bathrooms, a kitchen area with counter and sink and a large open area. She said another trailer should provide six offices. This would leave room for one office to be used as a meeting room, leaving the other two offices for storage space. Another trailer also could be leased for additional storage space.
According to Ms. Roberts, it would cost $12,000 to $16,000 for a company to bring over the trailers, install footings and handicap ramps and make them ready for occupation. The borough would be responsible for installing its own water and sewer, electrical and internet hookups.
Sites to place the temporary trailers were discussed.
The first borough-owned property explored in the engineer’s report was the vacant Borough Hall.
Ms. Roberts recommended not putting the trailers there temporarily as they would have to be moved again when Borough Hall is razed. In reference to possible flooding, Ms. Roberts said there was not enough room in the upland location of that site to put trailers.
”I consider it not a feasible location for consideration,” Ms. Roberts said.
The second borough-owned property analyzed was the Public Works area — placing the trailers between the Public Works garage and Bank Street.
Ms. Roberts said that after placing the two trailers needed by the borough, there would not be enough room for Public Works employees to access the garage. She said Public Works employees need full use of the garage for the storage and vehicle maintenance.
The third municipal property discussed was the water treatment plant on Bank Street, which is located in the flood plain.
”There is no good, safe place to put the trailers on that location without them being impacted by floodwaters,” Ms. Roberts said.
Other sites were discussed, including a parcel behind the Ely House and two vacant properties on Maxwell Avenue.
The Lucas Electric Co. building on Mercer Street also was mentioned in Ms. Roberts’ report. She said borough employees could temporarily move in to the location without any renovations needed to the space. The site has eight offices and a meeting room.
There was a possibility, according to Ms. Roberts, that the restrooms would have to be made handicap accessible.
The Lucas property is in the process of being acquired by First Constitution Bank due to bankruptcy.
Additionally, Ms. Roberts said there was enough room on the Lucas property to also place trailers if needed.
Another viable option that did not include the use of temporary trailers is the former Minute Maid property, also located on Mercer Street. Ms. Roberts, who toured the location last week as part of the Minute Maid use variance application under Planning Board review, said there was a partially constructed two-story area that included office space, a locker room and cafeteria area of about 15,000 square feet.
Front access to the building and parking changes would be needed at that location, according to Ms. Roberts.
”The Minute Maid representative mentioned they would like to lease the area to the borough,” Ms. Roberts said.
Of all the options that were discussed in Ms. Roberts’ report, the Borough Council directed Mr. Theokas to reach out to John Wolfington, owner of the Rug Mill property on Bank Street, regarding his property behind the Ely House on Bank Street.
Concurrently, the council also asked the borough administrator to contact D&M Property Management as well as Suburban New Jersey Surplus regarding their properties on Maxwell Avenue.
Also, the council asked Mr. Theokas to reach out to St. Anthony of Padua Church, which has a large parking lot adjacent to the Maxwell Avenue properties, to see if the trailers could be set up there.
Councilwoman Gail Doran also requested a report be done that would include police trailers. Ms. Roberts indicated she and Police Director James LeTellier would work together on preparing the report.
In other news, some members of the Borough Council held an executive meeting last Wednesday to discuss the borough administrator position of Mr. Theokas.
The next Borough Council meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3.

