By Amy Batista, Special Writer
The Borough Council plans to fund improvements to municipal facilities and the purchase of office furniture and equipment.
The council unanimously voted to introduce an ordinance on July 1 that would appropriate $10,000 from the borough’s general capital fund for all the work and materials necessary for the improvements, including the purchase of office furniture and equipment. The public hearing and final reading of the ordinance will be held during the next council meeting on July 15.
Employees have worked in cramped quarters in the Public Works building since Hurricane Irene hit the borough in August 2011. Lexington Insurance has estimated the borough would receive $1.9 million to rebuild or refurbish the Borough Hall. Developing temporary facilities for employees is part of the borough’s claim.
”It’s filthy and the conditions are deplorable,” James LeTellier, police director and interim borough administrator, said.
Mr. LeTellier said he plans to start the improvements within two weeks. Mr. LeTellier asked the council to let him move forward with the funds allotted for the “temporary housing” and the additional $10,000 for improvements to municipal facilities as well as the purchase of office furniture, equipment, carpet cleaning and painting. According to Mr. LeTellier, the temporary housing budget is $20,000.
”We are estimating using no more than $10,000,” Mr. LeTellier said. “I want to leave myself a cushion and that is bringing in office furniture.”
”I guarantee I will come in within or below what was budgeted for temporary facilities,” Mr. LeTellier said.
The borough advertised for bids for temporary facilities on Jan. 11. They were due Jan. 30. The only viable bid for review came in from Mobilease Modular Space Inc., which bid for $159,200 for an administrative temporary facility and $275,100 for a modular police unit. Mobilease is based in West Deptford.
Mr. LeTellier wants employees to have a better work environment.
”(I) want to have everybody in a decent, healthy, stable, work environment,” Mr. LeTellier said.
According to George Lang, borough chief financial officer, the funding for the improvements and the furniture will be coming from “capital surplus.” He wanted to clarify it’s a “capital ordinance instead of a bond ordinance.”
”We have capital surplus money that we appropriate $10,000 for this purpose,” Mr. Lang said, adding there is no debt authorized.
Councilman Rob Thibault said, “So we don’t have to bond anything, no increase in taxes, and we are going to get it done very quickly.”
Mr. LeTellier said, “I think within three to four weeks everybody will be in the proper facility. My priority is to alleviate the overcrowded conditions.”
Mr. LeTellier said he has met with the department heads.
”I have gone out and looked at some options for temporary housing to move the Department of Public Works employees into,” Mr. LeTellier said.
According to Mr. LeTellier, a modular facility will be placed behind the Public Works building. The trailer will be 14-foot-by-15-foot and will have new windows and a floor installed. The trailer comes with a guarantee for the roof for three years and the heating and air conditioning for one year.
”We move them in there,” Mr. LeTellier said. “The current office held by Mr. (Ken) Lewis (superintendent of public works) and his assistant will become the Community Development Office, which will take care of the code and construction and the zoning will be moved in there.”
The current lunchroom, where there are now six employees working, is going to be reduced to four desks and will be turned into the financial office with a teller window in the hallway.
”We are going to put a hall wall where Donna Syx currently sits,” Mr. LeTellier said, adding it will be the reception area.
Ms. Syx is the Public Works administrative assistant. A reception area is going to be created and double as an area where the Planning Board assistant will also be housed.
Susan Jackson, who served as the borough’s Planning Board secretary, assistant to the clerk and deputy registrar, resigned on July 1, according to Mr. LeTellier.
”The current borough clerk and borough administrator’s office is going to have the assistant clerk in there to make facilities for the administrator and the mayor and council to work to have a secure conference room when they have a staff meeting or meeting with representatives of the community, citizens or attorneys, and not going down the basement stairs,” Mr. LeTellier said, adding that is where Annie Blake, the tax/water/sewer collector, is located in the building.
According to Mr. LeTellier, Mobilease first offered a temporary construction trailer.
”I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw it pull in,” Mr. LeTellier said. “I will not accept it. I will not waste taxpayers money on something that we would have to tow out of there.”
Mobilease then offered a classroom trailer that was being removed from a Robbinsville Elementary School, according to Mr. LeTellier.
”I asked them to drop it off in the borough parking lot so (the) mayor and council could see it and look at it,” Mr. LeTellier said.
Mayor Kirson asked, “So the trailer that is sitting there now in the Public Works parking lot we have no commitment to that?”
Mr. LeTellier replied, “None. He left that there so everybody can view it and see it.”
Mr. LeTellier said he is still negotiating the price with Mobilease.”He is still too high in the price,” Mr. LeTellier said.
Mr. LeTellier said he also visited some trailer rental facilities in Toms River earlier that day with Mr. Lewis, which “gives us another option to rent a trailer long-term.”
”The difference with rental at the end of the lease, your money is gone,” Mr. LeTellier said. “The option with this modular classroom is you have the option to resell it because it is modular construction or you have the option to use it elsewhere in the borough if you so choose.”
Mr. LeTellier said the modular classroom could be an investment over time.
”You could have an investment for the next 15 to 20 years,” Mr. LeTellier said, adding the trailer would have to be maintained.
Mr. LeTellier said he would also like to purchase six to eight workstations and paint the inside of the building.
”They are working off a folding table and an oversized table for a lunch room and most of the desks were disposed of after Hurricane Irene and when I walk through the building there is nothing really left in that building that we can use,” he said.
Borough Clerk Debra Sopronyi said, “Whatever furniture is purchased today will be able to go into whatever new facility you move into on a permanent basis.
Councilwoman Lynne Woods reminded council members that the furniture would be “replacement furniture for what we have lost” and that “we would have to do it anyway.”
According to Ms. Woods, the purchase would qualify under the borough’s insurance reimbursement.
