By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Township officials voted Sept. 9 to spend up to $35,000 to remediate and demolish the old municipal building on East Mountain Road. The building is in front of the current public works yard.
Township Administrator Anthony Ferrera said Tuesday that building is subject to flooding and generally isn’t sound. In addition, a recent state health inspection found asbestos tiles in the foyer, not surprising for a building of its day.
Township Health Department Officer Glen Belnay said the building was closed in 1990, when the municipal complex was opened and township offices scattered in several places were consolidated into the one building. The building was in use when he first joined the township’s employ in 1973, he said.
Other township functions were in the old Flagtown School, the police headquarters also on East Mountain Road, the library in a storefront in a shopping center off Route 206 at Amwell Road and school administration on Amwell Road in the Bloomingdale Building.
The former municipal building features an old road grader and a V-plow used to break through snowdrifts back in the day, Dr. Belnay siad. A rock with an identifying sign used to feature a plaque with the names of World War II and Korea veterans, he said.
The building has been used in recent years only for cold storage of tires of equipment, or for police items held for public auction, said DPW Supervisor Rich Resavy. Such items are being cleared out now, he said.
Mr. Ferrera said the township needs to determine what remediation, if any, will need to be done to the site. Costs will be studied before a final decision is made, he said.
There are no plans on what to do with the future vacant front yard.