By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Mayor Liz Lempert said Friday that she is open to “considering” swapping the Monument Hall municipal building with the school district in return for the Valley Road School, in a move to have government departments located in the same part of town.
“In an ideal world, I would like to see all of the municipality’s departments in one area,” she said. “But that might not be in the cards.”
Mayor Lempert said any trade would have to work “financially” for the town, in terms of renovating the old school and making sure there is enough room there for the government departments and employees now in Monument Hall.
“The reason to do it would be because it would have a financial benefit,” she said.
In 2012, the year before consolidation, municipal officials decided to put the main government offices, like administration and engineering, in the Witherspoon Hall building, located in the former township, and the other agencies in the old borough building, which had been a school in the past.
She noted one drawback, for the district, is the lack of play area for children at Monument Hall. But any deal would include the senior center facility, located behind the building.
A land transfer could have benefits to both sides, as it would not require either public entity to spend money to buy property. She said there have been no discussions between the town and the school district on swapping properties.
The timing of Mayor Lempert’s comments come with a growing school district considering its space options, now that it lost out on buying Rider University’s Westminster Choir College campus. The district had made an offer for the property, only for Rider to announce it had found a potential buyer.
The district eyed the property expecting to have to accommodate more students, based on a demographer’s report projecting enrollment growth.
For his part, school board President Patrick Sullivan said this week that the district and the town need to meet “and make sure that we’re not working at cross-purposes and that, whatever plans we put in place for expansion of things, it fits into an overall plan.”
“We all have properties that we could do things with,” he said. “We have Valley Road, which is at least something that could be an option to use for some expansion. They have the Monument Hall that they probably don’t need. There might be some other pieces of land that they really don’t need.”
“We’re looking forward to sitting down with them and negotiating something that’s in the best interest of everyone,” he said in reply to Mayor Lempert’s comments. “We have a great relationship with them, and we’ll figure something out.”
This comes with the district looking to go before voters early next year with a bond referendum to pay for a series of capital projects that have not been disclosed to the public. The possible March referendum is expected to call for an addition to Princeton High School but likely include more than just that.
