By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The town of Princeton has explored the possibility of acquiring The Princeton Packet property on Witherspoon Street to enable the municipality to consolidate its public works department in one location.
Representatives of the town for the second time visited the property on Monday, ahead of a council meeting when officials are expected due to discuss the site in closed session.
At the moment, the department is split between locations around town, including sites at River Road and John and Harrison streets and with the main office in the former Borough Hall. The Packet property, assessed for $1.866 million, backs up to the John Street property and is separated by a fence.
“We are looking for a consolidated public works facility,” town administrator Marc D. Dashield said at Mayor Liz Lempert’s press conference on Monday.
In terms of what the cost would be for consolidating, Council President Lance Liverman said it “all depends.” He declined to speculate.
Mayor Lempert said there has been talk for “a very long time” of improving the DPW facilities. She said that as far back as 20 years ago, there was talk that it was long overdue for public works to have a new facility.
Officials would not publicly confirm they are looking at the Packet property. The agenda for the closed session meeting lists a “potential land acquisition for Department of Public Works facility” as one of the items officials will discuss.
“It’s just to do our fiduciary responsibility,” Mayor Lempert said, “we shouldn’t be advertising where we’re looking to purchase property.”
The Packet property is owned by James Kilgore, who said Monday the property has not been listed for sale, but has been shown to various parties who have inquired about its availability.
The Princeton Packet newspaper, along with the Hopewell Valley News, Hillsborough Beacon, Windsor-Hights Herald, Cranbury Press and website centraljersey.com, were merged with Broad Street Media in April to form a new operating company, Packet Media LLC.
