FREEHOLD – A $5 million bond ordinance has been introduced by the Borough Council to fund improvements at a building on Mechanic Street in Freehold Borough that will become the new Borough Hall, police department headquarters and municipal court.
The ordinance was introduced on Sept. 8 and if it is adopted, it will appropriate $5 million for the purchase and retrofitting of the building at 30 Mechanic St. The legislation authorizes the issuance of $4.76 million in bonds or notes and provides for a $240,000 down payment.
A public hearing on the bond ordinance is scheduled for Sept. 21. Council members may adopt the bond ordinance that evening.
When the plan to purchase the building on Mechanic Street was announced several months ago, municipal officials said they would use the building as Borough Hall, as the headquarters of the Freehold Borough Police Department and as the municipal court.
At present, Borough Hall is on West Main Street and the police department and municipal court are in the Rug Mill Towers on Jackson Street.
Councilman George Schnurr said moving the municipal offices to Mechanic Street will open up the West Main Street building for development and allow officials to sell a parking lot on Jackson Street that is currently used by the police department.
Prior to the council’s vote to introduce the bond ordinance, Councilwoman Sharon Shutzer emphasized it is necessary for Borough Hall to move from its current location to Mechanic Street.
“It would cost us so much to fix this (West Main Street) building,” Shutzer said. “We have outgrown it. There is no parking lot that we own. It is not handicap-accessible. Not one of us would be for this move if we did not think this was the economically right thing to do for Freehold Borough.”
In other business, a reduction has been made in a contract that was awarded by the Borough Council for a project that has resulted in the installation of lights at the Little League baseball complex on Otterson Road.
Council members authorized a $2,250 decrease in a $69,400 contract that was awarded to John J. Faccas Inc. (Quality Electrical Construction Co.), Hazlet, to install the lights. With the decrease, the contract was reduced to $67,150.
According to a resolution, the reduction was made due to the removal of sod from the contract. The resolution states the sod was not required because the project did not result in a significant disturbance at the Little League fields.
The council previously awarded a $93,421 contract to Musco Sports Lighting, Oskaloosa, Iowa, to purchase the lights.
The project to install lights at the baseball fields came from Freehold Borough’s participatory budgeting initiative, which allows business owners and residents age 14 and older to nominate and vote for projects they want to fund in the community.
According to borough officials, the project has been completed.
