Robbinsville Township Mayor Dave Fried and Hightstown Borough Mayor Lawrence D. Quattrone announced a historic shared services agreement to construct a new police station and court on the site of the current Robbinsville Township Municipal Complex at 1117 Route 130.
The new facility will house both the Robbinsville and Hightstown police department headquarters and each town’s municipal court.
The existing and outdated Robbinsville/Hightstown Municipal Court trailer will be permanently closed and removed from the site.
“Making sure our respective police departments and shared municipal court have the best facilities and every tool possible to perform their duties to the best of their abilities is of paramount importance to both Mayor Quattrone and all of us here in Robbinsville,” Fried said in a statement released by the Robbinsville Township Office of Communications & Public Information. “This is a historic agreement between two neighbors which have the utmost respect for each other and their constituents.”
The shared services agreement is for an initial term of 50 years, with a mutual option to extend the agreement for an additional 50 years.
Each municipality will pay its share of the costs to construct the facility (approximately $9.8 million) based upon each municipality’s proportional use of the facility’s square footage, according to the statement.
The municipalities will share utility costs in the same proportion as the construction costs.
The Robbinsville and Hightstown police departments will each occupy their own dedicated space within the new facility and remain separate and distinct departments.
Additionally, the Hightstown Police Department will operate a substation located in the new municipal complex building at 230 Mercer St. in Hightstown and will continue to maintain the same 24/7 police coverage within the Borough of Hightstown that it currently provides, according to the statement.
“We have shared our court and jail cells with Robbinsville for several years, so expanding the partnership further by sharing a police station is a natural fit,” Quattrone said in the statement. “Not only do our hardworking police benefit from the new state-of-the-art facilities, but our residents will continue to receive the same response and dedicated service from the officers they respect and love.”
The Robbinsville and Hightstown municipal courts will continue to operate in the new facility under its existing agreement to share facilities, employees, equipment and supplies, according to the statement. This new shared services agreement will not change each municipality’s status as separate and distinct municipal courts.
Groundbreaking for the new police and court facility is scheduled for 2022 and construction is expected to take approximately 12 months, according to the statement.
