Lacey Committee Addresses Status Of Municipal Complex Proposal

LACEY, NJ — Though there’s a long road ahead before Lacey makes any decisions about whether to build a new municipal complex, the proposed plans were questioned by several residents at Thursday’s committee meeting.

Due to the aging infrastructure in Lacey’s municipal building, officials are discussing whether to upgrade the township's current facility, or build a new complex that would include a township hall, police station and indoor recreation center.

Both the current municipal hall and police department are not up to code in various areas, according to township administrator Veronica Laureigh. A quote estimated that fixing the municipal hall’s aging air conditioning system would cost over one million dollars.

In the proposed complex, many of the township’s municipal properties would be under one roof, allowing the former township buildings to be turned into rateable commercial property that would contribute taxes to the township and school district, according to Committeeman Steven Kennis.

“This town has developed in a way nobody probably anticipated,” Kennis said Thursday. “As time went on the only areas we can pull rateables from are Route 9 and Lacey Road...In my opinion, we have too many government properties that are on our commercial quarters, so they’re the only rateable property we have. We’re not collecting any tax money off these properties.”

Through new state legislation called a Public-Private Partnership, funding partners have submitted an unsolicited proposal to construct the new complex.

“The state of New Jersey supports these Public-Private Partnerships because it allows it to be done more cost effectively than us designing, building and piecing it together,” Laureigh said. “We had a proposal. We have to go through the process now and satisfy certain parts of the legislation before we pull the trigger to do anything. This is a long way off before we do anything.”

Laureigh said 120 days must lapse before the township decides to go forward and negotiate the final cost, or decide not to go further.

Auditors must also weigh in and a financial firm would be hired to ensure that Lacey Township could afford the cost of the new building. At this stage in the process, officials said the estimated cost of the new building has not been calculated.

The first resident to address the committee during public comment session argued that now is not the right time to be considering a project of this size.

“There’s been a lot of grumbling in town about the proposed idea of building a new municipal complex,” said Richard Bidnick. “Many citizens in this community are really suffering. Many lost their businesses. They aren’t working like they used to...Quite frankly, this isn’t what I would call a dire necessity for this community.”

Bidnick urged the committee to pursue the project only if they can build it without increasing taxes.

Addressing his concerns, Committeeman Mark Dykoff asked that he not lump all five committee members together as though they all support the project.

“One of the reasons I’m not in favor of it is basically my concern is that this property would be redeveloped at high property residential because it’s part of an inclusionary zone,” Dykoff said. “So I’m definitely at this point in time not in favor until such time where we can guarantee that this or any property would be developed as commercial property. Not high density.”

Another resident, Amanda Buron, also spoke during public comment and urged officials to keep the public aware of the status of the project.

“This is in its infancy. To say anything different wouldn’t be accurate,” said Mayor Peter Curatolo. “There’s going to be meetings upon meetings. There’s going to be input from the public.”

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