Long Valley Municipal Building Project Revived For 2022: Mayor

LONG VALLEY, NJ — A project that was funded in both the 2019 and 2020 budgets is expected to make a comeback in 2022.

Washington Township Mayor Matt Murello wrote in his Mayor’s Update this past week, improvements to the Municipal Building were anticipated to receive final approval in Trenton in 2020, but the project was shelved temporarily because of state's COVID shutdowns.

“We had a presentation this past week from the architects at Byrne Design Associates, who are working on the project,” Murello wrote in his Dec. 20 update, “and we expect that we should have our approvals in the next couple months.”

Before COVID hit, Murello talked about the renovation of the Municipal Building exterior at the Township Committee’s reorganization meeting in January 2020. At that time, he said the Township Committee had “appropriated more than $100,000 to replacing and improving the exterior of the Municipal Building.”

“Though the municipal building is only subject to capital review by the Planning Board, the Township asked the Historic Preservation Commission for its input, then submitted its plans to them for a certificate of appropriateness, just as a homeowner in the historic district would,” he said in 2020. “That plan continues to progress and I hope will result in a completed project this year.”

In the recent Mayor's Update, Murello wrote, “We expect that we should have our approvals in the next couple months, and we can get that work on the exterior of the Municipal Building done next year.”

The Township Committee’s upcoming reorganization meeting is planned for Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building.

Click here for Murello’s full Mayor’s Update www.wtmorris.org/index.php/government/township-committee/mayor-s-update.html.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a local news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.