'Future Is Here' In Mahwah's Proposed Public Works Facility: Officials

MAHWAH, NJ — "The future is here," Mahwah's township engineer Mike Kelly said at a planning board meeting earlier this week, in response to the notion that the shift to electric vehicles, particularly in regard to township-owned service trucks, is lightyears away.

Kelly was referring to the installation of six electric charging stations at the proposed Department of Public Works garage and maintenance facility at 101 Micik Lane. He helped present on the facility's preliminary design at Monday's meeting, asking the planning board to determine whether consistency exists between the design and the township's Master Plan. The board agreed that it did.

"We made an effort to make (the site) as green as possible," architect Louis DiGeronimo, of DiGeronimo Architects, said.

Not only will 10 percent of parking spaces at the facility include charging stations, the nearby forest will be left mostly untouched, and rainwater from the roof will be captured and reused for irrigation and vehicle and building washing.

DiGeronimo said enough space exists on the roof as well for solar panels to charge electric vehicles, and that he could make sure there are conduits for future solar installation. However, the panels would need to come from a funding source separate from the $17 million appropriated for the complex.

"Should the town say that is the future that we are going, then that will be determined at that time," Kelly said. "And the site is adaptable to handle it."

Additionally, the site plan complies with all Department of Environmental Protection regulations, and there were no outstanding issues that came to the surface upon review of the site, the township's construction official Gary Montroy said.

Only minor concerns were raised, all of which the evaluation team addressed in the presentation. One of those liquid waste disposal, a requested addition of fire hydrants, and the expected whereabouts of a salt shed.

A 500-gallon waste oil tank will exist on site to be disposed of three times a year, and runoff will not enter the nearby stream, Kelly said.

More fire hydrants will be placed, the team said, and Kelly also assured the board that there will be a temporary arrangement for salt storage and that the new salt shed will be included as one of the first steps of construction.

Bid proposals previously went out calling for construction of the facility; although, they came in well over the project's $17 million budget, Kelly said. In response, the facility was "compacted," or reduced from 97,000 square feet to 57,000 square feet, and the site design was reconfigured to a flat.

"There is no magic in construction," DiGeronimo said. "You just build less, and that is what we wound up doing."

The existing DPW facility at 142 North Railroad Avenue, Kelly said, was inadequate to meet the needs of the community due to lack of adequate parking or storage space, and poor vehicular circulation, among other reasons.

"We are happy to be a part of this," DiGeronimo said. " I think we have come up with a very nice plan."