TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Mayor Peter Calamari told concerned Township Council members Aug. 14 that he would rather wait for two months to see what design options that architect Arcari Iovino comes up with for new police department space before going ahead with the planned $5 million new DPW building.
At the July meeting, the architect had recommended possibly co-housing police and public works operations in the new DPW facility, at an estimated $8.5 million cost, versus substantially less for onsite Town Hall police space renovations and expansion.
Several council members, including Tom Sears, cited a Pascack Press article that quoted Administrator Mark DiCarlo saying that no bid specs for a new DPW building would be issued until a final design was approved for new police department space. He wondered who granted DiCarlo the authority to make that decision.
Members questioned DiCarlo over why he made that statement and DiCarlo said that the council made no decision at a previous July meeting where architect Arcari Iovino presented several options for the council to choose from related to a reconfigured space for the police department, or a combined DPW–police department facility.
The architect was told by council in July to look into all possible options, with attention to expanding its existing space at the Town Hall and possibly expanding to the property line.
Sears said he thought the council gave approval for the DPW facility earlier and that was decided; however DiCarlo told him that the council made no decisions on design options presented by Arcari Iovino at the July meeting.
Following Sears expressing concerns about the delays, noting he was concerned with DPW workers being without facilities for a longer period of time after having their building razed in 2022, Calamari told him that it made sense to wait a couple months and see what possible design options the architect can provide, including possibly combining the DPW and police operations.
“I see it a little differently,” said Calamari, noting that delaying a decision on both facilities by a couple months to view new architect designs may show that a police department could fit with the DPW or maybe not and instead fit better alone at Town Hall.
Sears again questioned why the police department would possibly be combined with the new DPW facility when the council previously talked about expanding the police department space at Town Hall and inside the Town Hall building.
“It just makes no sense,” Sears said, noting councilors previously discussed reducing conference room size to accommodate on-site police operations.
Sears said the new jail and a sally port for securely escorting and processing potential bad actors was discussed for the Town Hall site. “I just want to see us moving forward (on DPW),” he said.
Members said they were more interested in upgrading police facilities at town hall than in seeking options for co-housing police and DPW operations.
Calamari again advised them to wait two months until Arcari Iovino presents final DPW and police department options. He said the architect will determine whether the police department’s needs can be satisfied in their expanded town hall space.
“I give the architect credit for thinking outside the box,” Calamari said, noting that previously no one had proposed combining the police and DPW operations. Calamari said the architect had talked to police officials “many times” before coming up with designs. He said DPW workers would not have been housed by this winter in a new facility so the wait would be worthwhile.
Swim club site update
DiCarlo told council they are awaiting a proposal for a survey of the site of the former private Washington Towship Swim Club, Ridgewood Boulevard North, from Boswell Engineering to determine what public rec activities are possible there.
DiCarlo said the survey would cost approximately $19,000 [figure corrected from print edition. Ed.]. Calamari said the survey, once completed this fall, would be reviewed by himself, DiCarlo and Recreation Advisory Board members. Calamari said the board would make recommendations to the mayor and council based on the Boswell survey.
Council President Desserie Morgan noted that only the council has funding power on the recommendations. She previously asked Calamari to add the engineering survey to project tracker updates at regular council sessions.
DiCarlo said the study should take roughly two months to complete. He said he anticipated renovation/improvement costs to be “significantly more” than the $438,750 county Open Space land acquisition grant received last year for the property. Costs for acquiring the swim club were $800,000, including $750,000 for the site.
Once the site engineering survey is complete, the swim club site will likely be eligible for park improvement grants, officials said.
DiCarlo said that electric and gas hookups were removed from the club, which cost approximately $6,000 over 10 months while still there. Calamari said the Recreation Advisory Board and Boswell had recommended that the pool and building on site be demolished — as renovation costs would be enormous — and that would eventually occur. He said the council had approved the recommendation.
DiCarlo said they have not yet received the $438,750 grant from the county Open Space acquisition program, with one more piece to be approved by county counsel.
DiCarlo said once a survey is complete, then Boswell will estimate costs for recommended improvements and based on council decisions, they would move forward or not.
Councilwoman Daisy Velez noted that the grant writer said he could apply for more grants for property improvements once a survey is done. Calamari said a first round of improvement grants was submitted by GLD Associates.