TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Council President Michael DeSena says the council needs to consider less costly options for a proposed new DPW facility, and that added recreational fields in town—possibly at the former swim club site—might require “a couple million dollars” in appropriations this year.
However, members Daisy Velez and Tom Sears told DeSena that there were valid reasons to consider the facility as proposed, including providing a space for employees and allowing the police department to expand and allow better and safer processing of detained individuals into jail cells.
Moreover, Velez said grants are available for parks and recreation improvements, but not DPW buildings.
At administrator Mark DiCarlo’s suggestion, council members also said they would revisit two lower-cost options proposed by its architect for police department upgrades.
Moreover, DiCarlo and Sears said they would visit a newly built DPW facility in Moonachie to see if it offers a lower-cost alternative to the township’s plans for a nearly $8 million combined DPW facility and WTPD expansion and renovation.
Mayor Peter Calamari raised the topic to elicit council feedback. Efforts to construct a new facility have been paused since a new council was seated in January.
At the Feb. 5 meeting, DeSena said he was looking at architect Arcari Iovino’s estimated costs for the proposed DPW facility.
“I think it’s an ambitious plan, it’s an $8 million plan,” he said, adding he’d “like to see the DPW get their building” and asked if DiCarlo had a chance to speak with Moonachie officials about their new DPW building on Route 17.
Previously, DeSena mentioned that structure as a possible concept to explore. DiCarlo said he had not talked to Moonachie officials yet.
“The $8 million is a lot to spend,” said DeSena, noting that recreational plans for the former township swim club may also “come to fruition, hopefully soon.”
DeSena—an award-winning member of the executive board of non-profit Washington Township Baseball and Softball—said local children “deserve fields and I think that’s going to be a big expense to provide fields either there or do something somewhere else.”
He said Memorial Field still needs improvement.
He said he felt the town likely needed to spend “a couple million dollars possibly on our kids” for new and upgraded recreational fields.
He said while he favored a DPW building he could not envision the council chambers over the proposed DPW garage. That proposal was estimated at $7.6 million by Arcari Iovino, with $5 million for a new DPW facility and $2.6 million for needed police department upgrades and expansion at town hall.
However, previously officials from both the DPW and police department favored the architect’s design that put council chambers and municipal court room space over the new DPW facility.
DeSena said, “Our children need fields, they need better fields, and I think we need to maybe reprioritize some of this money for something else. I’m not saying…the police department is [not] deserving of what they need also, I just feel it’s a very ambitious project at this time, to not include something for the youth of our residents.”
Velez agreed local children need fields, and noted the grant writer has been successful in finding grants “so there are opportunities to improve our fields using grant money. However, there is no grant to improve the DPW.”
She said while she agreed with DeSena about the need for fields, “we can find funds through grant opportunities.”
DiCarlo said the grant writer was applying for “phase 2” of state and county parks and recreation grants.
DeSena said the DPW project started out as a $5 million project that “morphed into” a nearly $8 million project that included the police department upgrades. “It’s a lot to spend for a small municipality like ours.”
When Velez asked him if he would favor the new DPW building if a grant was available, he said “absolutely, yeah.” He suggested councilors view the new DPW facility built by Moonachie just off Route 17, noting it was massive and “built for a lot less of a cost than we’re talking about.”
Velez told DeSena that “we’re trying to squeeze a whole bunch into a small area” including DPW, police, and council/court chambers. She said separate facilities for each would cost much more to build.
DeSena said that the municipal court, council chambers and police have “co-existed in this building all these years” and noted spending $8 million in “hard construction costs” plus soft costs such as architect, engineering, and legal fees, and then possibly millions for fields at the former swim club, was a lot without a plan in place.
He asked what all the improvements would cost, which is unknown, and noted there may be ways to reduce costs and “get it all done if we build a different type of (DPW) building.”
DeSena said he wanted “to have all the numbers and prioritize.” Velez said all costs for construction continue to go up as the council delays making a decision.
Sears said the DPW and police department had “outgrown” facilities “and now we’re trying to fit this big group into a small area here, without buying property, which we didn’t want to do.”
He said the third option ($7.6 million), “seemed to be the best solution that solved both problems” for the DPW and police department needs.
DeSena said Moonachie built a modular steel building with eight bays amd suggested DiCarlo touch base with the town’s business administrator.
Councilman Steven Cascio said he would look at “another option” for a DPW facility. “We don’t need a Taj Mahal anywhere. We just need a place to put our vehicles and a place for our workers to be comfortable and safe.”
Councilman Michael Ullman said he’d expressed “hesitancy” to put council chambers above the proposed DPW garage, and municipal court is still conducted remotely.
He wondered if council was “overreaching” by building space such as a courtroom or judge’s chambers that are not needed due to court being conducted remotely, or a possible merger of court with another municipality. Sears said it was likely courts will go back to in-person sessions in the future.
Officials said that five public meetings take place each month in council chambers, including one Planning Board meeting, two Zoning Board of Adjustment meetings, and two council meetings. Otherwise, the chambers are unused.
DeSena said rather than council/court chambers above a DPW garage, he hoped there were other options to pursue. DiCarlo noted that after looking at the Moonachie structure, and revisiting a possible steel building, did councilors like any other option that Arcari Iovino presented. DeSena said he only reviewed Option 3, which included court/council chambers over a new DPW and expanded police department space at town hall.
Cascio criticized state government for imposing mandates that cost towns “a lot of money.” Noting that the town has not grown substantially in population over the last two decades, he said he had a “frustration with state government putting burdens on municipal government” including COAH affordable housing obligations, due to start in July 2025.
Sears said the reason Option 3 was being favored was because it moved the jail out of the basement, and provided a Sally port for prisoner transfers that police vehicles can drive into when transferring a prisoner into jail.
DeSena suggested that maybe a shared services arrangement with Hillsdale or Westwood could assist in prisoner transfer into jail while Sears noted that it still requires two police officers to transfer a prisoner, who would then go out of town. Sears said that’s why the council looked at Option 3, which helped address the police department’s needs.
DiCarlo suggested council revisit Options 1 and 2 that were previously presented by Arcari Iovino and said he would likely accompany Sears soon to visit the Moonachie facility.
Late in 2023, the former council voted 4-0 to move forward on Arcari Iovino’s third option for police department expansion, Option 3, which shifted council and court chambers above a new DPW facility, and renovated and expanded police department facilities at town hall.
Since then, the new council majority (DeSena, Ullman and Cascio) has paused that effort as it reconsiders lower-cost DPW options and whether to include upgraded police department facilities.