RIVER VALE—By a vote of 3-0, the Township Council awarded a nearly $15 million construction bid contract Nov. 27 to Dobco, Inc. of Wayne to construct the new Public Safety Complex on a township owned parcel at the corner of Rivervale Road and Prospect Avenue.
Councilmember John Donovan and Council president Paul Criscuolo were absent. Approving the contract award were council vice president Denise Sieg, and members Ari Ben-Yishay and Jim Tolomeo.
The winning bid of $14,778,500 was the lowest of five bids submitted by contractors following council rejection of bids that averaged $500,000 to $1 million more earlier this year.
Officials did not give a timeline for the project.
Several residents questioned the cost of the police complex, which had increased from estimates of $7 million four years ago, to about $14 million, to nearly $20 million in late 2023. (Check out Pascack Press coverage by searching Public Safety Complex on the Pascack Press website.)
After approving bonding for $13.3 million to finance the complex, and following the first round of bids that ranged $15.5 million to $16 million which were rejected, the council approved another $6 million in bonds to cover construction costs, bond down payment, and so-called soft costs: engineering, architect design, legal costs, furniture, and electronics and digital communications equipment.
Officials noted that there was also a contingency clause in the bid in case of project change orders or unanticipated changes, although they did not state an amount or percentage.
The second round of five bids ranged between the low bidder (Dobco) and a top bidder at $15,528,000, said administrator Gennaro Rotella after the meeting. He said the bids seemed slightly lower than the first round and all five bidders were within a $500,000 cost spread.
“We need to do this project,” said Mayor Mark Bromberg, noting the police headquarters has been outdated for years, and previous councils have tried to get a new building.
In total, the council has appropriated nearly $20 million in bonds for the new police complex, and officials stressed that the building must come in at or under that amount.
Rotella told Pascack Press that the council had recently bonded for $10 million over a 40-year term—of the $20 million approved—and previously said the bonds would add an annual $200 tax increase on the average $592,000 home. When officials go to bond on a second bond issue, said Rotella, those costs will be added to the $200 annual taxpayer impact.
Rotella previously said that architect Settembrino Architects told him construction prices had increased 8% per year or more in the last 24 months, noting “Everything across the board has been going up,” including materials, labor and contingency costs.
Of five residents at the Nov. 27 meeting, three questioned the council about the progressively increasing Public Safety Complex costs,
“It’s not the Taj Mahal, it’s a regular police safety complex,” noted Sieg, when one resident kept pressing about the increased costs. She said the police building is “minimal” noting officials would try not to go over $20 million. She said tax impacts affect council members, who also pay taxes. She said the costs were “in line” with what officials were expecting.
“So nobody wants to pay more taxes but this is a building that needs to be done,” said Sieg, noting most residents agree that a new police department is needed. “In time, and the more we waste time, the more expensive it’s going to get,” she added. She said though $20 million in bonds was approved “doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to spend that.”
She said a new police building has to accommodate many state and federal rules and regulations. She said information has been provided to the community about costs and designs for a new Public Safety Complex, despite several residents’ complaints about a lack of transparency.
When a Rolling Hill Drive resident called for an additional public meeting with a full presentation on the new Public Safety Complex, Sieg said, “It’s called a council meeting. That’s what we’re doing here.”
The resident noted that while he received an email about the local farmers’ market, he never received a township email that $20 million was being spent on a new police complex, or that a $15 million bid was to be approved that day.
Pascack Press first noted the nearly $15 million bid award resolution for the Public Safety Complex when the Nov. 27 meeting agenda was posted online at 9:17 a.m. on Nov. 27., approximately 10 hours prior to the meeting.
Many Pascack Valley towns post meeting agendas online 48 to 72 hours in advance of public meetings, although the state Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) only requires 48-hour advance written notice of meetings, or public posting of written agendas 48 hours in advance of a meeting. OPMA is a nearly 50-year-old state law; efforts to update the law have met resistance from municipal clerks statewide.
Resident David Rice wondered why most township residents “know nothing” about the new Public Safety Complex soon to be built in town. He said Park Ridge was letting residents know about projects on its website such as dredging, and questioned extra costs needed on the new police facility project.
When resident Karla Norfleet asked why the residents did not have an opportunity to vote in a referendum on the $20 million project, Bromberg said he was “sorry that it seems to becoming as somewhat of a surprise to some people” and said that the council does not hold a public referendum on every issue that comes before the council.
He said the council did need “to go back to the drawing board on this” but that the council has discussed the need for a new police complex at many meetings over the years.
Township Attorney Silvana Raso said that municipalities are not required to put public matters, including large expenditures and tax increases, to a public referendum before voting on such matters.
Ben-Yishay said the township had “absolutely no choice whatsoever” but to build a new police facility due to its lack of proper facilities and not meeting federal standards, adding “you don’t put a decision that has to be made up for a vote.”
He added, “We all want to do the cheapest option possible, the cheapest option possible is an expensive option that none of us are happy about, but it’s not discretionary. We have no choice.”
He said the current police station does not meet code and needs to be updated.
“We have no choice, we had to do it,” he said, noting he was “very sympathetic” to taxpayers about increased taxes.
Rice suggested that officials consider combining police departments with another Pascack Valley town—similar to the combined River Vale–Montvale DPW—to reduce costs and taxes. He said police departments in each town were “just redundant.”
Bromberg said decades ago, the township considered a combined or regionalized police force, which caused “probably more of a stir than the deer and affordable housing issues combined.”
He said most local taxpayers were “very happy, pleased and thrilled” with local officers patrolling the township. He said the shared DPW service with Montvale “was much more feasible” and that police regionalization “was hotly debated and definitely turned down by this township a couple of decades ago.”