TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, WARREN COUNTY

Minutes of Special Meeting of May 29, 2007

The special  meeting of the Township Committee was held this date at the Municipal/Police Building located on Little Philadelphia Road.  The meeting was called to order at 7:03   p.m. by Mayor John Horensky.

SUNSHINE LAW COMPLIANCE - The Mayor noted that this meeting was being held in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Law of 1975 in as much as a notice had been published in the Star Gazette and transmitted to the Express Times and posted at the municipal building.

SALUTE TO FLAG

ROLL CALL: Dempski, present Elbassiouny, present; Kovacs, present; Mueller, present; Horensky, present.  Attorney Katrina Campbell was sitting in for Township Attorney Michael Lavery and Mary Ann O’Neil, Clerk were also present.   Also present were Pete de Boer, Public Works Manager, Alex Soffiantini, Township Architect for new building and Richard Vollmar, Township Engineer.

ABC VIOLATIONS
The Mayor said this would not be held this evening. The matter is going to be adjourned and the Township is inquiring as to whether the State ABC would handle this case.

RESOLUTIONS
Kovacs made a motion to approve Resolution 07-63, Resolution of the Township of Washington, County of Warren, State of New Jersey, granting approval of the purchase of Development Easements on the following Thomas McFadden Farm, Block 48, Lot 77, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

AWARDING OF BID
The Mayor said the first thing on the agenda was the awarding of bids on new municipal building.  The bids had been received on Friday and upon consultation with legal counsel, there are some issues that must be resolved.  It was suggested by legal counsel that the Committee go into Executive Session prior to making official determination regarding the  award of contract.  The Committee will be going into Executive Session on this matter.

EXECUTIVE SESSION
Kovacs made a motion to go into Executive Session at 7:07 p.m., Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

The Committee had gone downstairs for Executive Session.  They came back into the meeting at 8:08 p.m. Kovacs made a motion to come out of Executive Session, Dempski seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Dempski, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.
Campbell asked that the record reflect that the Committee came out of Executive Session at 8:08 p.m. and were in Executive Session  to discuss legal matters regarding the bids for the new building.

AWARDING OF BID
The Mayor said, based on conversations in Executive Session, he would like a motion to award the bids for the new building to the lowest responsible bidder, pending legal review by Township Attorney and availability of funds.  Kovacs made a motion to award the bid for new building to Coopersmith Brothers Incorporated, Phillipsburg, NJ in the total amount of $2,286,162, pending legal review by Township Attorney and availability of funds, Elbassiouny seconded.
ROLL CALL: Kovacs, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Dempski, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

PUBLIC COMMENTS AND CONCERNS
Richard Strunk, 116 Brass Castle Road, said he was disappointed that the Committee went forward with this, with the Township presently  facing 7 million dollars of additional debt, which the tax payer really has not seen in their tax bill yet.  This is a bad experience and an unnecessary increase to the taxpayer. A good portion of this 7 million dollars is going to be felt by the tax payer in future tax increases which they do not know about. 
 
On December 19, 2006 he gave the Committee a very conservative plan.  There are many ways that the Committee could still continue to cut costs on this, one being was to save money on this building by cutting and putting all plumbing costs in a court area. Also, they could save money by putting all the air conditioning in the basement, instead of redoing the roof and trusses  They could save money by giving the police approximately 100% more of their existing space, but by cutting the costs and needs downstairs by 40%. This could be done by saving money and combining the squad rooms and squad training rooms into a general purpose room, with an all inclusive employee break room.     You could save money by reducing the interview rooms from five to two and put them in a core  area to save money for tax payers as well.   You could save money by eliminating the watch commanders room since there is no watch commander on the police force at all.  They could save additional money on this project by combing the lieutenants office into a daily squad office.

They could also save money by reducing processing rooms to one.  Also, by reducing the future locker needs by 50% and incorporating a more efficient design for even incorporating  future expansion.  They could save additional money by reducing repetitive storage areas downstairs.  All this could be saved, by still giving the police adequate work space, which they deserve and putting that in approximately 60% of what they are asking. All this was incorporated in the original design and all this was brought to the Committee’s attention at a prior meeting. 

They could also save money by putting the project into two phases.  First putting in the upstairs phase for the administrative building and getting in the $950,000 in by selling the Administration Building, recapturing those funds and then putting phase two out once they know how much money is left for the police downstairs.  It is unfortunate the Committee made a vote tonight, which is not in the Township’s best interest and there is definitely money that could be saved by incorporating a much better design. 

John Grdovic. 7 Baltusol Road asked the Committee to please reconsider their decision and take these bids as a sign to go back and redesign.  They far exceed what the architect’s original estimates were, by several hundred thousand dollars.  At this point, the additional $36,000 that decided to not be saved, by going with the lowest bidder, which he was sure the Committee had their reasons for doing it, would be better spent by going back to the architect to redesign, taking into consideration some of the things they had spoken about previously, as well as some of Strunk’s design.  He said there is money to be saved and still get what they want and a building the Township can be proud of in the end.  He asked why the lowest bidder was not accepted.  The Mayor said the bid went to the lowest responsible bidder, after legal review of the documents.

APPROVAL OF BILLS
Kovacs made a motion to approve the bill presented to the Township, Elbassiouny, seconded.
ROLL CALL; Kovacs, yes; Elbassiouny, yes; Dempski, yes; Mueller, yes; Horensky, yes.

OTHER
Elbassiouny said he had Township Engineer Richard Vollmar present at the meeting.  Vollmar said at the last meeting, one of the points he brought up was concerning grants applications.   At that time, he mentioned that they are partnered with a firm that specializes in that avenue, writing grants, applying and ultimately coordinating them through the process.  He had the firm at this meeting and they would like to give an overview of what they do.

Ed Farmer, CEO of Millennium Strategies said they are a government services grant writing firm based in Caldwell, New Jersey and have been in business for past 18 months.  He introduced the vice president of the firm.  They  gave a presentation on how they apply for grants and how the process is done.

Elbassiouny made a motion to adjourn at 8:35p.m., Mueller seconded.  All were in favor.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Ann O’Neil RMC/CMC
Township Clerk