The municipal complex project is getting closer to being a reality.
Councilmembers approved $1.5 million in additional funding to prepare detailed engineering reports on the now smaller-scaled municipal complex plan.
The township has only $200,000 of the originally approved funding for the project, Township Business Manager Tom Merchel said. The $1.5 million might be more than what the township actually needs for this process, he said, and could be cancelled.
However, it’s easier to simply approve funding ahead of time rather than having to go back and seek additional funding later on, he said.
Following a special meeting on Friday, Dec. 9, Township Manager Scott Carew suggested scaling down the project, and having the township court and the police department taken out of the complex.
The court and police department would be moved to an existing structure in the industrial complex, which would be far cheaper than building a new structure.
By relocating the two facilities, the township would vastly cut down on traffic to the municipal complex.
There are currently four municipalities interested in sharing a court system with the township, and two others that are strongly considering it.
Moorestown would take the lead on the shared court, Carew said, and would save funding for all townships involved. Couple that with the council’s consideration of cutting down on finished space in the library, the project’s cost would total a little more than $10 million.
Councilmembers are considering taking the most unused library books out of circulation and storing them in unfinished area’ on the second floor of the library. This would cut down on the more costly finished space in the library.
Books that are checked out less than once a year would be eligible for the unfinished storage space, Carew said.
In other township news:
Mayor Tom Button and members of the council honored Fire Chief William Ruggiano for serving the township for more than 35 years as chief. Ruggiano retired recently after serving as chief since 1975.
He joined the department in 1963, Button said.
Ruggiano declined an invitation to receive the proclamation, Button said, because he believed he was simply just doing his job for all those years.
The township also set its annual reorganization meeting, for Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m., in the media center at William Allen Middle School.
