CREST HAVEN – The Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office will be getting some new digs, courtesy of a $24 million bond issue by Cape May County.
The county has plans to tear down three structures and construct three new buildings to house not only the Prosecutor’s Office, but police academy cadets in a dormitory setting, county Administrator Kevin Lare said via email.
Among the structures to be demolished is the large metal building that houses the Prosecutor’s Office, at the end of Moore Road. Plans include a pole barn-type building at the rear of the new Prosecutor’s Office building for storing equipment.
According to Lare, the new building will be constructed just south of the existing building. The Facilities and Services office, which shares the existing building with the prosecutor, will be relocated to a new building near the Cape May County Correctional Center and county fuel farm.
Lare said that when the new Prosecutor’s Office building is in place the county will demolish the existing building, as well as the single-story office structure behind it, the current cadet dormitories to the north and the dormitories near the fuel farm and jail.
The administrator said the existing dormitories were becoming too much of a maintenance issue. He said there will be separate facilities for male and female cadets.
Bids for the new facilities are due by 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2.
Prosecutor Jeff Sutherland said he will be happy to be out of a “tennis court.” The metal building now home to part of his department, dating perhaps to the 1970s, housed a racquet club prior to its being acquired by the county at least 15 years ago.
Sutherland said the building could never be approved today. It was, he said, a “big cavern,” and the county put up some walls and drop ceilings to create offices. He said there is a second floor with no windows, and two staircases that lead to the same lobby.
Sutherland, who was first named county prosecutor in 2017, said he is happy about the project, which will put most of his office’s operations in one place.
“Right now, we are located in five different places,” he said. “This building will bring everybody into one building except the people at the courthouse.”
Some of the office’s line prosecutors and detectives work out of the Superior Court building.
Sutherland said he has seen the plans for a two-story building that will include the police academy barracks, which will have an area that could be used for a visiting instructor, if needed. He said the pole barn would be used primarily to store the Prosecutor’s Office’s vehicles.
Lare said the equipment includes special purpose vehicles and surveillance camera trailers, such as the Mobile Command vehicle, Crime Scene vehicle, SWAT Team trucks, SWAT armored vehicle, Hope One and Hope Two vans, the boat for the Marine Unit, the Robot and Crisis Negotiation Team van, along with vehicle barrier trailers, license plate reader trailers and undercover vehicles.
The Prosecutor’s Office also stores impounded vehicles in an indoor secure location pending the execution of a court-authorized search warrant, Lare said.
Sutherland, who was appointed to another five-year term as prosecutor in January, said his office already has a nationally accredited forensic chemistry lab, which will be moved into the new building.
“Of the 21 counties in New Jersey, there are only two with a nationally accredited forensic chemical lab,” he said.
The county is still in the process of obtaining all the necessary permits for the project. It is set to begin on Oct. 22 and should be substantially completed in 540 days, Lare said.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
