Cape May Council Hears Thoughts on Public Safety Building

CAPE MAY – Cape May City Council seemed to be moving closer to the selection of an architect Dec. 4 for the proposed Public Safety Building that would replace the aging facilities which house the Fire and Police departments.
A request for proposals for architectural services elicited eight submissions from which a special selection subcommittee and then the full Public Safety Advisory Committee selected one unanimously: USA Architects of Somerville. 
As Advisory Committee Chair Jerry Gaffney and Vice-Chair Wister Dougherty presented the unanimous choice, they also informed council that they were dissenting from the majority opinion on where the public safety building should be located. 
“It is like putting a size-12 foot in a size-10 shoe,” said Gaffney.
Gaffney and Dougherty then proposed that council consider separating the two public safety functions by constructing a fire station on the site of the existing one and finding a different location for a police facility.
From the start, the assumed location for the public safety complex had been the area on Franklin Street that houses the firehouse and fire museum. 
Mayor Clarence Lear has also announced a feasibility study to see if the city’s branch of the county library system could be moved to the empty historic Franklin Street School.
With such active hubs located adjacent to each other on Franklin Street, worry increased that the city’s already notorious parking problems would mushroom.
One issue growing out of the presentation by Gaffney and Dougherty was that it was not immediately clear if an architectural firm could be selected from the RFP competition while simultaneously entertaining a switch from one shared complex in a single location to two buildings in two locations.
Officials after the meeting were uncertain that the RFP process allowed for that level of flexibility.
Adding to the potential uncertainty were individuals who used the public comment period to express concern about the city’s ability to finance the project.
Gaffney told the council that a new public safety complex could cost as much as $10 to $15 million.
Resident Jules Rauch urged council to remember that architectural and construction costs are only part of the total. He enumerated what he termed “soft costs” which included specialized equipment, finance and legal costs, furnishings, change orders, temporary relocations and similar issues.
Rauch called on council “to inform the taxpayers of the total cost of the project and the method and cost of funding the debt.”
William Seeger asked the council to deal with the issue of keeping the complex together or separating the buildings at two locations before moving forward with an architectural firm.
Dougherty had urged the council to “keep this moving,” saying that the firm’s work would make clear in which direction the city should move.
According to City Manager Neil Young, the winning bid from USA Architects was for $714,000. The question no one was ready to answer at the meeting was whether or not that bid contained the flexibility of changing so fundamental a requirement as one building or two, one location or two. 
Officials made no statement about whether or not the council with its current membership would attempt to settle the issue of an architectural firm with only one meeting left before the reorganization in January.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.