Middle Weighs New Municipal Building; Growth Places Limits on Space

COURT HOUSE – With the municipal building in need of expensive repairs, including a new roof, Middle Township Committee on Feb. 5 discussed the possibility of replacing the structure. 
The building complex at Mechanic and Boyd Streets is a collection of parts built initially in the late 1940s but with its newest section built and occupied in the late 1980s. 
The building houses much of the township administration, the police department and the municipal court. Next door, in the former firehouse, are the zoning and construction offices.
Separating the two is the entrance to the adjacent municipal parking lot.
Business Administrator Elizabeth Terenik had department heads speak to the building complex’s limitations.
Police Chief Christopher Leusner praised the police department and the support from township officials that have returned the department to its peak staffing level of 53 sworn officers.
“Facilities are a real problem,” he added.
Leusner spoke of a lack of space for meeting with residents who visit the department to file charges or to be interviewed.
“We sometimes have officers meeting with the public in detention areas,” he said.
For a department that has embraced the concept of community policing, the lack of facilities for interactions with the public is a serious limitation, he noted.
Leusner also spoke of space constraints for storage, with some police records making their way to the nearby firehouse for filing.
The committee members also heard from municipal court officials who expressed concern about security in the cramped and often overcrowded facility on court day.
They spoke of lines of individuals running completely around the room, the difficulties of introducing prisoners into that environment, the need for a better location for the metal detector, and the problem of record detention requirements and limited storage space.
The committee heard about the facility needs of the emergency medical services unit, the storage issues facing zoning officials and the “make-do” arrangements that constrain efficiency across township offices in the complex.
What Terenik was pushing for was a needs-assessment study that could bring structure to the anecdotal comments and provide the township with an ordered and informed set of options for renovation or replacement of the facility.
Terenik next turned to representatives of Spiezle Group Inc., an architectural firm with experience in municipal buildings and the special needs of public safety complexes.
The firm, Terenik said, would perform a formal needs assessment and present the committee with options for renovation or replacement of the current facility.
The contract for $5,000 will fund the firm’s analysis of need and the development of options which could even include locating a new municipal complex on a different site. 
Steve Spiezle, a firm principal, referenced other projects where the firm had devised ways to keep public safety departments with their very specialized facility needs, up and running during construction of new facilities.
It was too early in the process for any discussion of what a new or significantly renovated facility might cost or how that expense fits with other township priorities.
That discussion will follow the architectural firm’s report.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.