Trustees agree to investigate alternative uses for Village Hall

Very odd. County is 16% of the taxes, Muni is 27% and School is 57%. Muni is almost double county, yet people argue that we should focus on changing county and school, but the numbers show we should focus on Muni and School.

Current BOT have spent a crazy amount of money on vanity projects that nobody has asked for, almost to the tune of $500,000 a year and that is before you factor in village hall renovation.

That's the total, I thought you meant the increase. My county taxes increased more than my municipal. ~2x in dollars, ~3.5x in percent of total.

scottgreenstone said:

Very odd. County is 16% of the taxes, Muni is 27% and School is 57%. Muni is almost double county, yet people argue that we should focus on changing county and school, but the numbers show we should focus on Muni and School.

Current BOT have spent a crazy amount of money on vanity projects that nobody has asked for, almost to the tune of $500,000 a year and that is before you factor in village hall renovation.

Scott, that's not my interpretation of what people mean when they say that. I take it to mean that we all focus on and complain and analyze the municipal and school portions but don't really put the magnifying glass on the county part.

Personally, it strikes me as being kind of nuts that the county gets more than half from me what the municipality gets. While my South Orange cut of the taxes are too high, I see the value and understand where the money is going. The county tax portion isn't so clear or transparent to me.

Scott, the asbestos abatement also included a great deal more demolition. That part of the project should cost less. I am an advocate of exploring all options, and renovating is one option.

Film it cost more than twice the estimate and budget for that portion of the project.

The county is paying $100 million a year in debt service.

A month has passed. What's going on with Village Hall?

The Village website says the deadline for proposals was Sept 30, but I think I heard they were extending the deadline: http://southorange.org/Requests/

The Village website says the deadline for proposals was due on Sept 30, but I think I heard they were extending the deadline: http://southorange.org/Requests/

At the Monday BOT meeting, Barry Lewis said that the Village was going out for bids for the reconstruction of Village Hall Nov. 19, which will be due Jan. 1.

The responses to the RFPs for alternative uses are due Dec. 3, which will give the BOT one month to evaluate them to coincide with the deadline for the bid requests.

As a reminder, the guesses for completion of the project were:

RobB said:

Buy the thing if you love it so much. We'll throw in the old stone house as a two-fer.

You can have the Connett building as well. No heat til the Spring we heard.

You know, if you guys want to live in a place with no old buildings there's lots of places you can go.

I think Sandow, Greenstone and South Orange are effectively out of the running. Agree, Michael?

Agreed. Based on cramer's post, the earliest a bid would be awarded is February 2015, so a completion any time in 2015 seems highly unlikely.

I think they can get it done in 8 months, look what they did in two years with the website.

.

tom said:

You know, if you guys want to live in a place with no old buildings there's lots of places you can go.

Is it fun to tell your neighbors to move because they disagree with you?

Is it fun to tear down the things that give your town its character?

Nobody said tear it down

jayjayp said:

I think Sandow, Greenstone and South Orange are effectively out of the running. Agree, Michael?

Well, if I was running the project, it would be done in 2015.

jayjayp said:

I think Sandow, Greenstone and South Orange are effectively out of the running. Agree, Michael?

It looks like only the seven prescient participants with dates after January 2017 and estimates over $10M still are in the running.

tom said:

Is it fun to tear down the things that give your town its character?

Is it fun to make ***** up?

I'm not making anything up. People are talking about it, and it remains a possibility.

http://forum.maplewoodonline.com/discussion/86790/its-crazy-to-renovate-village-hall/p2
http://forum.southorangevillage.com/discussion/comment/2554910#Comment_2554910
http://forum.maplewoodonline.com/discussion/comment/2582581#Comment_2582581
http://forum.maplewoodonline.com/discussion/comment/2584569#Comment_2584569

Not to mention the carping from some quarters here about "pandering" to the HPC.

People are talking about a lot of things, but back here on earth....

The Village seeks proposals that address the following redevelopment goals:
 The restoration and adaptive re-use of the Historic Village Hall, restoring/preserving the exterior of the structure in a manner consistent with a required historic preservation easement. (Mandatory Requirement)

I understand all that. But selling the property leaves the door too far open. We've had all-too-clever developers take us for a ride in the past.

Remember how up in the quarry only the minimum necessary trees were going to be cut down? And as soon as they started work they bulldozed the entire site?

Remember how they weren't going to cut down any trees behind the tennis courts when they built the animal shelter, but as soon as they started work they cut them all down?

On the other hand, remember the dire consequences the developers faced when they breached their agreements? You don't, because there were none.

sell it to the owner of town deli ,he owns quite a few properties already in so

As I pointed out some time ago, under the NJ Register of Historic Places Act (NJRHPA), the Township cannot sell Village Hall without authorization from the NJ Historic Preservation Office. They won't allow the sale without a clause in the sale agreement binding the buyer to follow the NJRHPA. Demolition authorizations, even for the most far gone structures, are extremely difficult to attain. This would also require HPO approval of any alterations.

And that what makes this a hard sell without sweetening the pot, unless a developer is swept up by the building's unique character.

Oh please. Here we go again about how hard it is to get a demolition authorization. Have you ever applied for one, dk50b? Its not all that hard given the condition of the building and the lack of financial resources to restore it. Same for the old stone house.

All the more reason not to sell it.

You really think we should spend millions of taxpayer dollars on rebuilding (not even restoring, since its too late for that) that mess?