By DON STINE
The west wing section of the Ocean Township municipal building, which formerly housed the library, will be converted into a new court room and municipal meeting room under a contract expected to be awarded by the Township Council on Tuesday.
I think the employees have been looking forward to these improvements for a long time and I think they will really appreciate the change, said Township Administrator Andrew Brannen.
The council is expected to award a $1,242,200 contract to McCauley Construction, based in Middletown, the lowest of five bidders.
The plan calls for renovating the former library and then redoing the current municipal meeting room upstairs. Projects include structural work and upgrading the plumbing and electrical systems to bring them up to current safety standards.
A new 18,000-square-foot library was recently built west of Joe Palaia Park, near Deal and Logan roads.
It will create a better work space for employees, improve counter areas, and offer better overall organization. And having the main meeting room on the ground floor is very easy for access, Brannen said.
When the library moved to its new facility several years ago, at Deal and Logan roads, it freed about 4,000 square feet of space on the first floor in the municipal building at Deal and Monmouth roads.
By moving the meeting room and court to the first floor it will then free about 1,550 square feet upstairs, where offices will be relocated.
The downstairs meeting room, with the court, will allow direct access to the police department for the transportation of prisoners, when necessary. It will also have new offices for the public defender, a prosecutor, and additional offices for the court administration, staff, and files.
West Long Branch is interested in renting some vacant space and holding their municipal courts there and any rent generated would be applied to the municipal budget.
The public works department offices will then expand into the renovated second-floor space and the community development department will then expand into space freed up by the public works department.
People are very crowded in their current offices and one of the nice things about this project is the two departments to be relocated are adjacent to each other and they just have to expand right next door, Brannen said
Brannen said once the contract is awarded he expects work to begin within 45 to 60 days.
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