The borough is proposing almost $1 million worth of repair, rehab and upgrades to the community pool and recreation center building in next year’s budget.
State grant funds would cover the costs.
The projects include upgrading the heating and ventilation, or HVAC, system in the building as well as the digital temperature controls for the pool, new cedar siding on the building, repairing the brick-clad exterior columns and replacing the brick with cedar, and repairing and rebuilding the gutters and downspout system.
The work is estimated at nearly $982,000. The exterior work ($175,000) would be covered by a state grant intended to compensate the borough for lost revenues due to the pandemic, and the interior work ($806,712) would be paid for with a state community development block grant.
The borough assembly will consider both projects at its June 28 meeting as it works to adopt a budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The pool and recreation center projects are among several proposals before the assembly, which took its first look at the spending plan at a budget work session last month.
The proposal also mentions the need for repairing some water-damaged portions of the exterior wall at the pool building, but Amber Al-Haddad, the borough’s capital facilities director, said the damage thankfully is limited in scope.
“We did an investigation and found no rot, so that’s very good news,” Al Haddad said last week.
She added that the exterior work at the pool would ideally be finished this summer, but the work to the HVAC and temperature control systems would likely take longer. The borough just received approval for the community development block grant from the state to fund the work, which specifies that the job must be 80% complete by May 2023, according to Al-Haddad.
“We'll be working expeditiously to get (the pool systems) completed,” she said.
A conditions assessment of the recreation center facility first identified the need to upgrade the HVAC and temperature control systems in 2014, work the borough has prioritized as funding has become available. The first phase of a two-part upgrade to the temperature controls was completed in 2017 when the pneumatic controls were replaced with a digital system.
A popular park site also is on the budget work list that will be considered at the June 28 assembly meeting. Borough officials also want to replace the fire pit and chimney in the main pavilion at City Park just south of Heritage Harbor. The fire structure at the popular gathering place — the pavilion holds roughly 100 people — has been out of commission since last fall after it was deemed unsafe due to the degraded condition of the stone in the chimney.
The $75,000 for the park project would be paid out of the borough’s general fund reserves, according to the budget proposal.
Al-Haddad said much of the work to the base of the pit will be in-kind, simply replacing what is there now, while contractors that inspected the structure recommended a new steel hood and chimney to avoid the moisture issues that can come with stone mason structures, the project description said.
“We’re trying to get away from that stone work, which in this climate is not the best,” Al-Haddad said. “You run the risk of hazards over people’s heads.”
Reader Comments(0)