The borough assembly is making a second try at winning voter support for borrowing money to start repairs at the water- and rot-damaged Public Safety Building.
Voters defeated a 2022 bond issue proposition by a 65-vote margin, 324-259.
The 2022 proposal was to borrow $8.5 million. The Oct. 1 municipal election ballot asks voter approval of a scaled-back plan to issue $3 million in bonds.
The borough also is hoping for a $2.4 million federal grant to add to the local funding, though that will require congressional approval and the House and Senate are far from reaching a deal on next year’s federal budget.
In total, the $5.4 million in local and federal funds would pay for new exterior siding, windows and doors; structural repairs to walls weakened by water damage and rot; a new roof which will include building over the flat roof sections; and installing exterior gutters to protect the structure.
“The subsequent rot and corrosion have affected the primary wood structural framing and sheathing, and mechanical and electrical system components,” according to the borough’s report on the building.
The 34,500-square-foot, two-story wood-frame building opened in 1988. It houses the fire and police departments and dispatch center, state courtroom and jail, state Division of Motor Vehicles office and U.S. Customs and Border Protection office.
Separate from repair costs, most of the building’s operating expenses are covered by about half-a-million dollars a year the state pays in rent for the jail and courtroom space.
“It’s a great building for what we use it for,” former Mayor Steve Prysunka said last week.
He said poor design choices — such as the flat roof and internal rain gutter system — led to extensive water infiltration into the walls, leading to rot. Past estimates to fix everything that needs repair total far in excess of the current $5.4 million work plan.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” Prysunka said. “This is a small way of getting to the worst of the worst.”
He cautioned people not to vote against the bond issue just because they are angry over decisions made in the 1980s to build with a flat roof, or the borough’s failure over the years to fix all the problems.
“It is important to recognize that the maintenance program could have been better in the past,” Prysunka said, though he credits the current administration at City Hall for confronting the problem and proposing a reasonable solution.
Repaying the borrowed money and interest on the bond issue would cost an estimated $151,570 per year over 40 years.
Borough officials, in their explanation of the ballot question, state that the intent is to cover the debt service payments by making “operational adjustments and budget cuts,” not increasing the property tax rate. The $151,570 represents about 2% of this year’s borough general fund revenues.
But if the cuts and using other revenues cannot cover the payments, and if a future assembly decided to shift the entire cost to property tax payers, the bond issue would add about $14 a month to the tax bill of a $250,000 home, according to the borough’s calculations.
“Property tax increases related to the Public Safety Building general obligation bond would be a last resort,” the borough said in its election materials.
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