| Author | Message | ||
     ajc Citizen Username: Ajc Post Number: 2464 Registered: 9-2001 |
Tom! A Democrat? Well, if that's what it takes, maybe...  Meanwhile, I would like nothing better than to see a town-operated day care and an after school program to fill the needs of our community. This is especially true given these services would also provide a steady and reliable source of continuing income to the town. Honestly, do residents really need to be camping out over night at town hall just to get a place on the list for their children to be in an after school program? Lets get serious about providing some services that are needed by an increasing number of our residents. Listen, I hate to keep kicking this dead horse, but putting the branch library at the Verizon building just makes total sense. First of all it would free up 2 ˝ acres of prime commercial real-estate for economic development, pay for the purchase of the Verizon property, plus the cost to replace the library at the Verizon location. If you will, "the swap" of town property from SA to Burnett would increase the town’s real estate by almost an acre and a half. (2 1/2 acres to 3 3/4 acres) The size of the Verizon building is about 65,000 sq. ft. compared to the present library site, which is only about 6,000 sq. ft. We could, that is if the "Friends of the Library wanted to, make a much bigger and better library at the new site. Really, what the hell is the problem with moving the service over two blocks? In addition, there will still be plenty of room left over at the Verizon site for the after school program, a town operated day care service, a teen center, a senior center, an indoor track, and several other recreational services including the storage of all their equipment, and tons of parking for everyone... | ||
| TomR Citizen Username: Tomr Post Number: 133 Registered: 6-2001 |
Art or Joan, Can either of you provide a summary of the proposals discussed last evening? Thanks, TomR. | ||
| ajc Citizen Username: Ajc Post Number: 2465 Registered: 9-2001 |
Would someone p l e a s e tell me why we should spend millions of OUR tax dollars to up-root businesses and residents along the Avenue, when we can maintain, improve, and increase the size of the towns property for FREE? | ||
| tom Citizen Username: Tom Post Number: 1988 Registered: 5-2001  |
The branch library in the verizon building? Now THAT'S an idea with potential. If enough resources were put into it, it could be really terrific, a showplace. | ||
| ajc Citizen Username: Ajc Post Number: 2466 Registered: 9-2001 |
Tom, I agree, the potential for the library is eminence. Another interesting advantage of selecting the Verizon site for the new police station was suggested at the Township Committee meeting tonight. During the past two years, considerable time, money, and community effort has been spent on building a skate park in Maplewood/South Orange. Last night at the Memorial Library meeting, while presenting the Verizon Building Feasibility Study for the new Police Headquarters, The Goldstein Partnership singled out an opportunity at the Verizon site to create a recreation connector between this site and the DeHart Park and Recreation Center. Therefore, in lieu of the plan to remove the south side parking lot and return it to grass, it could now become a permanent location for the new skate park. The advantages of being located at the police site, with CCTV monitoring the activities, and its proximity to DeHart Park make the Verizon site all the more valuable as a possible location. All things being equal, IMO, the Verizon site still remains the best over all location of the four on the table at this time... | ||
| r2boy Citizen Username: R2boy Post Number: 140 Registered: 5-2001 |
Makes alot of sense to use the Verizon site and move the library there too. After all, it was moved two blocks originally from above the old firehouse in the middle of Boyden Ave/Springfield Ave island that is no longer there...Good idea AJC.We couldn't stay up that late to watch the end of the mtg.Thanks for the info... | ||
| bobk Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 4698 Registered: 5-2001 |
How about the Green Acres issues at the Hilton Library site. Have these been resolved? If they haven't we are just yacking. | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2466 Registered: 5-2001 |
Art: The library works where it is. Moving it further towards the town border and to a site which borders on the DPW site and the industrial complex in town would significantly reduce the number of people (children especially) who could walk comfortably to the library. Why trade the community aspects of the library for a place most people would have to drive to? | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2467 Registered: 5-2001 |
Boozy: How clever of you to focus on the problem with the windows! Yes, the Verizon Building has windows but they are long and narrow and poorly situated for either a police station or a recreation complex. According to the architect who made the presentation at the meeting, one of the more costly elements in the proposed renovation would be to replace these windows with larger and better situated ones. He said that one possible solution to the windows problem would be to fill in the exiting windows and carve new ones in the existing exterior walls. Another solution would be to take down the existing walls and build new ones with the windows where they belonged. After presenting his analysis, he concluded that it would be more expensive to renovate the Verizon Building than to build a new one. Thus, from an existing structure perspective, there is no inherent advantage to using the existing Verizon Building, ergo no inherent advantage to using the Verizon site. | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2468 Registered: 5-2001 |
TomR: The only proposal discussed in any depth at the meeting was the latest version of the Verizon site proposal which now includes a recreation center. Several people appeared before the TC and site selection advisory committee to argue against the Town's taking over the "Betty White" property. Vic's proposal was not really mentioned but he did give copies of a sketch of the proposal to the Committee. I have one if someone with a scaner wants to borrow and upload it. The remainder of the time was devoted to a discussion to the evaluation criteria which the group assembed should use to assess the comparative merits of the sites still under discussion. The next meeting has been scheduled for March 1, 2004 at 7:30 PM. I don't know the location. Perhaps Art or someone else in the loop could post it closer to the actual meeting date. From the tenor of the meeting, I would conclude that March 1 is when the closest thing to a final recommendation/decision (?) on the site will be made. | ||
| TomR Citizen Username: Tomr Post Number: 138 Registered: 6-2001 |
Joan, Thanks. I was able to stay through Mr. Goldstein's presentation but had to be elsewhere at 10:00 p.m. TomR. | ||
| TomR Citizen Username: Tomr Post Number: 139 Registered: 6-2001 |
WRT the Green Acres issue; would't maintaining the same size footprint of the present library for any new structure obviate the issue? If I've misunderstood the issues presented by the Green Acres mandate, please enlighten me. TomR. | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2472 Registered: 5-2001 |
TomR: Would the present footprint of the branch library building be big enough for the police station? I seem to remember they needed a larger facility. Also, I recall that parking space was a problem with the branch library site. A police station needs far more parking space than the branch library's few dedicated spaces. | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2473 Registered: 5-2001 |
Art: TomR's question reminded me that the library uses only a portion of what we have been calling the branch library building. Where would you propose putting the health facility if the branch library site were selected for the police department's new building? | ||
| Earlster Citizen Username: Earlster Post Number: 116 Registered: 8-2003 |
TomR, only Maplecrest Park and the little triangle between Vermont, Tuscan and SA are Green Acres. The library site itself has no Green Acres issue (as far as I recall from the meetings a while back). The issue is, that the police station would be larger then the current library, and a sizable amount of grass would be paved for Police parking. Plus, of course the space for the new library, if it was to be build next to the police station. I was one of the people speaking out against it, because even though it is not 'Green Acres', it is still a nice green spot in the neighborhood. I think it would be a shame to build on any undeveloped land in Maplewood. | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2475 Registered: 5-2001 |
My son the architecture student has two related concerns regarding Vic's proposal (and by extension possibly both of the earlier SA proposals as well). One is the additional heat island effect likely to be created by paving in all that space for parking and the other is the lack of green space to absorb storm water run off. (He envisions most of the storm water flowing from the site and onto SA causing the potential for local flooding during and immediately after a heavy rain. Anyone know if these are concerns we should consider regarding the possible selection of any of the SA sites under consideration? Art: I already asked. He has a course conflict (course not sufficiently related to the site selection discussion to be considered a santioned field trip) and will not be able to present his ideas in person before the site selection advisory committee.  | ||
| bobk Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 4705 Registered: 5-2001 |
What is the estimated cost of the Verizon site to buy and more importantly to renovate? For the sake of arguement how much is the library site worth on the open market? | ||
| growler Citizen Username: Growler Post Number: 302 Registered: 11-2001 |
Why is the TC not considering Vic's proposal more seriously? It might cost less than revamping the Verizon building, would keep businesses, residents, libraries right where they are and develop existing sites that have or will have nothing there instead of an eyesore. Why is everyone so fixated on the Verizon building? | ||
| growler Citizen Username: Growler Post Number: 303 Registered: 11-2001 |
Joan - Those are very good questions. | ||
| Joan Citizen Username: Joancrystal Post Number: 2478 Registered: 5-2001 |
I think some people viewing the size of the presently vacant Verizon property are letting their ediface complexes get the better of them. It's nice to dream about what you would do with all that space. There is serious need in this town for a teen facility which the teens would actually be willing to use. Is the Verizon property the best location for such a facility? Probably not but if all that extra space is available...? The expanded availability of after school day care also sounds good though it should be noted that there was insufficient demand for the Y to run their after school program out of their satellite location this year. Another possible use of the extra space, which I haven't heard proposed, is the development of flexible meeting space which could be used for public meetings too large for town hall or the library basement and divided into smaller rooms for club and organization meetings and the like. Depending upon your own interests and inclinations, I am sure each of you reading this could easily add your ideas to the mix. However, it is time for a dose of fiscal reality. One of the key objectives from my point of view is to build the new facilitity as inexpensively as possible without shortchanging the Police Department or the town in general when it comes to providing a public safety facility which will function as it is supposed to. |
