$1.4M In Park Improvements, New DPW Vehicles Coming To Basking Ridge

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — The Bernards Township Committee unanimously introduced an ordinance for roughly $1.4 million for several capital improvement projects during its Tuesday night meeting.

The ordinance would allow the Township to get the most competitive bids and allow the Township to begin necessary repairs and improvements.

"The township is trying to allocate as much as we can within what we're allowed to do, so we can get favorable pricing, try to get orders in before others approve budgets, etc. I don't want to call it housekeeping, but that's essentially - it's good practice," said Mayor Ana Duarte McCarthy.

The ordinance will appropriate $1,449,000 from the township's Capital Improvement Fund. It would fund parks and recreation improvements, facility improvements, purchase new DPW vehicles and more.

The breakdown of projects covered by the ordinance can be found below:

• $750,000 - Parks and Recreation Facility Improvements, including but not limited to playgrounds, tennis courts, parks, and field infrastructure, equipment, and lighting
• $175,000 - Facility Improvements, including but not limited to: Repairs and improvements to the following structures: engineering services building, health department, police headquarters, various parks & recreation facilities, and municipal building
• $300,000 - Purchase of Motor Vehicle Fleet Replacements, including, but not limited to, DPW equipment vehicles, utility, tandem, and mason body trucks, and passenger vehicles
• $224,000 - Various Systems Improvements, including hardware and software upgrades, and police mobile data terminals

If the township gets any grant money for any of the projects listed above, it will be applied to the cost of the improvements and reduce the amount needed from the capital improvement fund.

The remaining Capital requests for street and roads, buildings, fleet, fire, first aid, engineering, grounds, police, systems administration, and parks and recreation will be requested after the Budget is adopted.

A public hearing on the ordinance before final adoption is scheduled for the March 10 Township Committee meeting.

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