Township Signed Contract to Purchase Schechter School Property

Mayor Mark Smith said the township signed the contract Tuesday to buy a 4-acre parcel for $1.9 million, the site of the former Solomon Schechter Day School on Orange Avenue, which some committee members want to maintain for open space and recreation.

The township approved a bond at an earlier meeting to purchase the property and Smith announced  Tuesday that the township is looking to sell off other properties it owns to offset the cost. These properties are smaller and exist in scattered pockets of the town, he added, and he'd rather the town sell off those in order to gain the bigger parcel of land.

"We're trying to move properties onto the market right now," he said.

Commissioner Daniel Aschenbach however, who opposed the lot purchase, said the meeting on Tuesday was the first time he's heard of the plan to sell off the lots. "It has never been discussed," he said.

He added that he thinks the other properties should be used to pay off existing debt on the parking garage and community center, or to gain funds for the township.

"It is also the wrong time to 'go to market' since the market is so low right now. No one has done a fiscal analysis and no appraisals on the township-owned properties has been done," he said.  

Moving Forward

Smith said he's trying to generate interest in the community for a design competition, challenging district students or other interested parties to come up with a plan for the space. He said he envisions it being used as a multi-purpose field, a soccer field, a baseball field, or all three. 

"We're trying to move along as quickly as possible, I wanted to have a plan in the works along, running in parallel with the purchase of the property," he said.