Raritan comes up with 'cost-effective solution' for new borough hall

Mike Deak, MyCentralJersey.com
·2 min read

RARITAN BOROUGH – The borough is buying a new municipal building.

The Borough Council has approved the purchase of the vacant PNC Bank building on Somerset Street to be used as borough hall.

The purchase price is $1.59 million.

The borough has received a $2.27 million federal grant for the project.

The police department will occupy all the present borough hall on First Street.

For years, the borough had planned on using the vacant Washington School site on First Avenue north of Route 202 as a new emergency services complex.

But, Mayor Zachary Bray explained at the April 18 Council meeting, the cost of building the emergency services complex on First Avenue was about $8 to $10 million, a "lot more significant" than borough officials were tentatively expecting.

Buying the bank building, the mayor said, is a "a cost-effective solution to the problem we've been working on."

Raritan will buy the vacant PNC bank on Somerset Street for a new borough hall.
Raritan will buy the vacant PNC bank on Somerset Street for a new borough hall.

For years there has been a space crisis at the building on First Street shared by municipal offices and the police department.

To help alleviate some of the space storage, some of the police department's operations worked out of a trailer in the parking lot.

There was also a shortage of parking spaces at the building. That shortage became more acute when the borough approved the conversion of the vacant Raritan Intermediate School, which shared the block with the municipal building, into 16 one-bedroom apartments.

More: Beloved figure in Hunterdon named Basilone parade grand marshal

More: A Costa Rican cook with a cult following just opened her first restaurant in Raritan

In 2016, the borough bought Washington School, which had been a senior citizen facility for Somerset County, for $1.

Former Mayor Charles McMullin proposed a plan to consolidate the borough's police department, fire department, rescue squad and recreation department on the 11-acre Washington School site.

McMullin said the project would’ve been funded by revenue generated by new development in the borough.

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Raritan NJ buys old PNC Bank building for new borough hall