Somerville's new police, fire complex has become 'outrageously more expensive'. Here's why

SOMERVILLE – The cost of the borough's new police and fire headquarters has gone up by a third because the state Department of Labor has ruled the contractor must pay prevailing wages which could amount to $100 per hour.

The cost of the new building, at the corner of Gaston Avenue and High Street, has jumped from $31 million to $42 million.

That has forced the Borough Council to approve an annual $400,000 increase in the 40-year lease-purchase agreement with FDS Somerville for the long-awaited facility to consolidate the county seat's police department and fire companies under one roof.

That will bring the annual cost of the 45,000-square-foot building to more than $1.6 million, Colin Driver, the borough's director of economic development, told the Council on Monday.

The reason for the increase is an unanticipated ruling by the state Department of Labor that the contractor, under the state law for public works projects, must pay the prevailing wage.

For example, according to state guidelines, for a public works project in Somerset County, the prevailing wage for a foreman carpenter is $62.72 per hour in wages plus $37.56 per hour in benefits for a total outlay by the employer of $100.28 per hour.

"It's become outrageously more expensive," said Councilman Granville Brady.

Brady added that the Department of Labor's decision is "an attempt from the state to enrich the special interests of unions at the expense of Somerville's taxpayers."

Brady, who is retiring this year from the Council, said the state's decision will be a "deterrent" and has a "chilling effect on any community that wants to have a public-private partnership."

Borough officials said previously that money from Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements with developers will fund the construction under a lease-purchase agreement with Stonewater LLC. The firm has developed or managed projects throughout the United States, including an FBI field headquarters in Atlanta, a Coast Guard Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas, and the headquarters of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, among other projects.

Driver had previously said that PILOT money over the same period would total $136 million.

Brady said the Council, which could not afford to issue bonds for the project, is considering ways to refinance the work.

"It's extremely upsetting to all of us," he said.

"This is going to be an expensive, but needed project," Mayor Dennis Sullivan said. "We don't take this step lightly."

Brian Gallagher, the former mayor who is running against Sullivan in the November election, said he didn't understand why the borough "tried to skirt around" the state law.

"Why it wasn't picked up, I don't know," Gallagher said.

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Driver said that the construction was at first not considered a public works project and was covered instead by different state regulations on housing and redevelopment projects.

Stonewater will build the headquarters, then lease it to the borough for 40 years at which time Somerville will take ownership.

The building will be two stories with a mezzanine. The police department will be in the southern part of the building while the fire department will be in the northern part.

The ground floor of police headquarters will have a sally port, holding cells, interview rooms, a squad room and an entry area. The second floor will have offices, a fitness room to be shared by both departments, locker rooms and a break room.

The second-floor mezzanine will be for evidence storage.

The first floor of the firehouse will have bays for the fire trucks plus storage for turnout gear and other equipment.

The second floor will house the borough's emergency operations center, bunk rooms for personnel who have to stay at the facility during emergencies, offices, showers, a dayroom, a kitchen and dining area.

In the T-shaped lot, there will be parking for about 80 vehicles behind the building with about a dozen more spaces behind the police headquarters. The parking lot and its lighting will be shielded from the neighboring residential properties.

Entry to the complex will be from both Gaston Avenue and Cliff Street.

The borough bought the 1.77-acre property, the site of the former Gaston Avenue Bakery, on the west side of Gaston Avenue at Cliff Street for $1.4 million in 2018. The funds for the purchase came from a property tax settlement with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital a few blocks away.

As part of the financing, once the building is completed, the borough is planning to sell its police headquarters on South Bridge Street. The building once housed a brewery.

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 today..

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Somerville NJ new police, fire complex price jumps