Donovan Administration Consolidates Properties and Combines Operations
Bergen County Executive Kathleen A. Donovan announced that her administration has begun implementing a facilities consolidation plan that will save taxpayers money on unneeded buildings, return properties to the municipal tax rolls and will create a new home for the county police at a savings of $46 million over what the previous county administration had proposed for the law enforcement agency.
The Donovan administration is moving the police department from its current home on Zabriskie Street in Hackensack to what was formerly the county health department building on East Ridgewood Avenue in Paramus.
According to county administrator Ed Trawinski, the Zabriskie Street property will be sold to developers and put back on the city’s tax rolls. The county public works building, which is behind the county police headquarters, will be moved to the mosquito control department building, also in Paramus. The health department is being relocated to the county administration building.
Trawinski said a facilities survey by the Donovan administration demonstrated that the county administration building was using about only 70 percent of its available space. “Relocating the health department and some other personnel to the county administration building makes financial sense,” said the administrator.
Trawinski said the moves are the result of plan implemented by the Donovan administration last year in which an inventory of county buildings was taken and a determination was made on how best to use the county’s properties.
“What we found was that the county had too many building and too much space and that we could consolidate operations and save money,” said Trawinski.
Moving the county police and the DPW out of Zabriskie Street has been a long sought goal of past administrations. The area floods often, but because of its proximity to Route 4, it is a desirable redevelopment location. The County actively worked with Hackensack City officials, who in turn rezoned the property for mixed use development.
PREVIOUS $47 MILLION PLAN
In 2005 the administration of former County Executive Dennis McNerney backed a plan to buy the former Goldberg Slipper Factory near East Broadway in Hackensack, raze the building and build a new police headquarters on the site. At the time, that plan was estimated to cost at least $47 million.
Donovan said the current plan to renovate the health department building will cost about $1 million and that the sale of the Zabriskie Street property will bring in an additional $6 million to $7 million in revenue to the county.
“We are accomplishing the same goal as the previous administration tried to achieve, but we are doing it for $46 million less,” said the County Executive Donovan.
Donovan said the overall concept of taking inventory of county buildings and matching it to space needs is a simple business approach to county government.
“We are applying basic business principles to running county government: what we don’t need, we will sell and the result will be a more efficient operation because more personnel and more departments will be centralized,” added Donovan, “And the sold properties will be added to the tax rolls in the communities.”
“The bottom line is that we are delivering the same services for less money and relieving the tax burden on county residents”
GETTING DPW OUT OF A FLOOD PLAN
County Public Works Department Director Joseph Crifasi said moving the public works garage out of a flood zone Hackensack to Paramus will help save equipment and allow the DPW to respond more easily to needs throughout the county.
“The Public Works department needs to be able to respond in times of emergency, we can’t do that very easily if the department’s yard is flooded,” said Crifasi. “Secondly, Paramus offers us a more centralized location from which to operate, and we are relocating to land the County already owns.”
In other news, the County announced that it recently sold $33.3 million worth of bond anticipation notes at an interest rate of less than two-tenths of one percent.
Donovan said the incredibly low interest rate on the bonds is testament to county’s fiscal strength. “The county has a triple A bond rating and two straight years of without a budget increase. That is an impressive record in these economic times when many government entities are facing financial crises.”
Work funded by the bond includes improvements to the county jail, the vocational high school, the community college and various parks and golf courses.