>Although no professional engineering study has been undertaken, Mayor Dave Pfund has publicly insisted that repairing and restoring the Pease Library building would cost taxpayers $1 million. Mayor Pfund has also publicly indicated his reluctance to issue municipal bonds that would cover such costs.
Knowing that Mayor Pfund and Village Manager Jim Ten Hoeve don’t want to spend $1 million to fix things up at Pease, could they be considering swapping the Pease property for 120 Franklin Avenue (The Town Garage), which Mr. Wells now owns? Cost avoidance of $1 million at Pease could justify swapping the Garber Square location for a property of lesser value.
If a property swap is indeed being considered, some potential issues for the Mayor and Village Manager to think about:
What happens to the E911 center now in Pease’s lower level? Would they pay rent to Wells, or move to a municipally owned location?
Is there a way for the Village to ensure that Wells wouldn’t eventually demolish the landmark building and replace it with something modern?
How would public access to Pease (if left standing) be guaranteed if the Village didn’t own it?
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>At what point did the Village start getting so cost conscious? We spent at least $9.5 million on the new Village Hall, purchased the Habernickel property for millions, spent big bucks on improvements at the main library & Graydon Pool, a new firehouse, etc. Now, Pfund is worried about spending a mere $1 million to fix Pease? What am I missing here? Or, is this related to the new State mandated budget caps?
>the town should spend the money to fix pease.and charge rent money.and thats that.or the town uses the place for what ever.no way knock it down.
>Where is there a new firehouse? Last I checked, the firehouse on West Glen Avenue is a refurbished barn from god knows when and the firehouse on East Glen Avenue was built in the early ninties to replace the Hudson Street firehouse which was completely falling apart.
>Central Dispatch is not a village owned entity. It is jointly owned by Glen Rock and Ridgewood. Its a regional dispatch center thus it would be next to impossible to move.
>During last night’s Village Council Work Session, Mayor Pfund publicly announced that Wells Associates will not have a response to lease conditions the Village imposed related to “financial solvency” for another 60-90 days.
The buzz around Village Hall now is that Council members are finished with Wells because of all the heat generated by Ridgewood Blog posters and the front page Ridgewood News article.
We’ll be forced to buy the Town Garage from him, but kiss his involvement in Pease and the bandstand goodbye forever!
>The “buzz around Village Hall” …. meaning at the water cooler.. or just B-S from this poster? Dont start rumors. Deal with some facts. If you are right and we all end up paying the price.. we’ll know soon enough.
Stop patting yourself on the back so much.