November 2023 Update:
If you’ve passed by the new Municipal Center construction recently, you can see it is really taking shape.  Substantial progress is being made inside and the landscaping is also coming along nicely.  Nine deciduous trees have been planted and numerous natural drainage rain gardens are a prominent feature of the overall landscaping plan. 

Trees include Linden, Sycamore and Black Gum.  The original plan was to also have several October Glory trees (Red Maple) which happen to be a Leonia favorite as they are incredibly beautiful come the Fall season.  However, because Spotted Lanternflies prefer Red Maples and many in Leonia have become infested with Spotted Lanternflies, we regrettably removed Red Maples from our planting list this cycle.  

We will be proceeding with the placement of additional permeable pavers in the back parking lot (on the north side of the building) now that the large contaminated dirt pile has been safely removed and trucked offsite.  This dirt was contaminated by the oil leak underneath the Old Ambulance Corps Building (which we’ve discussed in previous updates) and had to receive additional considerations to ensure proper and safe environmental disposal.  We worked with the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and our own Environmental consultants, GZA, to do this the right way and now that it is done we can proceed with the permeable pavers. 

Inside the building, we are taping/painting soffits, installing the elevator, working on the HVAC units, finishing the spackling on the 2nd floor, continuing the finishes on the 2nd floor wall ceilings, putting the police lockers in the men and women’s locker rooms, installing break room and court room millwork, and continuing progress on IT/AV and Security features.  

The long delayed metal panels necessary to complete the exterior of the building primarily on the west sidefacing the library are now expected to be received the last week in December.  This is approximately one month prior to what we were told recently, and we hope it holds true.  

Our opening date is a bit uncertain at the moment due to PSE&G’s tardiness in connecting the building’s electricity.  I know as a homeowner you can be frustrated by PSE&G not showing up when they were supposed to and it is, apparently, no different for a municipality.  At least they are consistent!  Now that the electricity has finally been connected (we experienced a one month PSE&G delay), we are able to install the elevator, which was on hold pending electricity, and can resume work on the HVAC systems etc.  

After so many months of construction and, prior to groundbreaking,  all of the intense effort it takes to get to this point, we now see a real building and no longer have to imagine what it will look like.  Our Police Department, Court and Violations Bureau are all anxiously looking forward to moving in and we are all committed to making this happen soon. 

October 2023 Update
Progress on the new building continues apace.  We are now projecting a formal Certificate of Occupancy (CO) will be issued on December 5, 2023 paving the way for the first public meeting in the new building on Monday, December 18, 2023.  

After decades of inhabiting a sub-standard repurposed police HQ, the men and women of our Police Department will finally have a headquarters built for the purpose of serving as a Police station.  They deserve no less. In addition, Leonia’s Municipal Court will also operate out of the new building, and we no longer have to rent Court facilities elsewhere at extra cost. Leonians can be proud of the Police and Court facility which is now coming to the final stages of construction.  And Leonians should be proud that this, the largest public building infrastructure project in Leonia in over 50 years, has been delivered to the community at a substantial savings below budget and on time.  

If you take a close look at the building today you will see that all windows and doors have been installed and the building is now completely enclosed.  Inside, GPC Contracting has started painting the walls, installing the drop ceilings, and tiling the bathrooms/locker rooms.  Interior doors have all been delivered and are being installed along with the light fixtures.

Unfortunately, site work has been delayed due to the rain but should start soon.  This includes the laying of the permeable pavers and creation of natural rain gardens which aid with ground absorption.  You will also see curbing work start shortly.  Surveyors have mapped out the curb locations in the last few days.  Once the site work gets to the point that the permeable pavers are to be installed in the parking lot areas, the police vehicles (as mentioned in last month’s update) will again have to move from the current police parking lot into the library parking area which will make parking much more difficult for Wood Park and the Library.  As soon as we know when the police vehicles will be displaced, we will send out a town wide notification to let people know and encourage folks to park elsewhere or walk.  It is anticipated that the paver work and other site work requiring the police cars to remain in the library lot will go on for approximately 2-3 weeks.

There is one cosmetic feature of the building which will not be completed by the December 18th first meeting date but will in no way affect the functionality of the building itself.  It just won’t look as nice as we expect it to look until the metal panels on the west side facing the library are finally installed.  We continue to be thwarted by supply chain issues and the difficulty of procuring these panels on site.  Right now, we are still expecting delivery of the panels by mid December.  Based on recent experience, we’re not sure how realistic this is but we continue to be hopeful.

Please continue to follow this space for monthly updates relating to your new Municipal Center’s construction.  

It was great to receive affirmation from outsiders of what we already know.  Our new Police/Court building is great value for the $ (we continue to run $2 million under budget) and is a quality construction job.  We remain on time to complete construction in October with one caveat mentioned later in this update. 

Over the next month we can expect the site work to start in earnest.  This includes curbing, landscaping, and the laying of all the permeable pavers both in the new north side parking lot and the driveway adjacent to the west side of the new building.  While this is evidence we are nearing completion of the project as a whole, it also requires a short term disruption to already tight parking behind the library.  All our police vehicles will again move for a 2-3 week period from the area adjacent to the current old police station back into the library lot until the new parking lot has been paved over.  We must accept that parking in the library lot will be extra difficult during this period and the contractors are going to do everything they reasonably can to get the work done quickly.  While we will do everything we can to minimize the disruption and inconvenience caused, it is best when you visit the library to park on an adjacent street if you can't walk there.  

Our arrangements for free storing of the furniture we purchased for the new building as well as the $40,000 in new furniture we were given through CBRE will no longer be possible without paying for the same.  So, rather than pay a warehouse services company thousands of dollars for this storage and because of the progress we're making on the building,  we have permission from our inspectors and code officials to store this same furniture instead in the new Court chambers.  This will save substantial taxpayer $ by avoiding multiple thousand dollar warehousing costs.  

There's one cosmetic piece to the outside of the building which will not be completed until December 13.  This is the installation of the metal panels by the large window on the west side of the building facing the library.  These panels are the same ones we've referenced in previous updates and have repeatedly struggled to procure because of supply chain issues and price changes. 

All pre-inspection and regular inspection work has been completed.  These inspections include the following: Building, Electrical, Plumbing, and Fire.  Final inspections before a Certificate of Occupancy can be successfully issued include all of these areas again plus an Elevator inspection.  All final inspections are anticipated to be completed by December 13th which means the building will be open to the public shortly thereafter.  

All of the priorities laid out in the June update regarding the continued focus on cost controls remain in place to protect the best interests of Leonia taxpayers.   

In terms of what you can expect to see over the next several weeks as it relates to construction progress, GPC (our contractor) will be finishing the east wall brick installation and moving to the north and northwest walls next, installing window frames, installing metal studs and back boxes, starting insulation at exterior walls, installing vapor barrier at exterior walls, and starting to sheetrock the first floor,   Separately, our borough and other independent inspectors will be reviewing progress and specifically focussed on electrical and framing inspections.  

The project remains on time with an expected end of October building completion including the very complicated AV security installation requirements associated with a police headquarters.  Shortly thereafter, we will bring in the furniture.   Unanticipated costs associated with door access locks and panic buttons identified as essential by our Chief of Police on the first floor have been absorbed by our contingency fee budget (thank goodness for careful budgeting/planning) and therefore does not represent an additional cost to the project beyond what was already budgeted.  Overall we remain over $2 million dollars below budget and are optimistic this will not appreciably change.    

For anyone who has driven or walked by the new municipal center it is easy to see the visible progress being made.  Most importantly, Leonia taxpayers can take comfort in the fact we continue to be on time for a late October building completion and substantially under budget.  The Mayor and Council overall and the Facilities Committee in particular (comprised of the Chair, Councilman Bill Ziegler, Mayor Judah Zeigler and Councilman Pat Fusco are focused on eking every $ of value out of the project and rejecting unnecessary expenses.  For example, in the past month the Facilities Committee killed the expenditure of $19,000 for an underground lawn sprinkler irrigation system as we deemed it an unnecessary cost. As a taxpayer, please rest assured that at least in Leonia we are very carefully monitoring your tax dollars and "nice to have" items don't easily pass our review standards.   This $19,000 now becomes part of the overall cost savings for the project which is now at approximately $2 million.  

 

At the same time, we occasionally are frustrated by unexpected cost increases in basic construction materials because of excess demand for some highly sought after materials and some continuing supply chain issues.  A recent increase of $17,000 in the cost of external metal paneling was an unexpected disappointment and is frustrating for sure.  While we were informed the initial increase in cost was over $29,000, we were able to leverage our relationships to bring that down somewhat to $17,000 but it is what it is.  We can't stay on time and we can't complete the project without these metal panels either.  Not much of a choice!

 

Here's what you will see our contractors working on over the next few weeks...Framing of the west wall will be completed, we will continue mechanical and sanitary piping, roofing, and bricklaying.  Second floor framing will be finished and windows and wall panel measurements will be finalized.  Second floor duct work will also be started.  

When the last of the monitoring wells was installed by GZA at the request of the NJDEP to monitor for any additional oil contamination from the oil tank that used to be under the old ambulance corps building, there was slight damage to the new pavers adjacent to the old police station.  GZA has made good on the damage and all repairs have been satisfactorily completed. 

 

Our Leonia Police Department is looking forward to occupying their new HQ and vacating the old police station as soon as practical.  It is unlikely they will miss the old building very much!  A big thank you to LPD Chief Scott Tamagny who continues to work hard to ensure smooth progress and adherence to all plans for the Police HQ in the new building. 

 March 2023 Update

On time and under budget is the most appropriate headline for this March update.  Please read below for details of events this past month.

The very moderate weather, quite unusual for February,  allowed our contractor (GPC) to make continued steady progress on the construction of our new Police Department and Court building.  In fact, we are actually a bit ahead of where we expected to be at this time.  We're not going to say this will necessarily translate into the building being done before what we are currently projecting,  the late September/October timeframe.  But we are very pleased with the current project compared to the schedule to date.

In the next week, providing several days of better than 32 degree weather are strung together, we will see GPC pouring the concrete slab on the first floor.  Separately, GZA, (our environmental mitigation experts) advised the Borough of the need to install three additional monitoring wells around the site.  This was deemed necessary by the NJDEP to provide additional monitoring of any remaining oil  from an oil tank that leaked and had been adjacent to the old Ambulance Corps Building, This has now been done.

Two of these monitoring wells are on private property adjacent to the western boundary of the site by the current police station and  located in the parking lot of both these properties.  The third monitoring well was drilled earlier this week just outside the side door of the police department.  These wells are unobtrusive and designed to detect whether any additional oil from the already removed tank is affecting any of the surrounding soil.  The tank that leaked and all the contaminated soil around it has been dug up and completely removed from the site.  These monitoring wells will help us confirm nothing was missed. 
 
One critical path item which has been addressed in the Facilities Committee are the final IT/AV Security system needs for the building.  As this is a Police Department facility, the state regulations concerning what needs to be installed are very specific.  The final plans will be on a resolution before the Mayor and Council on Monday, March 6th.  It is important these plans be finalized to allow the electricians who are currently working on the first floor the chance to run all the right electric and fiber conduits in all the right places while the walls are open.  With the M&C's anticipated passage of this resolution, we will remain on schedule without unnecessary delays.  
 
This past month, CBRE who serves as our "Clerk of the Works" identified furniture including shelving, desks, two refrigerators and a sink which was being discarded by one of their clients despite the fact that everything was in nearly new condition and perfectly functional.  Through CBRE and the outstanding responsiveness of our DPW all of this furniture and appliances was instead diverted to Leonia AT NO COST and allowed us to avoid the budgeted expense of $40,000 for the same materials.  This is a big win for everyone.  Leonia taxpayers save $40,000 we were going to have to spend, the furniture etc. doesn't wind up in a landfill and CBRE as our Clerk of the Works continues to show the extra value they are bringing to the project through their extensive experience and network of clients nationally. Thank you CBRE and thank you to our DPW for responding quickly and getting all of these items to Leonia from Moonachie. 
 
Through money savings opportunities like this to date, we continue to be substantially under budget for the project and continue to be on time.

February 2023 Update
Municipal Building Construction Site Video

GPC Contracting has taken full advantage of the relatively moderate weather in Leonia during the month of January and there's been substantial progress with the new building construction.  This past month, we have seen the outside walls take shape and, for the first time, you can see the true outline of the entire building.  

Despite often wet weather, we are staying on schedule for a September/October 2023 building completion.  If you've recently passed by the site of our new police/court building, you will no doubt have noticed the foundation work has been completed and the first floor walls are going up.  You can expect significant visible progress to be made over the next month (weather permitting) with outside walls increasing in height and steel beams and rods being installed during the next phase of the construction process.   In terms of cost tracking, we remain substantially under budget and are increasingly optimistic we will deliver the building way below what we originally expected-- which is very good news for all of us taxpayers. 

 

The new municipal building is on schedule and significantly under budget.  While we have had to manage the challenges associated with supply chain disruptions, we have been able to do so with a great deal of success largely because we identified the harder to procure materials and ordered them well in advance.  We were recently concerned about a required back up generator not being available on the desired timeline but our Clerk of the Works (CBRE) has leveraged their extensive network of vendors to ensure delivery months before we were initially promised.  We've also successfully worked through the unpleasant surprise of subgrade soils (mostly clay) which needed to be excavated before we could proceed with the foundation work.  Despite this added challenge and expense, we continue to be on time and substantially underbudget for the project as a whole.  Occupancy of the new building by the Police Department and Court is expected in the September/October timeframe of 2023.   For additional detail, please consult the most recent flash reports also on this page which provides you with the same high level update your elected officials receive on a regular basis.  We will continue to post these flash reports on this site as they are updated and become available.