By ROBERT LINNEHAN
Before a special meeting will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 10, at 9 a.m. at 2 Executive Drive, Rick Ragan of Ragan Design Group updated the general public on the design work being completed for a new municipal complex in the township.
Ragan and several representatives from his design firm presented very initial plans for a combined library and administration building, recreation center, and combined police department and courtroom at Tuesday night’s council meeting. Council has said it would like to first focus on a combined library and administration building as the first phase of the project.
No cost estimates were divulged at the meeting. Ragan said all figures will be discussed Wednesday morning.
The new library would be approximately 26,000 square feet for two floors, Ragan said. The first floor would include a circulation desk in the center of the space, a children’s area, teen space, meeting rooms, a café, and a computer lab with 36 computer terminals. It would be approximately 23,700 square feet, Ragan said.
The second floor of the building would include storage space, library administration space, and an area for the Friends of the Moorestown Library to hold book sales and other fund raising events.
Connected to the library would be the administration building, which would be approximately 2,240 square feet. The first floor would include a town council chambers, clerk’s office, collectors’ office, and the assessor’s office. The second floor would include a marriage, construction, and community office, plus archival storage space.
Both buildings would be interconnected and would be able to share space according to needs, Ragan said, such as the library holding special meetings or presentation in the town council chambers when not in use.
The second phase of the project would be a combined courtroom and police department, using the existing Moorestown Township library building, Ragan said. The combined space would allow prisoners to be transported directly to the courtroom to face trial.
The police department would be about 12,000 square feet. The courtroom would be about 34 by 40-feet, Ragan said. The “justice center” as he described it, would be located on Church and Second Street.
Finally, Ragan said he brought in several engineers to go over the recreation building. Council has expressed interest in rehabbing the existing building instead of constructing a completely new facility, Ragan said.
The engineers inspected several facets of the building, including if it was structurally sound, if the gym floor could be salvaged, if the windows were in good shape, and the “pointing” of the building — such as its roof. Ragan said those results would be shared at the special Wednesday morning meeting.
The meeting will be held at 2 Executive Drive in the township at 9 a.m. It is open to the public.
