FANWOOD — The borough council on Monday approved two bond ordinances — one to fund several capital expenditures this year and another to finance the acquisition of the recycling center property on North Avenue.
Among the items the $465,000 capital budget will finance are vehicle lights, radar equipment and an e-ticket device to print out traffic summonses for a police vehicle that was purchased earlier.The department of public works (DPW) will purchase a lift system while the fire department will receive $100,000 toward the future purchase of an apparatus. The engineering department will use proceeds from the bond for design and analysis for the north side train station building and for micro-surfacing of North Avenue.
This year’s bond ordinance is a quarter of the size of last year’s $2million bond, and Borough Administrator Jesse Moehlman said back in May that he was looking to keep capital expenses “lean” in an effort to keep the borough’s debt service under control.
At its special meeting, the council also approved a $1.2-million bond ordinance to allow the borough to complete its repurchase of the recycling center property at 536 North Avenue. Three years ago, the borough and the Union County Improvement Authority (UCIA) concluded an agreement to facilitate construction of a new public works facility on the property, with the UCIA becoming the owner of the property. Some preliminary work on developing a new DPW facility was done in the intervening years, but at present, there are not any firm plans to move forward with the project due to its likely costs. The bond approved this week will cover the remainder of the $2 million that the borough must pay the UCIA by the end of August to complete its buy-back of the property.