Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Operations And Personnel topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council reviews Emergency Services Building issues, calls for capital-project tracking and agrees to add vacation proration language
Summary
Councilmembers reported cosmetic cracking, a steel retaining wall requiring monitoring, bay-floor wear, tree trimming and a door repair at the Emergency Services Building; administration said engineers reviewed the issues and deemed them nonstructural. Council asked for public capital-project tracking (DPW building spreadsheet) to be extended to other projects and agreed to add proration language for vacation accruals to the employee handbook and future contracts.
Councilmembers reported findings from a tour of the Emergency Services Building (ESB), citing a steel sheet retaining wall that requires monthly monitoring, a stone retaining wall in the commuter lot showing visual "waviness," cracks and wear on bay floors, interior stress cracks likely attributable to settling, and tree branches overhanging parts of the roof. Administration and the construction-code official said engineers and the architect reviewed the issues and concluded they are cosmetic, not affecting structural integrity; the ambulance squad agreed to pay for a damaged door handle that required repair.
Separately, council discussed capital-project transparency after seeing the DPW building tracking table on the township website and asked that similar public tracking be prepared for two large projects (referred to as 450 and the swim club). Administration agreed to produce comparable documentation.
Council also revisited town personnel policy on vacation accruals. Speakers explained that while vacation and personal-day banks are typically recharged on Jan. 1, proration clauses differ across agreements: DPW language explicitly prorates vacation on separation, police contracts are silent and civilians historically followed precedent. Counsel and HR recommended adding proration language to the employee handbook and negotiating proration clauses in upcoming contracts to avoid disproportionate usage of recharged time before separation.
