•   What's going on with Oaks Hall?
 
   

last update - September 7, 2006

Construction of the footings and foundation for Oaks Hall began the first week of September with plans to erect the log shell in November. Once the log shel is complete, bids will be taken for a general contractor to complete the reamining construction as a "tennant fitout".

At its June 23, 2005 meeting Council decidet to award a bid for the construction of the outer log shell of Oaks Hall to Heartbilt Homes Inc of Stocton IL at a price of $281,374.

 

 

This construction was bonded in 2001 and the funds are already committed for that purpose. The present portable building that has acted as our temporary quarters since 2001 was purchased used from Evesham for one dollar. It too has reached the end of its useful life and must be replaced as soon as possible.

Click HERE to download a .pdf (Acrobat) version of the proposed Oaks Hall Plans.

Click HERE to download a .pdf (Acrobat) version of the proposed Public Works Plans.

In July 1999 Council established a committee for the purpose of gathering information, assessing alternatives and making recommendations to the Borough Council for the improvements to be made to borough facilities. This committee is known as the Medford Lakes Borough Facilities Advisory Committee. Their tasks were as follows:

  1. Review previously developed background data on Borough Facilities

  2. Interview other parties and individuals as may be indicated that may provide additional useful information

  3. Consider the benefits, costs and problems associated with the following facilities scenarios (and other viable facilities options that may be developed by the committee):

    • Renovate and expand the existing Oaks Hall and Public Works facilities to make them structurally sound and meet additional facilities requirements

    • Renovate the existing Oaks Hall facility and relocate the Police Department to renovated and expanded facilities within the Public Works Complex

    • Demolish the existing Oaks Hall facility and construct a new facility for administration and police or administration only, moving police to new facilities in the Public Works complex

    • Relocate the Administration and Police operations to another location and sell the existing Oaks Hall complex to a private entity

  4. Develop a report with recommendations regarding facilities to Borough Council for further consideration and action

The Facilities Advisory Committee delivered its final report to Borough Council on March 24, 1999.

Click here to download the main excerpts of the report in Adobe Acrobat format (no photos). 120k download time approximately 1 minute.

Click here to download the main excerpts of the report in Adobe Acrobat format (includes photos). 2080k download time approximately 12 minutes.

Borough Council reviewed this report at a special meeting on September 18, 1999. Although the Committee's recommendation was to reconstruct at the current Cabin Circle location, at that time a majority Council voted to relocate Administration and Police activities to a new facility to be constructed on the corner of Lenape and Stokes Road. Council commissioned a survey of this property, held a meeting with several interested architects and began the development of a Request for Proposals (RFP).

Since the Redevelopment Committee recommended in January that the Borough consider acquiring and relocating all Administration, Police and Public Works operations to a new location, no further action was taken on the matter in the Spring of 2000.

In July 2000, following the election of Councilman Woodend and appointment of Mayor Casey, Councilman Woodend motioned for the immediate release of an RFP to reconstruct the Borough's Administration and Police operations at the current Cabin Circle property. This motion carried and the RFP was issued in mid July 2000.

The Ragan Design Group was selected to prepare preliminary drawings and estimates for the Cabin Circle complex and the firm of Holberg and Addison was selected to work on the Public Works complex.

At the May 10th 2001 Borough Council meeting plans of the new administraion/police complex as well as the public works complex were presented to the general public. It is estimated that the costs for construction will total 1.8 million for the two projects.

Request for bids on the construction went out in August 2003. Construction is planned for the Fall.

 
Back to Questions