PHOTO BY ERIN ROLL/STAFF
By ERIN ROLL
roll@montclairlocal.news
Montclair wants to re-pave and re-curb several of its streets, buy new segways for the Montclair Police Department, rebuild an ambulance and some snow plows, and buy new trucks for the Department of Community Services.
Those are some of the purchases laid out in a $6.8 million bond ordinance that the township introduced on March 5. The bond ordinance covers 12 projects and purchases that Montclair wants to have done over the next decade.
The total cost of all of the projects will be $7,234,899. Of that amount, $6,889,899 will be in bonds and notes issued over the next 10 years.
The lion’s share of the ordinance is for paving and curbing roads around Montclair over the next five years.
The paving and curbing is the single biggest outlay in the ordinance, with an anticipated cost of $5,700,299, $201,660 of which is funded from Community Development Block Grants and $400,000 coming from the New Jersey Department of Transportation for transportation-related projects.
CDBG funding will cover reconstruction of Woodland Avenue and Wheeler Street, and Fulton and Miller streets.
Township communications director Katya Wowk said a list of the other street to be remilled under the bond ordinance had not yet been assembled.
After the street paving project, the next largest outlay included in the bond ordinance is a series of improvements to Tuers Park, a playground and ballfield in the northeast corner of Montclair, as well as miscellaneous park and playground improvements. The park work is expected to cost $294,000.
For the Department of Community Services, the township plans to buy new vehicles, including a pickup truck and a mason dump truck, and rebuild some of the existing snow plows and snow removal equipment. The new vehicles and their related costs are expected to cost $117,000.
The overhauling of the snow equipment and plows is expected to cost $46,100.
The police Community Services Unit will add to its fleet of segways, which are used for patrolling highly-trafficked pedestrian areas, such as Church Street.
The police department will get new segways, new sports utility vehicles and installation of carpeting at police headquarters at $153,100.
The township also plans to buy new traffic equipment, including a digital messaging board and traffic sentry signs, and new rifles, body armor and submachine guns for the police department.
The rebuilding of an ambulance for the Montclair Ambulance Unit 23 is expected to cost $116,000, including parts, labor and other expenses.
“The ambulance MAU discussed for purchase with the township will be a remount. This means the patient compartment box is being removed from one of the existing ambulances and will be remounted to a brand new vehicle chassis. The ambulance this is replacing is a 2008 Ford which has inherent engine problems from that model year,” Wowk said. The remount will allow the MAU to get five to seven more years out of the ambulance, she said, adding that buying a completely new ambulance would have cost almost $205,000.
The cost also includes new emergency lighting, decals and graphics for the ambulance, she said.
The ordinance is expected to have a hearing on April 2.