After a little more than two months, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh says he will most likely recommend that Interim Business Administrator Robert Hary be appointed to take over the job.
Hsueh said he plans to officially make the recommendation to the Township Council “very soon,” and that it will happen within the next few weeks.##M:[more]##
“I think he’s coming along nicely, and very smoothly,” Hsueh said about Hary’s performance on the job during the three months he has been there.
Hary has been serving as the interim Business Administrator since Chris Marion ended his tenure in June. Marion announced his resignation in May, on the heels of a tough budget season that saw accusations fly regarding an analysis of Council President Charles Morgan’s budget proposal. Marion, who has accepted the township manager position in Scotch Plains, however, said the move was simply to further his career. When Marion was hired in 2004, he brought stability to a position that had previously seen four administrators in six years.
Up until his appointment as the interim business administrator, Hary served as the township’s director of Health and Human Services.
The business administrator, by law, is the mayor’s appointee, but Hsueh says he has been looking for input from individual council members. If Hary is appointed as the business administrator, Hsueh says he will then look at reorganizing the Department of Health to fill Hary’s shoes.
Bids In for Old PJ Firehouse Work
Officials in West Windsor’s engineering office are reviewing the lowest bid for work on the old Princeton Junction Firehouse on Alexander Road and should be prepared to bring it before council by Monday, September 14.
According to Township Engineer Francis Guzik, the township received a total of eight bids for the project, which entails interior and exterior renovations to bring the firehouse into code compliance and enable it to be occupied.
The lowest bidder is Trenton-based Dell-Tech, which submitted a base bid of $633,”000, Guzik said. However, officials are still working through decisions on the alternates that were also submitted as part of the package. “There is a base bid and several different alternates,” said Guzik.
The West Windsor Arts Council, which will be taking over the firehouse for its home, will be able to choose color types, revised lighting, and any other renovation work to be done. “No furnishings are part of this bid,” Guzik explained.
The WWAC has been in need of a home since its inception in 2002. The township drafted a memorandum of understanding with the WWAC in 2006 that defines the township’s intent to lease the building to the arts council. Before it can do that, the firehouse needs renovations to achieve compliance with building codes. The firehouse had been storing emergency hazmat materials and other equipment for the township Division of Emergency Services.
Under the township’s part of the deal, the township took responsibility for getting the building up to code, and the WWAC has been raising money to turn the building into a usable arts center.
Once the bid is awarded, Guzik estimates that the work to bring the building into complianc will begin sometime in October.
