The times and amenities are a-changin' Upper Freehold opens new municipal building BY JANE MEGGITT Staff Writer JEFF GRANIT staff The new portion of the Upper Freehold Township Municipal Building looks like a silo to fit in with the rural landscape. While the red silo of the new Upper Freehold Township municipal building evokes the township's heritage, everything inside the structure is quite modern. Having the latest in amenities is not something to which township employees were always accustomed, as attested to by Township Administrator Barbara Bascom and others at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new building on Oct. 30. About 50 people gathered for the ceremony, including four of the five Township Com-mittee members, architect Thomas Kocubinski, of Kocubinski Architects in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence, and Township En-gineer Glenn Gerken. Mayor Stephen Flei-schacker cut the ribbon to officially open the new building. Bascom said she told those in attendance that when she started working for the township in 1992, the former municipal building - which is located in front of the new structure - was only open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for tax collection and construction, while other offices were only open on Thursday night. JEFF GRANIT staff A window-lined hallway leads visitors where they have to go in the new portion of the Upper Freehold Township Municipal Building. Bascom also said township workers had rotary telephones, used the fax machine at Jones' market and typed meeting minutes on a typewriter. "No, that wasn't 25 or 30 years ago," Bascom said. "It was [in] 1992." Although the 1975 building was remodeled twice since she came to town, Bascom said it remained overcrowded. She said the township couldn't even hire new help because there would be no place for the workers to sit. The new building will serve the public more efficiently while blending in with the rural character of the community, according to Bascom. She said the land use administrator, court, animal control, emergency management and tax offices will all remain in the old building. Kathy Freiberger, who has been employed by the township for 20 years, works in the construction office. She said she is very happy to be in the new building, which she called "beautiful." Back when Freiberger began working for the township, she said, the construction office was in one room and often had to spill into an adjacent meeting room due to lack of space. Freiberger also recalled that the municipal judge would have to walk through the construction office to get to court. Freiberger admired the warm colors in the new building, including the gray/brown floor tiling. Planning Board Secretary Sue Babbitt said when the other municipal building opened in 1975, it had bright orange doors, brown walls and blue furniture. Another female township employee noted that men had chosen the original décor for that building, while women picked out the colors for the new building. The township's Board of Health secretary, Andrea Trozzi, called the new space "very comfortable" and "a nice place to work." Fred Kniesler, who served on the Township Committee in the 1960s, said he remembers when the 1975 structure was "the new building." Prior to that, the governing body met in a room in a structure in Imlaystown that did not have plumbing. Kniesler said the conference table in the first building was inherited from the Farmers National Bank in Allentown. He said the conference room was heated by a potbellied stove, and that anyone sitting at the head of the table would get scorched in the winter, while those sitting at the opposite end would freeze. While there was no bathroom in that building, there was "a pond out back," he said wryly. For the new structure, members of the Four Seasons active-adult community donated a red maple tree to be planted on the grounds in honor of the town's 275th anniversary. Another highlight of the new building is a bronze medallion in the floor of the entrance that commemorates the township's founding in 1731. According to Bascom, the township may add a community room to the new building during a second phase of construction. Bascom said the new building wasn't just built by money and a contractor, but was the result of a long process in bidding, reviewing, managing and paying attention to details. She noted that the township's construction official, Ron Gafgen, worked as the project manager and purchasing agent Debra Sopronyi watched over the contract and contractor. According to Sopronyi, the total cost of the new municipal building was within budget at $2,047,576. The cost included the price of the building at $1,596,803 and the price of the site work at $450,773. The site work included a new parking lot, landscaping and items such as required drainage, according to Sopronyi. Authentic Construction in Lakewood served as the contractor for both the building and site work. The program for the ceremony listed every member of the township's governing body from 2004 to 2006, Bascom said, as the plan for the building had been in the works for all those years. She also noted that when she started working in Upper Freehold, there were only three committeemen compared to the current five.