WEST MILFORD — The township council has agreed to pursue a sale of the Johner Building, which could bring in some much-needed cash and put a substantial commercial property back on the tax maps.
The council instructed the attorney to prepare paperwork needed to get the process rolling.
The Johner Building is located at 11 Edgar Drive, just off Marshall Hill Road. It was purchased by the township in 1995 for $650,000. The 14,520 square foot building, which sits on three acres, is home to the township's Office of Emergency Management, the Fire Prevention Bureau and archived records. Built in 1971, the property and building are assessed at $1,151,000. If it is bought by a private owner, the taxes would be more than $38,000.
The Facilities Assessment Committee recently reviewed all of the properties owned by the township to make recommendations on consolidating for efficiency and possibly selling a property. With a new library planned on the township property in the center of town adjacent to the township building, 6,000 square feet of building space will open up in the form of the current library. About 3,000 square feet of that space is ADA accessible. That could allow the township to move the Building Department employees out of the basement of the township building.
The library board has gotten approval for a three-story building. If the township wants the space, one of those floors could be theirs; the library needs two of the floors.