Passaic County to lease West Milford space

Officials would expand more services in north

By: David M. Zimmer
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

WEST MILFORD - Township officials are offering Passaic County's commissioners office space for a new up-county hub.
..... Local officials recently confirmed they are in negotiations with the county for space in the municipally owned Johner Building off Edger Drive. Purchased by the township three decades age, the building has been sued by municipal officials for archive storage and as an office for the Fire Department and Office of Emergency Management. However, its purpose is expected to shift when the ongoing conversion of the former public library into a town hall annex wraps up.
..... County officials in August [2023] provided township officials with a letter of interest to continue providing health services and lease space in the Johner Building.
..... In recent years, Passaic County Health Department employees have worked as the township's local unit as part of a shared service agreement. county employees have provided registered environmental health inspections services, clinics, inoculations, and education and outreach programs. Still Charlene Gungil, the health officer for Passaic County and West Milford, said there is a desire to do more in the county's northwest.
..... "We're trying to bring more and more programs up to this part of the county so that we can meet the needs of our resents," she said during an August [2023] presentation for West Milford's governing body.
..... Passaic County's public information officer said a statement from county officials will come once the resolution to least the space has been passed.
..... About 15 years ago, West Milford officials discussed using the Johner Building to house some municipal offices, including the health, tax and engineering departments.
..... Though supported, the concept was abandoned when town officials teamed with the library board on the construction of an expanded library. The project freed up the former library, which town officials have preferred over the Johner Building for the pending office relocation.
..... Before becoming a town-owned office, the Johner Building was home to the Johner Manufacturing Company, a producer of precision metal parts.
..... Construction on the original 8,000-square-foot building started in October 1970. within a decade, the company gained approval for an addition to double its size.
..... John Nervetti, the company founder and president, said in 1979 that company officials were having second thoughts about the project due to issues over the town's acceptance of Edgar Drive as a public road. By October 1986, the company had nonetheless completed the 7,000-square-foot expansion.
..... Two months earlier, a 2,000-gallon gasoline tank burst at the township's nearby pubic works depot, contaminating soil on the Johner property. then in 1992, tests conducted by a lab that happened to e based on site found methvlene chloride contamination in the soil.
..... though the source of that contamination was unknown, township officials subsequently agreed to pay 4850,000 for the property and fund its cleanup.

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