After major technical problems, I’m glad to say that TTJ is back to offer commentary on Tabernacle Township government. The first “new” post concerns Tabernacle’s purchase of property for a new town hall.

The township committee has been sniffing around a 19-acre parcel at 144 Carranza Road for its new town hall site for well over a year. Since Tabernacle’s old town hall closed, they’ve spent upwards of $100,000 towards buying this property. These costs include environmental studies, a survey, title search, an appraisal, bonding capacity, an application for development to the New Jersey Pinelands Commission and a lot of legal, engineering and administrative services.

These costs are in addition to the continuing extra costs for renting the town hall trailers, which is $3,500 per month or approximately $35,000 to $40,000 so far.

Despite the importance of having a town hall, this committee never explored the other options for old town hall that its architect laid out. Instead, it fixated on buying this property and constructing a new building.

Having decided that 144 Carranza Road was their ‘besty’ (and only) property, I expected the committee to get an agreement of sale and then start due diligence. That’s how people usually buy property. Buyers get their property under contract first because it protects them against the risk that they spend the money upfront and their deal collapses.

I also expected Tabernacle to have this property under contract because they said they did. On March 29, 2022, Tabernacle filed a Notice of Settlement for 144 Carranza Road. It said “Notice is hereby given of a contract, agreement of sale, between the parties hereto.”

So I asked for the agreement. But Township Clerk Mary Alice Brown said there was no such document. At the September 26, 2022 township meeting, she publicly confirmed that there was no agreement.

A town hall is necessary. Building a new one is expensive. Unfortunately for Tabernacle taxpayers, Mayor Sammy Moore, Deputy Mayor Kim Brown and former Mayor Joseph Barton squandered the opportunity to purchase the Sequoia School and convert it to Tabernacle’s new town hall. They lacked the foresight and common sense to buy Sequoia when it was offered to the township. The Sequoia School had already been renovated by the Lenape High School District. Its asking price was a small fraction of what the new town hall will cost. Sequoia sold for $850,000 in 2020.

Once the committee put us on a path to a new town hall on a new site, it should have secured an agreement before going forward with all of the associated costs. That’s how almost every other property transaction goes.

It may turn out that Tabernacle gets this property without any problems. But why take the risk? What did taxpayers get for taking that risk? Nothing.

P.S. Perhaps, because I asked for the agreement and Clerk Brown had to publicly admit that there was none, the committee added an executive session to discuss an agreement for 144 Carranza Road. This was done at the last minute of their September 26 meeting.

And for this, committee members unanimously gave themselves a $2,500 raise at that meeting.