1970s facility changing to handle growing town
S.B. Community Ctr. expansion expected to be finished in 2008
BY CHRIS GAETANO
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT staff South Brunswick's Community Center in Woodlot Park will soon undergo renovations.

Renovations to the South Brunswick Community Center in Woodlot Park are well under way, with township officials estimating work to be finished by March of next year.

With architectural work still in progress, township officials have said that actual costs have yet to be completely tallied, but during the Township Council's March 27 meeting, the body passed an ordinance that would accept two $500,000 grants from the county into South Brunswick's budget. This is on top of the $1 million that the township had already set aside for the project. These funds will go toward the construction of a new full-size gymnasium, renovations to the HVAC system, additional offices and classrooms, and possibly a mezzanine level for more storage and offices.

"We believe it will serve the community better, and even if somewhere down the road we need to eventually do a larger facility, this facility will stand the test of time," said Councilman Joseph Camarota.

According to Camarota, the township has been discussing renovations to the community center for a couple of years with financial movement on the project coming in this year's capital improvement budget. He said that the community center as it is does not serve the town's residents as effectively as it could, since it was built in the 1970's when South Brunswick was a very different place.

"We understand that it's undersized for our community, it was built in the mid-70's. We needed to build something," said Camarota.

It is hoped that the expanded community center will be able to host more classes and sports - the township, at the moment, shares many facilities with the school, which can sometimes lead to conflicts. Camarota pointed to one instance where the marching band needed to use the community center, which caused some of the Saturday basketball programs to be canceled. With the community center expanded, it would provide more breathing room for both township and school functions.

"You got 800 to 1,000 kids and if someone comes to the school and needs the gym, you got 800 to 1,000 kids idle, so we need more gym, and if we have it, we'll be able to run [better]," said Camarota.

During a study on what to do with the community center, similar facilities in other towns were observed. It was found that in larger communities like Woodbridge, the community center was integrated with the local YMCA and the departments of recreation. These buildings usually ran between $5 million to $6 million. The township decided that because there already was a separate YMCA, complete with a recently built swimming pool, an all-encompassing facility was not needed. After an engineering study on South Brunswick's current center revealed the building was structurally sound, ideas to build an entire new building were also abandoned for the moment.

Preliminary work was delayed due to a problem in the first round of bids - Camarota said that the township had not been specific enough in what it wanted, leading to many firms writing in with ideas that didn't follow what the township wanted. Starting the process for a second time, this time being much more precise as to what was needed, Dumas Architecture was awarded the contract.

"We had so much come back all across the board, anywhere between $50,000 to $300,000. The scope was so broad we didn't get back what we'd really wanted," said Camarota.

The councilman said that he was confident that the work would be completed by spring of next year, now that the ball was rolling.

"We know what we want and, really, it can be done. We're adding a gym and every report we see and everybody responded the same way - that this, the timetable we put out, they said they could adhere to that, we just need to stay on top of it," said Camarota.