Bart Albini and Bob Perez are taking Maplewood officials to task for the state of public buildings. In a report presented to Maplewood’s Township Committee on Tuesday, Albini and Perez—both Republican candidates for Township Committee—presented a large number of photos of Township buildings that are decaying or in disrepair.

The report spotlights the conditions of the Townships two firehouses and libraries, the Civic Center in Memorial Park and the Community Center at De Hart Park. “It is clear to see that the inspections and maintenance of these building has either been a very low priority or no priority at all,” the report reads.

Full report is below.

Photographic Report on The Current Condition of Our Public Buildings

Presented by Bart Albini and Bob Perez

One of the responsibilities of the Township Committee, as duly elected officials, is to maintain public buildings that have been built with tax payers’ money.  Part of that process is to have scheduled inspections of these properties and to establish timely repair and maintenance of said properties.  However, this has not been the case.  In recent visual inspections of these properties, it has become obvious that with the exception of the Hilton Branch Library and Town Hall (though they have issues too) none of these buildings have been properly maintained.  

From the two (2) firehouses, the Civic Center in Memorial Park, Maplewood Community Center at De Hart, and the Main Library on Baker Street, it is clear to see that the inspections and maintenance of these building has either been a very low priority or no priority at all.  The Township Committee should chastise themselves for allowing this to exist and should also be fined, as any Maplewood resident would be, for not maintaining these properties.  Better still, they should not be re-elected to office for such blatant disregard of township property which they would not allow in their own homes.  If anyone thinks that this is a political ploy, the following photographs state our case perfectly:  

[Ed Note: Selected Photos from the report are in our gallery]

Main Library
This is the worst of the buildings, since it shows the greatest damage due to a lack of maintenance.  Yet, this department has spent over $200,000.00 dollars in maintenance within the last three years.  How that money was spent is anybody’s guess.  However, the Township Committee is looking to obtain over $250,000 to replace the roof on this building, which may be necessary because of the state they allowed this building to get.  Decide for yourselves. One of the more disturbing views, besides the amount of other damage found, is the presents of firearm holes in two windows and a major crack in the glass on one of the other windows.  

However, the most disturbing photograph is of the main air-conditioning unit in the back of the Main Library.  We question what the quality of air that the workers, patrons, and our children in the library are breathing. These are but a few of the 87 photo- graphs of which 41 are of our Main Public Library.  If any one wishes to see all the photographs taken of our public buildings, they will be made available to any and all concerned parties.  If this is the condition that the Township Committee have allowed our public buildings to get to, what will the condition of the new police building, that cost the residents of Maplewood over $24 million dollars, be in a few years?