PAY TO FIGHT
Township considers buying 4 firehouses, Nottingham Fire officer reportedly wants $2.5M >>
HAMILTON >> It’s a king’s ransom.
One officer for the Nottingham Fire Company wants the township to pony up $2.5 million for the 25,365-squarefoot firehouse on 200 Mercer Street, The Trentonian has learned from multiple sources.
That figure could throw a fireman’s wrench into an estimated $1.5 million in savings that Mayor Jeff Martin touted when pushing for Hamilton’s consolidated fire service.
Last fall, Martin signed an ordinance that dissolved and abolished Hamilton Fire Districts 1 through 9, replacing it with a unified municipal department.
According to the ordinance, all real estate and personal property owned by the fire districts were transferred to Hamilton’s municipal government Jan. 1.
The Trentonian has learned that Nottingham firehouse is one of four buildings still owned by the fire companies post-consolidation. DeCou Hose, White Horse and Colonial volunteer companies are the others.
The township has leased those firehouses since consolidation took effect, records show, but officials acknowledged there’s interest in acquiring the buildings.
Martin’s administration is engaged in preliminary negotiations with Nottingham Fire Company, with the three other companies also hopeful they’ll be able to hawk their digs.
Martin told The Trentonian he was “not going to negotiate in public,” so it’s unclear how much the township may fork over for these buildings.
If Nottingham’s price tag is any indication, the figure may soar into the millions just for the buildings, not including costs for maintenance and upgrades.
The four buildings are in dire need of repairs estimated at a combined $6.1 million, according to feasibility studies conducted in 2017. Colonial’s fixes, which include slapping on a new roof, were put as high as $4 million.
“Right now we aren’t doing anything until we get the budget,” Council President Pasquale “Pat” Papero Jr. said in a phone interview this week. “There were talks from them on what they wanted to do.”
Hamilton Council expects to introduce the mayor’s 2021 municipal budget proposal in early April, Papero said.
Martin said buying the buildings won’t alter the projected savings figure because the township would mortgage payments through bonds that it would have several years to pay off.
He’s confident those payments won’t exceed what the township already shells out for leasing the properties.
The township currently pays Nottingham $25,000 a year in rent, records show. It shells out $15,500 to DeCou; $18,000 for White Horse; and $62,000 for Colonial, according to Bianca Jerez, the mayor’s chief of staff.
“We budgeted the lease payments as part our budget to DCA,” Martin said, referring to the state Department of Community Affairs. “You can purchase [the buildings] as a capital expense and pay it off over many years. You might save money in the short- and long-term.”
Greg Schultz, the president of the Nottingham Fire Company, was not forthcoming when The Trentonian first reached out to him, claiming the company wasn’t interested in selling.
In a subsequent phone interview, he confirmed that the nonprofit approached the township to gauge its interest in buying the building, which was constructed in the 1960s.
“I was stifled,” Schultz explained about why he wasn’t straight the first time around. “Where did you get this information from? Like what’s the end game trying to push the envelope.”
Schultz maintained whoever provided the $2.5 million figure was misleading the newspaper, which was contradicted by multiple sources.
“We’re not looking to sell the building for $2.5 million. We’re not looking to rip anybody off,” Schultz told The Trentonian. “We’re not here to take advantage of anybody.”
Schultz declined to say or disclose what’s a fair price for the building and land, assessed last year at $2.7 million, according to property records on file at the Mercer County Clerk’s Office.
Schultz said the fire company owes roughly $130,000 on the property mortgage and would like to settle the debt and maybe have a couple hundred grand in the bank.
The tax-exempt nonprofit is limited with what it can do with any profit from the building. It wants to continue hosting its annual parade and plans to reinvest any payday in local charities, Schultz said.
If the building sells, he said none of the officers will take “a dime” in salary for handling the nonprofit’s affairs.
The organization’s tax records, called Form 990s, confirm none of the principal officers have been compensated over the years.
That hasn’t stopped Nottingham Fire Company Treasurer Richard Vaughn from demanding that stakeholders get at least $2.5 million for the firehouse, according to a source who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the backroom wheeling and dealing.
John Marcucci, a former commissioner for Hamilton Township Fire District 7, confirmed one of the principal officers wants $2.5 million for the property.
He declined to name the stakeholder but said the individual was “not being realistic.”
Vaughn insisted he wasn’t “hard-lined” on $2.5 million and contended the company will accept a “reasonable offer.”
“Whatever went on in the company, stays in the company. It doesn’t belong on the outside,” he said. “I’m disillusioned by people who would say that because it doesn’t belong on the outside. These are said at meetings and so forth.”
Playing hardball
The $25,000 in annual rent Hamilton Township is paying to utilize the Nottingham firehouse is far below what company officers would like.
Schultz and Co. originally wanted the township to pay nearly $100,000 in annual rent, according to official correspondence from Nottingham.
“The Nottingham Fire Company respectively requests that the actual rent number should be $99,250 or $8,270 per month,” the company said in a rental explanation letter to the township. “This may have to be increased on the issue of insuring the building.”
Nottingham also played hardball in the pre-consolidation era.
The former Fire District 7 Board of Commissioners in 2020 “agreed to a rental agreement of $75,000 or $6,500 per month,” Nottingham says in the letter, adding the former commissioner board about six years ago “decided to reduce the rent to $25,000 per annum. The Fire Company challenged the rental reduction to no avail.”
A December 2017 feasibility study showed it would cost $747,000 to address the issues at Nottingham, which had interior and exterior building deficiencies as depicted in high-resolution photographs.
Schultz called the figure “inflated” and said the building has normal “wear and tear.”
Marcucci said the fire company attracted a couple suitors when it listed the building for sale a few years ago.
One was Saul Funeral Home, which was reportedly scared off by the building’s potentially sky-high property taxes for small business use, a source said.
The deal never moved forward, and then the township got serious about consolidation, Marcucci said.
Former GOP mayoral candidate and township gadfly David Henderson said he originally supported fire district consolidation.
Now he’s skeptical how much the township will actually save now that it’s expected to incur more debt to buy the buildings.
He accused the township of giving “away the ranch” during salary negotiations with the local firefighter unions. Chief Richard Kraemer is set to make $180,000 in 2021.
His salary increases to $184,000 next year, according to his contract. He must work 40 hours a week and is ineligible for comp and overtime. The fire chief, however, is entitled to a number of employee benefits, including $12,000 of annual holiday pay and continuation of his pre-dissolution longevity pay matching 10% of his annual base pay, bumping his total annual compensation well beyond $200,000.
“There’s already evidence that is going to cost more in the long run,” Henderson said.
As chief of the Hamilton Township municipal fire division, Kraemer’s public compensation far exceeds the annual salary of Gov. Phil Murphy, who earns $175,000 per year.
Martin defended the township’s negotiations to possibly buy the Nottingham, White Horse, DeCou Hose and Colonial firehouses.
“I think it puts our fire department on more sound footing to know they’re the owner of the building,” he said.