Eastampton Offices To Get New Home

The Cliver Manor House, purchased by Eastampton for $81,500 last month, will serve as the new township municipal office building beginning in March 1991, when a $700,000 renovation is scheduled to be completed.

"We needed more space," said Mayor Marie Potter. "A new building would have cost 4 to 5 million dollars, so we opted to do this."

All the township offices will move to the house except for the police department, municipal court and public works department, which will remain in the current municipal building on Smithville-Jacksonville Road. Township officials hope to have the renovation started by the end of the summer.

One of the reasons township officials chose to leave the three departments in the old municipal building was to reduce the traffic to the Cliver Manor House, which is only accessible through the Eastampton Farms housing development at the intersection of Smithville-Jacksonville Road and North Pemberton Road. The three departments generate the most traffic, according to township officials.

"We studied how many people were coming to see the tax assessor, township clerk and building inspector and found that it was only about 20 a day," said Councilman Jim Bayles.

Architectural plans for the new municipal office building were unveiled by township officials Thursday at a brief ceremony outside the 155-year-old Cliver Manor House. The mayor and council members invited residents to view the plans and discuss the renovation.

Although some residents were concerned about the traffic to the new municipal building, they seemed relieved that the Cliver Manor House would be renovated. Uninhabited since 1976, the three-story structure is boarded up and has been heavily vandalized.

"It's been unsightly and a hangout for kids," said Judy Guzsaly, a resident of Eastampton Farms. "My 6-year-old son is not allowed to come up here because it scares me."

The township has hired Olivieri Architects of Cherry Hill to oversee the renovation and restoration of the late Federal-style house, which is listed as a historic building with the Burlington County Cultural and Heritage

Commission.

The architects plan to reconstruct the porch, patio and front entrance of the former Cliver family farmhouse but change the facade as little as possible. Interior work will include replacing the wiring and plumbing as well as installing a small elevator. A parking lot will be built on the south side of the structure.

The township sold $1.1 million in bonds to cover the cost of the renovation of the house as well as the renovation of the existing municipal offices, where part of the police department will be moved to the first floor and the municipal courtroom will be expanded.

Money that is left over from the Cliver Manor House project will be used for work on the existing municipal office building, according to Potter.