East Windsor Township officials called a special virtual meeting on election day to discuss the future of the township's mold-damaged municipal building, but within minutes of the session starting, Mayor Janice Mironov and council members retreated into a private executive session, leaving more than two dozen residents logged on without answers for over an hour.
The noon meeting on Tuesday, announced October 31, was billed as a chance to discuss the Lanning Boulevard building and contract negotiations tied to its future, according to TAPinto East Windsor/Hightstown. Instead, the meeting's microphones and cameras stayed open and live while council members disappeared into the closed session, which ran more than an hour. The township building on Lanning Boulevard has been closed due to water infiltration and damage, and as of November 3 township offices were operating out of the East Windsor Township Police Department building at 80 One Mile Road, according to a separate report from communitynews.org.
Residents Push Back on the Closed-Door Move
Before the council vanished behind closed doors, attendees used the meeting's open microphones to voice frustration. One attendee identified only as Sandra questioned why the meeting was public at all if officials intended to close it, and said she felt the executive session was inappropriate. Another attendee, identified only as Wendy, wrote in the chat that the meeting going into executive session was “shady as normal.”
Barry Greenstein, a Republican candidate challenging incumbent Richard Eland for the council's one-year unexpired term, also addressed the meeting using the open microphones. He questioned why the topics under discussion could not wait for the next regularly scheduled council meeting, set for November 10, and said he objected to attendees spending their time logging on to a meeting that immediately went into a closed session. Eland, a Democratic incumbent also on the election-day ballot, did not address members of the public who had logged on to the meeting, per the TAPinto report.
Mold Found After a September Storm
Township Attorney David Orron told the meeting that a water leak occurred in the municipal building during a storm in September, and that mold was discovered in the building as a result. The township subsequently decided to close the Lanning Boulevard building after the mold was found. Orron did not elaborate on whether township staff or residents could become sick due to mold or other building conditions, according to the same TAPinto account.
Greenstein pressed officials for specifics about the closure and for information about the mold discovered in the building, but the report does not indicate he received a detailed answer before the session closed. TAPinto reported that municipal officials had not responded to its request for comment by the time of publication.
A Relocation Still Being Worked Out
Officials said the township will relocate its municipal offices to 50 Millstone Road, Building 100, at the corner of Princeton Hightstown Road and Millstone Road in East Windsor. The township is still working out lease details and how long the relocation will last, per the TAPinto report. That account of a planned move to Millstone Road differs from the communitynews.org report, which described offices currently operating out of the police department building on One Mile Road; how the two locations relate, and the timing between them, was not addressed in the available reporting.
The communitynews.org report separately noted that the township has not disclosed what repairs the Lanning Boulevard building needs, nor said how long offices will remain at the temporary location, and no reopening date has been announced. Residents with business at the shuttered building can call 609-443-4000 to set up an appointment with the appropriate staff member, and tax payments can still be left in the drop boxes outside the closed building at 16 Lanning Boulevard.
The unresolved questions over the building's condition now sit alongside an unresolved council race. Eland, appointed to the council in April to fill the vacancy left when former Councilman Anthony Katawick moved out of state, faced off against Greenstein for the one-year unexpired term in Tuesday's general election, according to Central Jersey Media.
