County quietly opens juvenile detention centerPosted on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 9:11 pm
by John Ensslin
Quietly and without any fanfare, Bergen County’s $22.7 million juvenile detention center in Teterboro has opened for business.
The center took in its first eight clients of Feb. 7 when a group of Bergen County juveniles were returned from Union County, where they had been housed on a contract basis.
County officials disclosed that the facility is open during the freeholder’s budget hearing Wednesday for the County Human Services Department
The department would see 24 percent increase in salaries and wages under the budget proposed by County Executive Kathleen Donovan, rising from $6.4 million to $8 million.
Much of that is due to operating the juvenile detention center and a related youth shelter which will cost about $1.8 annually to run, officials said.
The building’s price tag, operating costs and relatively small population prompted some “buyer remorse” among some freeholders.
“I understand that the state is regulating us to do certain things,” Freeholder John Mitchell said. “I just think there probably would have been a better way to do it, a more economical way.”
County Administrator Ed Trawinski said when the Republicans took control of county government in January 2011, they initially suspended construction.
“We came to the conclusion that the cost of terminating the construction would put an additional burden on the tax payer,” Trawinski said.
He said the state juvenile justice commission mandated most of the features that drove up the cost of the project. And the county’s old juvenile detention center in Paramus could no longer be operated in a safe way, he said.
Before the first juveniles arrived, the building was pressed into service in October as a temporary shelter for Moonachie and Little Ferry residents who were displaced by flooding in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.