Community Facility Considered By Regional Center

The Regional Center Partnership—which covers Bridgewater, Somerville and Raritan—has voted to request grant money for building a community center in the region.

According to township Councilman Matthew Moench, at a recent meeting of the Regional Center Partnership, there was a proposal to request $100,000 in grant money from the state for a center.

“I was the lone dissenting vote for this,” he said.

If received, the grant money will pay for an investigation into building a community center in the regional center—and he said he thinks that’s a little wasteful, Moench said.

“I voted against it because I can think of some infrastructure projects that could help the quality of life better,” he said. “I could not support the idea of looking into an idea for that amount of money, and I thought there were better projects that we could be submitting than this particular one.”

Moench said the idea is that employers like cultural items, and building a community center could encourage businesses to stay in the area.

But Moench was the only dissenting vote and the request was approved.

“They said there is time to change this request, and this is a placeholder,” he said. “But if we don’t get in line, we lose the chance [for the grant money].”

What do you think Bridgewater? Would a community center be beneficial for the regional center, and where should it go?