Seaside Park Community Center Renovation Plans Solidified

The former “Boy Scout Building” now slated to become the Seaside Park Community Center, Aug. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Seaside Park’s long-standing plan to turn a borough-owned building on J Street into a community center is coming to fruition.

The building, long known as the “Boy Scout Building” since a troop was once based there, will soon be hosting community groups, clubs, and serving as a meeting space for other organizations. Located just east of the Tri-Boro First Aid Squad building, the exterior of the structure may look a bit “weathered,” Mayor John Peterson said, but the interior is modern, and a $38,000 grant will help fund the finishing touches.

On Thursday night, the borough council used its work session meeting to work out some of the final details about the interior renovation, including:

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• Flat panel doors and drawers with plastic laminate countertop and surface-mounted sink or shaker style doors and drawers with solid surface countertop and undermount sink.
• Solid-surface Corian countertops.
• “Stone look” wood-plank flooring.
• Trex outdoor decking in the “Rocky Harbor” (no, not “Rocky Horror,” as council members made sure to point out) color scheme.

Peterson said after the meeting that exterior renovations are not immediately needed, however the building will have to be raised.

“We will have to put two either macadam or concrete blocks near the front for ADA parking spaces,” he said, as well as build a wheelchair-accessible ramp entrance to the front door.

The former “Boy Scout Building” (left) now slated to become the Seaside Park Community Center, Aug. 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

The community center, once completed, will be open to organizations as a meeting space, and will also host town events from time to time. It will also allow for a better space for groups to meet than the current option, which is the council chambers and court room above the police station, where some areas must be blocked off due to the electronics package that is installed to make legal recordings of meetings. The space will also be more “user-friendly” with a larger, clam-shell parking lot and space architecturally designed for gatherings.

Local architect Michael J. Millemann, of Wall Township, designed the interior space.