Toms River will wait until after Election Day to demolish the former Ortley Beach First Aid Squad Building, and last night agreed to pay $31,000 to JAK Construction Corp., T/A Diamond Construction, as low bidder for the work.

After reverting to township ownership in June, the Ortley Beach First Aid Squad building is slated for demolition since discovering major flaws in the structure, officials said.

Toms River became the owner of the volunteer first aid squad after membership and thus responses to first aid calls dipped, said Township Administrator Paul Shives.

As it was now township property, the building had to meet stricter codes for its structure, utilities and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, Shives said.

The building failed, and after a June inspection by township staff and experts, a list of needed repairs would have totaled more than $0.5 million, Shives said.

Barrier island residents last night inquired at the Toms River Township Council meeting as to what would be built in its place and how much would it cost.

Shives said the township will replace it with a similar building to house township emergency response vehicles and will use it as a polling place as it is now. Toms River Police EMS for the last two years have been responding to calls, he said.

Councilman George Whittman said the demolition would be scheduled as close to Election Day as possible so as to get a lot of work done before the inclimate winter.

"How long could the whole thing take? 9 months, 12 months, I'd guess," Whittman said, referring to a new building there.

The township has yet to determine the cost to build or what the building will look like, but to meet the ADA rules the new facility would be smaller to add parking spaces to the site as required.