Michael Calafati of Historic Building Architects of Trenton was then awarded a $7,825 contract to manage the construction. Schtiller & Plevy Inc. of Newark was awarded a contract for the construction work last February.

The contract with Calafati calls for the work to be done by March 31, 2005.

The barn is part of an 18th century farm that was purchased by the township as open space five years ago. A township task force plan calls for preserving the barn, a farmhouse, a wagon house and a cowshed and adapting them for cultural uses by raising up to $2.2 million.

A local non-profit group, Friends of the Farmstead, was formed to take over the fund-raising, but the committee has said Friends must first sign a lease that includes a “business plan” for the site.

The $110,040 appropriation will be reimbursed by a Somerset County grant that was awarded on Sept. 21.

On Oct. 26, it was introduced in a 3-2 vote, with Mayor Mohammad Ali Chaudry and Thomas Moschello voting no because Friends had yet to sign a lease.

But shortly afterward, the project received a state grant of $440,393. That increased the county and state grant total to $739,657 – enough to preserve all the structures. The next step would be to raise $1.48 million to make the structures usable by the public.

During the Nov. 23 public hearing on the appropriation, Friends President John Campbell of Wedgewood Drive and Ken Salvo of Orchard Place urged approval. Chaudry and Moschello then voted yes to make the approval unanimous.

The committee also planned to introduce an ordinance for a lease with the Friends group. But it removed the proposal without comment and then held a closed-session review with Township Attorney John Belardo.

Moschello said Monday that the Friends’ attorney, Peter Wolfson, had sent a letter seeking to discuss unspecified “open issues.” He said Belardo was directed to contact Wolfson.

Ann Parsekian of Berta Place, a member of Friends, said Monday that negotiations were anticipated because “it’s a pretty significant lease.”

Without delving into specifics, Parsekian said Friends felt the lease should be modeled on the agreement between Bedminster Township and the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House, an historic building in that community.

Last month, Campbell said that in contrast to Bedminster’s lease, the township wants Friends to fund site work for sewers, water, electricity and parking, along with maintenance like snow plowing.

But Moschello said the committee believes the township should not spend more than the $100,000 it has already committed to the project.

“Again, our position is not to be in the preservation business,” he said.