Standing beside a large pit in the ground next to Edmond Town Hall's side entrance where a "beautiful dogwood," once grew, Operations Manager Sheila Torres glimpsed an old oil tank buried there.

Uncovering the 5,000-gallon tank with a backhoe Tuesday, July 5, were crews from Connecticut Tank Removal, completing their part of a larger project to replace two oil-burning boilers that are original to the 1930s facility. New gas boilers will replace them.

Adjusting his hard hat and peering into the ground was Julio Garrachon, eyeing work done that morning. Across the pit and jumping down from a backhoe was Dan Magner. The two were among a handful of men working to unearth, empty, and remove the tank.

The double-walled tank was inspected annually, Ms Torres said, and was never known to leak, but soil will be tested for contamination. "We don't anticipate problems," she said. The tank fed the building's 1929 Bigelow two-pass steamship boilers.

An entrance and exit that runs between Edmond Town Hall and the General Store was closed while the work was being done. Residents this week needed to use the entrance beside Newtown Savings Bank, 39 Main Street to access the town hall's back lot. Aside from temporarily losing one driveway, crews would need to replace a section of the sidewalk.

But the dogwood tree was lost. "We couldn't save it," Ms Torres said. "I'm going to miss it."

In May, Board of Managers Chairman Margot Hall toured the boiler room with Ms Torres for a last look at the equipment that will be dismantled and removed. New, much smaller boilers will replace the building's original heating system. The work needs to be completed by mid-October, when Ms Torres is required by law to turn on the heat for the historic building at 45 Main Street.

In their nearly 80-year lifetimes, the boilers have fired coal, oil, and gas. They were converted from coal to oil in 1969. The boilers were named and marked with chalk as "I" and "II" and used alternately from one year to the next, Ms Hall said.

Project costs exceeded original estimates. A letter to Board of Finance Chair James Gaston from Public Building and Site Commission Chair Robert Mitchell on March 10 first requested additional funds beyond the $300,000 allotted in the town's Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).

"The additional amount is needed for the project mainly because of required remediation regarding the removal of the old boiler, additional requirement to the life safety systems and reconfiguration to the existing drainage in the mechanical equipment room," Mr Mitchell explained.

Newtown Finance Director Robert Tait said at that time that the Board of Finance on March 14 had passed a resolution amending the original bond from $300,000 to $500,000. The lowest bid for the boiler work had come in at $391,000 plus other expenses, he said.