Selectmen Advised: New Police Station Less Costly Than Town Hall South Renovation
UPDATED November 17, 2015, 11:13 am: This story was updated to correct a misidentified building at Fairfield Hills.
The appointed Municipal Building Strategic Plan Committee has nearly completed its initial charge, advising the Board of Selectmen to abandon a more costly idea of renovating Town Hall South so that Newtown Police Department can eventually expand into the entire facility.
Instead, the commission is advising town officials to proceed with plans to design and build a new police facility. That recommendation assumes the less expensive option of building new would transpire on publicly-owned property, presumably at Fairfield Hills.
According to the commission's report during a regular selectmen's meeting November 16, building new offers a number of advantages beyond the unrefined bottom line cost saving projection of nearly three quarters of a million dollars.
For an estimated $12,545,000 the department would end up with a new, state-of-the-art and fully up to code facility of 26.500 square feet — enough room to support a growing law enforcement agency for at least 20 years, consultants to the committee said.
That new building could be occupied in about 20 months, committee member Walt Motyka said.
If a $13,340,000 full-scale renovation to Town Hall South, at 3 Main Street, was eventually completed, and the police occupied the entire facility which is currently shared by several other town departments, the maximum space potential would be only 18,530 square feet. And because the department would need to continue to function on a 24-hour basis while renovations proceeded, it would take three years before the full renovation is completed, Mr Motyka added.
"Where do you put the police during renovations?" Mr Motyka asked."You build new and you walk away from the old facility, probably over the course of a weekend."
Commissioners suggest that once Town Hall South is deactivated as the police headquarters, officials could repurpose the building for other municipal uses without disrupting day to day functions of any occupant or sell the property and offset some of the new facility expenses.
Other Advantages
Among other points in the commission's advisory:
*The currently maxed-out 53 space parking situation is already challenging at the current facility, while a new police station would be designed with an expandable lot that would initially allow 65 vehicles.
*Building aesthetics would provide a much more attractive facility. Selectmen Will Rodgers commented that Town Hall South is among or the least attractive in the town's current catalog of public buildings.
*A new facility could include an indoor firing range, something the department should have since the current out of town facility currently being used at no cost for practice and completing professional qualifications will likely not be available indefinitely. In addition, adding a range to the existing facility at 3 Main Street would divert approximately $2.6 million from the overall renovation estimate.
*A new police facility could accommodate added space if Newtown sought to house a regional emergency dispatch center — albeit at extra expense and requiring added space in either the proposed new building, or an adjacent standalone facility.
*A new attached dispatch facility maxing out at 5,000 square foot is estimated to cost $2 million if built in conjunction with a new police complex. While attempting to relocate dispatch into a new building at the current location — if even possible — is estimated to cost $2,450,000.
*While a new building would be occupied turnkey, renovations to the smaller and more poorly laid-out facility would require adding a new elevator, energy efficiency measures, fire and life safety compliance, along with extensive handicap accessibility accommodations.
First Selectmen Pat Llodra told the commissioners and consultant Geralyn Hoerauf that it is imperative the community get the best product for the amount of money there is to spend.
"Is it fair to ask the community to spend $13 million dollars [to renovate] an existing building?" Ms Llodra questioned.
Selectmen Rodgers replied saying he believed a renovation would be "obsolete before we finished renovations."
"Firing range aside... you're going to end up with a building inadequate for our needs," Mr Rodgers added.
Recharge Facilities Panel?
Now that the committee has completed its initial charge of advising selectmen on Town Hall South, the multipurpose building in Sandy Hook and the current Hook & Ladder headquarters behind Edmond Town Hall, its members are hoping to be recharged to begin looking at other town facilities for renovation or repurposing.
With that in mind, Mrs Llodra suggested on Monday that recharging would likely happen, and one of the first projects the committee might tackle is the possible occupancy of Kent House on the Fairfield Hills campus as a new home for a Newtown Cultural Arts performing arts center.
Mrs Llodra pressed Ms Hoerauf as to whether she was ready to go to the Fairfield Hills Authority (FHA) in early December to initiate a partnership with that panel, with a goal of ruling Plymouth Hall in or out for cultural arts use. Ms Hoerauf said she preferred to wait until her committee had a chance to meet again, before arranging a presentation to the FHA.
"Our committee meets on December 7, so we'll formulate a plan to go to the authority [later] in December," Ms Hoerauf said.
Mr Motyka added that during the approximately one year since its formation, the municipal building panel has quickly developed an effective process for analyzing cost to reuse scenarios for public facilities, as well as coming up with solid recommendations for town leaders.
Mrs Llodra said she thought the committee's space needs and facility analysis consultants at Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc (DRA), a South Windsor firm that employs architects, planners, interior designers, and construction administrators, produced clear readable reports for both the appointed committee members and selectmen.
CIP Clarity
Following the facilities update, selectmen turned to the Capital Improvement Plan, which was just approved by the Board of Finance and sent on to the Legislative Council with several "placeholder" expenses pending. Mrs Llodra said that with the latest facilities information, selectmen were in a much better position to potentially correlate actual projects to placeholder allocations in the CIP.
Mrs Llodra noted that Year 5 of the capital project plan earmarked $814,000 to cover anticipated renovations to the Multipurpose Building on Riverside Road, including parking lot, roof and HVAC upgrades or replacement. The building is currently home to Newtown Senior Center and The Children's Adventure Center.
Year 4 and 3 each contain a $5 million placeholder earmarked for a municipal facility, which could now be applied to a new police station project, along with $500,000 in Year 2 for that project's design phase.
While next year contains $500,000 earmarked for a senior center design phase, selectmen will wait until a community center advisory recommendation is made by another appointed panel, to determine whether senior services could be rolled into a larger community center project.