It appears Newtown’s Municipal Building Strategic Plan Committee is poised to recommend the current Hook & Ladder headquarters behind Edmond Town Hall be abandoned for future town use once the volunteer fire company relocates to new quarters next year. The panel, however, agrees the community should invest in several key improvements to the Multipurpose Building on Riverside Road — currently housing the town’s Senior Center and the Adventure Center preschool.

It also charged a consultant working on a space needs study and facilities analysis to determine whether Town Hall South at 3 Main Street could continue to serve the Newtown Police Department as a headquarters, once and if it is the sole user of that facility, versus sharing space with the emergency communications department, Parks & Recreation, Social Services and the registrars of Voters.

Committee member Rebekah Harriman and consultant Geralyn Hoerauf of Diversified Project Management responded to calls from The Newtown Bee following the group’s latest meeting August 24.

Both agreed that the ultimate decision to raze the Hook & Ladder building behind Edmond Town Hall would likely be left to town selectmen, but there is a consensus among committee members that no further efforts should be made, nor resources devoted, to studying possible future uses for that deteriorating structure.

During discussions Monday, a $3 million cost was affixed to the combined efforts needed to improve the Hook & Ladder headquarters for any future use, although Ms Hoerauf clarified later that the actual cost may be closer to $2 million. That number still exceeds the approximately $1.5 million to build a 6,000-square-foot replacement structure that would be virtually the same size as the existing structure.

Ms Hoerauf said that in consulting with Town Historian Dan Cruson, she learned that the Hook & Ladder headquarters has little or no historic value. And improving or replacing a facility for future public use on that site would compound already tight parking limitations behind Edmond Town Hall.

“Repurposing that space with a building that would draw more cars would be a problem,” she said.

Shifting focus, the committee heard that if the Senior Center eventually relocates to a standalone facility or integrates into a larger community center, the Multipurpose Building could continue to house the preschool, and could also be an ideal location for the Social Services office as well as providing space for the town’s Cultural Arts Commission.

Ms Harriman said that Cultural Arts has stockpiled a number of artworks and other items donated to Newtown following the Sandy Hook tragedy and was in need of additional future space for those items as well as programming. Consultant Ken Best of DRA agreed, saying ultimately if the Multipurpose Building was to serve the preschool, Social Services, and the Cultural Arts Commission needs, a future addition would be required.

He said the cultural arts group alone should have 2,380 square feet for programming and an added 1,600 square feet for storage.

But in the short run, the committee will recommend the selectmen earmark $814,000 in future capital expenditures to replace the roof and boiler, as well as renovate and resurface all the parking at the Multipurpose facility. Mr Best will also examine if either the cultural arts group or Social Services could function in the Multipurpose Building if no addition is planned.

Regarding Town Hall South, Mr Best recommended that the Newtown Police Department should ultimately have about 25,000 square feet to accommodate future growth in a 20-year window. But committee members were interested to see how much future functionality the department could squeeze out of the 18,000 square feet available currently if that was the sole function of that facility.

During that discussion, the idea of developing a possible regional emergency dispatch center in town came up. Currently the single town operation uses 565 square feet within Town Hall South, but a future regional center would require space in excess of 5,400 square feet. Under questioning, Ms Hoerauf said she believes the state will soon require dispatch regionalization.

The idea of creating a regional facility in Newtown has been the subject of discussion for several years.

Representatives of the panel plan to make these points and recommendations to the Board of Selectmen in early September, and will be meeting themselves later in the month when they hope to bring in members of the Fairfield Hills Authority to learn more about needs and availability of facilities on the town-owned campus.