Project Manager Selected For Town Hall Renovation

By MARY STANLEY
The town has just completed the very first step in renovating the old Town Hall on Main Street. This week, Town Manager George H. Dunham awarded a contract to NETCO Construction Project Managers Inc., with David Lager serving as the project manager. Mr. Lager will oversee the entire project and will serve as the point person from the study and design phase right through to the completion of the project.  According to Selectman Frank Pannorfi, the project manager will be responsible for protecting the town’s interest and will work to ensure the project stays on time and on budget.
And nobody is happier about reaching this point in the process than Mr. Pannorfi. 
Calling it the focal point of the town’s historic district, Mr. Pannorfi said it is important that this 300-year-old structure, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, be maintained. To that end, the selectman lobbied last year to gain voter approval to spend $2.05 million from the Community Preservation Act account to renovate the building. The CPA was adopted several years ago and replaces the former Land Bank Act. Under the CPA, the state matches funds collected from a 3 percent property tax surcharge. The money in the CPA funds can be used for projects that fall into one of three categories, affordable housing, recreation and land purchases and historic renovations and preservation. Mr. Pannorfi has called the Town Hall the poster child for the use of the historic component of CPA funds.
The next step will be to put out a Request For Bids to hire a project architect. While a preliminary design and study of the Town Hall were already completed and submitted to the Community Preservation Committee when the funds were requested last December, according to Assistant Town Manager Douglas A. Lapp, a more detailed plan of the architecture and design must be completed. Earlier this year, the board of selectmen voted unanimously to approve adopting designer selection procedures. This set of procedures outlines the steps that will be followed in search of an architect and is a state requirement on any projects that total more than $1.5 million. Mr. Lapp said the project manager may begin as early as today in drafting  that RFP.
Mr. Pannorfi is hoping that the architect will be hired by the end of this year or January 2009.  He said during the plan and design period, the town will apply for all necessary permits so that as soon as construction bids go out and a selection is made, work on the project can begin. 
“It’s moving along, but it is a slow process, too slow for me. We are being very diligent,” Mr. Pannorfi said.
He estimated that a contractor could be hired by next summer and work on the historic building would begin in the fall of 2009. 
The entire project calls for renovations and repairs to both the first and second floor of the Town Hall. At the top of the list of needs for the historic building is to get it structurally sound. Beyond that, Mr. Pannorfi said the exterior needs some attention, especially with respect to some rotting woodwork, then painting, and sealing. 
The plans also call for upgrading the building’s heating and cooling system. As it stands now, the building is drafty in the winter and, in the summer, window air conditioners are used to cool the offices. A central heating and cooling system will change that. 
Mr. Pannorfi envisions this Town Hall being restored to the community center that it once was. He said renovating the second floor, which has a stage and seating, could allow the building to be used for lecture series or literary readings, small-scale musicals or plays, or even a meeting room for various committees.  
Mr. Pannorfi said the entire project is estimated to take anywhere from six to 12 months to complete and that town employees who work in the building will have to relocate during the renovations.
No definite decisions have been made as to where the town employees will be temporarily relocated. Last year, James Lehane, director of the Community School, offered up the Early Learning Center facility located just behind the Henry T. Wing School when it appeared that he would be building a new preschool on the grounds of the Oak Ridge School. Since then, however, he learned that the septic system there would not accommodate the building and plans to build a new preschool have stalled. 
Mr. Lapp said that if the community school is able to build a new preschool and the current learning center space is available, it is something that town officials will definitely consider as a temporary space for the town employees.