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Date: 12/18/2023
GRANBY — The town of Granby will once again have a central Town Hall office building following a apecial Town Meeting on Dec. 11 at which a majority of voters approved the funding to convert the the old West Street Elementary School building into town offices and a senior center.
The vote will allow the town spend roughly a total of $5.36 million to renovate the building. The school had closed in 2018 due to budget constraints and structural issues.
The town then opted to transfer students from the 76-year-old school to a new wing of East Meadow School.
The planned renovations will keep the structure at 44,000 square feet and bring the facility up to compliance with building and safety codes. Also covered through the project is a new HVAC system for the building, a fire suppression system, asbestos and PCB removal, new windows and doors, carpeting and painting.
The project also includes $1 million to cover any inaccuracies in estimates or miscellaneous expenses. Funding for the project will come from ARPA funds and unspent money from the towns general and capital project funds.
Property taxes will not increase as a result of the project, as the town is using ARPA funds and leftover money from past capital projects.
“We’re starting with how much funds are available, and then from there proceeding to build, rather than saying, ‘Let’s start from scratch and put everything we wanted in a building to see what it costs,” said Finance Committee Chair John Libera.
The project also calls for the removal of an oil tank from the basement that, if found leaking, could halt the entire project.
The state Department of Environmental Protection required the removal of all underground oil tanks in commercial buildings in 2010, but the tank has not been removed in the West Street Building. While the West Street Building Committee includes removal cost in the budget of the project, Libera said funds will not cover a costly cleanup from a leaky oil tank.
“The town is still responsible for the removal of the oil tank,” explained West Street Building Committee member Micheline Turgeon. “No matter the outcome of the project or the property, the tank must be removed, bottom line.”
Town officials did not bring in a professional to check the tank for leaks before the Special Town Meeting, but Town Administrator Chris Martin said he is confident the tank is not leaking based on observations from the town’s oil supplier, who said the amount of oil in the tank measured the same in spring and fall.
“I did talk informally with a retired engineer, and he seemed to think the soils there are maybe more clay than sand, and clay would retain or stop any potential leakage that could escape from the site,” Martin added.
Approval of the project comes a year before the town’s lease of the Town Annex expires. According to a document included with the warrant, moving town offices to the West Street Building will save on monthly rent toward the Annex, maintenance fees, mowing, plowing, paving and wear on town-owned equipment. The town also will not be opened to the option of selling the current Senior Center building with its eventual move to the West Street building.
If the article had been denied, the town would continue paying $23,000 yearly in general maintenance until the building becomes decommissioned.
One town voter proposed an amendment to the motion that deletes all financial transfers, and instead uses $1.8 million in ARPA funds to remove the tank and hire a designer to draft building schematics with concrete estimates for the next Town Meeting.
The amendment failed when town moderator and West Street Building Committee member Lynn Mercier said the amendment detailed a different project than the one on the warrant and could not be voted on.
Other comments from voters asked about specifics regarding the building’s condition. Turgeon explained the West Street Building Committee received some inspections and cost estimates for renovations, but that town officials did not know the condition of everything in the building.
“Did anybody check the septic system and see what shape that’s in because that’s going to be a major problem if that’s not operational,” said one resident.
West Street Building Committee members reiterated throughout the meeting that the old school building was structurally sound and needed minimal renovations, which their proposal had detailed.
Resident David LaPlante asked where the budget included funding for office construction and not just room renovations. Committee members replied that the existing office equipment in the Annex and COA will travel to the new rooms.
“We’re doing a soft renovation,” said building committee member Jim Trompke, who also serves on the town’s Planning Board. “We’re not going to be knocking down the walls or anything like that. We’re going to use pretty much the space as is with the exception of making it safe and removing all the hazards."
Despite a handful of expressed concerns, votes overwhelmingly approved the project after over a decade of not having an official dedicated town hall building. One resident called the consolidation into one Town Hall office “essential” and helps remove back tracking through the different town offices.
Another resident agreed in favor of the project and added it allows for many residents to get a new life out of what may have been their old school building as a child.
The Annex’s current owner is looking to sell the building so the town offices were in need of relocation next year regardless of the vote on the article. The town needs 16,054 square feet of space to accommodate all town offices, which takes up only 36% of the West Street building.
Turgeon added a community center, teen space and other town employees such as the town planner and conservation agent will use the balance of the square footage.
“This project will present the town with a building that is completely free of hazardous material, capable of housing all existing offices, storage of all documents and records in one location, capability of housing additional office space for town growth, capable of conducting town elections and Town Meetings, providing a safe location for seniors and all their needs, and make it easier for companies and contractors to conduct business in town,” Turgeon said. “And eventually the building could also become a community center, the location of a teen center, a recreation center for the town, where local organizations can meet and hold local community wide events.”
Initial plans call for the former first grade and kindergarten class wing to become town offices, while the kitchen and cafeteria will become the Senior Center which is a larger space than the Council on Aging’s current home on West State Street.
An original West Street building committee formed back in 2018 inspected the building and recommended to demolish it and build two new buildings and while the Selectboard at the time adopted the recommendation, the project never moved forward. With the latest iteration of the committee and their work, findings showed the estimates from the 2018 report had changed significantly, making a renovation of the structurally sound building the best deal for the town.