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Date: 8/1/2023
SOUTHAMPTON — Southampton’s Select Board was set to sign a contract with HKT Architects at its Aug. 1 meeting that would move the plan for a new public safety building into a new phase.
At its July 17 meeting, after months of negotiations and back and forth with the firm, the Public Safety Building Committee voted to move the contract forward and begin work on engaging with the public to discuss the reasons for a new building as well as what the public would like to see in one.
“We’re going to have to sell this to the public,” said Mark Darnold, chair of the committee. At a total of about $151,000 the planning portion of the project is expected to come in under the initially expected budget of roughly $175,000. It will evaluate different potential sites and space needs, as well as create a conceptual design for the proposed building.
The Building Committee will take on the task of evaluating existing facilities in similar-sized communities itself to save some money.
The current plan is that the firm will make its final presentation in late fall to both the committee and the town, followed by a question and answer period.
After the expected signing of the contract on Aug. 1, the Building Committee intends to meet with representatives from HKT for an initial introduction and planning meeting via Zoom on Aug. 7.
In the coming weeks, the committee will reach out to the community to start making its case for the new building and why it’s needed. Although no firm plans were made, the committee discussed opening up the various public safety buildings for tours to see the issues each faces, creating an informational pamphlet, and using a survey to gather the thoughts of townspeople. People may start seeing some of these as early as Celebrate Southampton the weekend of Aug. 11 and 12.
The committee also discussed how it currently has three openings on the committee. With the recent resignation of Donald Warren, the Historical Commission member, that slot has opened up and needs to be appointed by the Historical Commission. The Finance Committee also needs to appoint its representative. In addition, there is one at-large seat currently open that will be advertised in the coming days. More information about it can be found on the town’s website.