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Date: 6/15/2021
NORTHAMPTON – During a special meeting on June 7, the Northampton City Council approved funding for the Academy of Music’s restroom renovations, the Roundhouse Parking Lot Renovation project, and approved an extension of the city’s outdoor dining guidance.
Addressing the Academy of Music restroom renovation, Executive Director Debra J’Anthony said they initially began looking at renovating the bathrooms two years ago because of more people attending shows.
“We started on entertaining renovating the restrooms a little over two years ago based on the need. We have gone from serving 42,000 to over 62,000 people over the past five years. That is demonstrated through the bathroom lines, it is just not tenable and does not serve the public,” she said.
J’Anthony explained that the academy had received grants as well as public funding for the renovations.
“We applied to the Massachusetts Cultural Facility Fund and received some partial funding from them as well as Smith College. We received a small grant from the state [Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development] from [state Sen.] Jo Comerford as well as the [Beveridge Family Foundation]. We kicked off a campaign this fall and raised an additional $82,000 from the public,” she said.
With each estimate received, J’Anthony said the cost of the project increased.
“When we put the bids out, the numbers kept getting higher with every estimate we put out. At this juncture the numbers have increased where we cannot move forward without further support from the city,” she said.
Board of Trustees President Andrew Crystal said the increasing in cost for the estimates was due to an increase in the cost for lumber and building materials.
The proposed renovations include touchless facilities and improved ventilation.
“We feel that in order for people to show up and enjoy the theater we need to address the health and safety concerns. We are putting in new ventilation that is 100 percent fresh air, the faucets are touchless, the hand dryers have HEPA filters, and they are touchless, and the toilets are touchless, so we are tying to be sensitive to the concerns people had over the last year,” Crystal said.
Crystal said this summer was the time to move on the project with no shows scheduled until Sept. 8.
“This happens to be the ideal time for us to go forward quickly because we have nothing booked, all of our shows were cancelled or delayed until Sept. 8. It is really critical that we achieve the funding quickly,” he said.
The council unanimously approved the motion to spend $435,653 from free cash for renovating the Academy of Music’s restroom renovations.
After approving the renovation, Northampton Central Services Director David Pomerantz discussed a request for $608,500 for the Roundhouse Parking Lot Reconstruction project and explained the project had grown from a simple parking lot renovation.
“This project started with a capital appropriation three–plus years ago and it evolved into a project where we have done some land taking, we are increasing the number of parking spaces by 22, we are rerouting the bike path over towards the Northampton Housing Authority, we are addressing some safety concerns with updated lighting, we are putting in stormwater diversions, and we are also making some accommodations to better serve the Northampton Fire Department,” he said.
The council unanimously approved the funding for the project.
As one of the meeting’s final orders of business, Mayor David Narkewicz brought forward a motion to extend the current outdoor dining orders until Nov. 1.
“This would merely get us through Nov. 1, which we think gets us through the full outdoor dining season and hopefully there will be more permanent guidance of some kind from the state in the spring of 2022,” he said.
During the meeting, the council reappointed Ashley Muspratt to the Energy and Sustainability Committee, Cynthia Supois and Laurent Levy to the Board of Health and appointed Diana Day to the Transportation and Parking Commission.
The Northampton City Council next meets on June 17.