Grants help fund capital projects around town

FALLS VILLAGE — The bids for the new emergency services center were opened Tuesday, Aug, 11. First Selectman Pat Mechare said Thursday, Aug. 13, that the architect is vetting the bids and will report back to the Board of Selectmen shortly.

There were five bids. The low bid is from Millennium Construction, at $2,477,000. The remaining bids range from $2,491,384 to $2,774,190.

On Dec. 3, 2013, the town approved a $2.3 million bond in a referendum vote. A previous referendum for $2.5 million failed in 2011.

The town does have a state grant of $200,000 for foundation work for the new center.

At the Board of Finance meeting Monday, Aug. 10, Mechare reported that the loan of $350,000 for the roof project at the Lee H. Kellogg School and for the town’s share of the Water Street bridge project had been finalized at 3.61 percent interest, fixed, over 20 years.

“We’re more than a little pleased with that figure,” she told the finance board.

She said that work is proceeding on the bridge abutments and that the actual bridge may be in place by late October.

However, the opening day for traffic is still Dec. 16.

She reminded the board that 20 percent of the cost of the new bridge is the responsibility of the town of Canaan (Falls Village) and Salisbury, and that figure is divided between the towns at roughly 25 percent (Falls Village) and 75 percent (Salisbury).

Finance board member Lou Timolat wondered aloud how they came up with that figure, rather than using equal shares (which is how the employment package is figured for the Region One superintendent).

Mechare said it’s because the bridge cost is figured on a per capita basis, based on each town’s Grand List.

“Good point, Mr. Timolat.”

(Mechare and Timolat have been outspoken in their opposition to the new arrangement of all six towns paying equal shares of the superintendent’s salary, instead of proportional shares — which had been the practice since the regional school district’s inception in 1938).

Mechare told the board that two bids for small jobs at the David M. Hunt Library have been accepted, which will close out the state grant for that facility. One is for plastering, the other for flooring.

Yet another state grant project, the South Canaan Meeting House, should be finished next month.

Mechare said the town received a check for $1,900 from insurer Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Agency (CIRMA) for having a good safety record.

The board approved a request from the Board of Education for a supplemental appropriation of up to $3,000 to produce preliminary drawings for an additional door and vestibule at the Kellogg school. 

Board of Education Chairman Lara Mittaud said the idea has two purposes: to save energy, especially in the winter, and to increase security, with a visitor having to go through the first door and then use the intercom system to be admitted — similar to the other schools in Region One.