Town Board scaling back moving costs to new Town Hall

AMENIA —  The Amenia Town Board is cutting back costs in an effort to keep the initial price tag of moving into the new Town Hall below $100,000.

The calendar inches closer to Oct. 29, the last day — after an extension — that Amenia’s Town Hall can be located at 36B Mechanic St., on the bottom floor of the Amenia Fire Company’s firehouse.

The saga to move Town Hall into the former Amenia Elementary School building truly began when the Webutuck Central School District voters approved the transfer of the building to the town for $1 nearly a year and a half ago. Since then there have been plenty of delays, costs and legal paperwork that have created a long, sometimes complicated process.

The latest hurdles are high cost estimates for building repairs and renovations, which the Town Board discussed with the project’s general contractor, Alternative Designs, at a special Town Board meeting on Sept. 28.

“We have to decrease the costs,� town Supervisor Wayne Euvrard said after the meeting. “The numbers are too high. They had $100,000 in painting and carpentry costs of $34,000. The electrical costs are crazy. I don’t have that kind of money!�

The process of transforming the building from a schoolhouse to a viable Town Hall had previously been broken up into different phases, with the first phase encompassing only the work necessary for moving into the new Town Hall.

That original Phase 1 scope of work wasn’t bare bones enough to get Town Hall up and running in its new location for only $100,000, which is the figure given by both Euvrard and Councilwoman Darlene Riemer as the target budget for this initial part of the move.

Months ago the Town Board agreed to move $100,000 out of a capital reserve fund created from the sale of the Tri-Wall Container Corporation building 15 years ago to pay for the cost of moving. That’s a fraction of the total monies in that fund (after the $100,000 withdrawl, there was $213,568 remaining in the account at the end of the August), but there will still be plenty of work left to do even after the new Town Hall is up and running.

Riemer has been working closely with the general contractor, Alternative Designs, and reported last week that the cost estimate for remaining work in Phase 1 was cut in half.

“I’m focusing on health, safety and welfare,� Riemer explained. “The whole building will be safe and secure, with an alarm system and clean working conditions. The whole place will be cleaned up and the windows washed. We’re having the roof fixed. But it’s minimal work at this time.�

Riemer said she believed the move would be completed without having to spend more than the $100,000 total.

“It’s not the best situation,� she acknowledged. “Not every room is going to be painted, things like that. But there will be no peeling paint, and my priority is health, safety and welfare, making sure the staff is safe.�

Riemer attributed the high costs to federal restrictions from the U.S. Department of Labor, mandating use of a prevailing minimum wage schedule.

“It really doubles the price,� she said.

Another area cut back was electrical work. Additional outlets will need to be installed eventually, seeing that the rooms are set up for use as a classroom, not as office space. But the electricity hookups run underneath the concrete floor in tunnels and will be costly to dig up and change.

“The building is 158 feet long, and each [electrical wiring] run has to go back to the main panel,� Riemer explained. For the time being, many of the outlets will remain in their current location, which means the layout of rooms when Town Hall first opens won’t be optimal, or permanent.

The town clerk’s office will need a fireproof vault prior to moving in as well. The materials alone for the 8-by-16-foot structure will run about $5,000, Riemer said, but it will be completely fireproof and will keep the town’s records safe and secure.

Of the $100,000 taken out of the account, $32,000 has already been spent, Euvrard said, mostly on installing new phone lines but also dealing with unexpected legal fees and the cost of an additional building inspector.

“It was nickels and dimes and it just added up,� Euvrard said, adding that he was not in favor of taking additional money out to pay for the initial cost of moving in.

“I’m hoping to look into geothermal heating eventually,� he continued. “So I don’t want to use all that money at once. I don’t think we need to have the Taj Mahal. We start with the bare minimum, get moved in and see what we have left in our budget.�