Update from Building Committee
The Town Hall renovation project suffered a setback in the summer, when an estimate from PM&C Estimators for the proposed work came in at almost $3.5 million. This amount was well beyond our $2.1 million construction budget, which was based on an earlier PM&C estimate, which was the basis for our original budget. While it was impossible to determine all the reasons for this steep increase, one cause was clear: PM&C was working with design documents rather than conceptual plans, which meant that they had much more detail at their disposal. That in turn indicated that the new estimate might have been accurate. If that was the case, then the project would not be viable. Rather than abandoning it, in late July the committee decided to send the design documents to Slocum Estimators for a second estimate.
In mid-September, Slocum provided us with an estimate of $2.4 million. (Both estimates, along with a spreadsheet showing the differences between them, and the current project budget, are available online.) Sara Nelson, our architect, and I worked with Slocum to ensure that they had taken the entire project into consideration, and determined that the estimate was valid. Of course, it is still an estimate. The real cost won’t be known until we go out to bid, which we expect to do early this coming winter, with construction plans currently in development by Ms. Nelson.
In the meantime, with the help of Senators Cathy Osten and Mae Flexer and Representative Doug Dubitsky, the Town was awarded $600,000 in Round 5 of the Department of Economic and Community Development’s Community Investment Fund (CIF). This brings our total from CIF to $1,181,000, and the total available for the project to $3.63 million. Of that amount, $2.7 million is slated for construction, with the rest for costs such as architect fees, equipment and furnishings, and contingencies. With this new infusion, the committee is confident that the project can be completed with the funds available.
As part of the Round 5 application, the Town pledged $100,000 toward the project, bringing its total contribution to $200,000, or just over five percent of the total budget. This money will be used in the event we incur costs that cannot be reimbursed by any of the grants. $100,000 has already been appropriated; the rest can be appropriated as part of the budgets for the next two years. Thus far, the Town’s net costs (after expected reimbursements from grants) are under $20,000.
Getting the new estimate has set us back from our original timetable, but we are still hoping to go out to bid in early January 2025. The documents we will use for the bid—our contract with the general contractor and the building plans—must be reviewed by all granting agencies before the Request for Proposals is issued. To streamline this process, we are already drafting the contract for review and expect to have that work completed in the next month. Construction is still slated to begin in spring 2025 and to take the remainder of the calendar year.
Please feel free to direct any questions regarding this project to me at specialprojects@scotlandct.org
Gary Greenberg
Please feel free to direct any questions regarding this project to me at specialprojects@scotlandct.org
Gary Greenberg