Color-Coded Counters, Cafeteria Await Town Staff At New Office Facility

By John Voket

Maria DeMarco believes virtually every town employee who is moving from Fairfield Hills to newly renovated offices on Peck’s Lane will love the new digs. After all, it was town employees who helped determine the new facility’s layout and design.

Ms DeMarco, a principal with the commercial management firm DeMarco, Miles and Murphy, tapped two-decades of experience relocating private, nonprofit, and government personnel to help participating department managers fashion a highly efficient and well-outfitted municipal office environment at the Kendro Laboratory Products building on Peck’s Lane off South Main Street.

As the temporary long-term manager for the Fairfield Hills campus, Ms DeMarco has assisted town officials in securing and floor-planning the interior layout for dozens of town and education department staff, who will be transferring from current offices at Canaan House in the coming weeks.

“This building is a dream come true for someone in my position,” DeMarco said as she walked between partially completed partitions and clusters of workers putting finishing touches on counter tops and door frames at the plant Tuesday morning. “The original structure was built in the 1970s, but has had numerous upgrades. Today, this building is so well wired, and its utility infrastructure is state-of-the-art.”

From the moment First Selectman Herb Rosenthal began negotiating with Kendro managers and company principles to possibly lease space for town workers, Ms DeMarco began canvassing managers and staff members in all of the Canaan House departments, to determine what their needs would be when they eventually relocated, clearing the way for demolition and hazardous materials remediation on the former state hospital grounds.

The result is a highly functional, customer and worker-friendly environment complete with color-coded offices laid out along a central corridor in the order one would take when utilizing the expertise of each department.

“We performed a functional analysis to determine which office is typically the first step for visitors, then the second and so on,” Ms DeMarco explained. “When you come in to visit the offices, there will be signage with color-coding leading you to whichever department you require.”

The system is based on “way finding” color systems employed at large municipal and medical facilities around the world, she said.

Board of Education employees will have their own entrance, and their offices are also laid out to allow for necessary security and privacy when required. Both the front and special education offices will have their own private waiting areas.

Kevin’s Community Center, the town’s public health clinic, will not only have its own private waiting room, but will also be the beneficiary of furnishings and medical equipment from an in-house medical clinic formerly operated by the laboratory supply company.

“Kendro is giving Kevin’s Community Center all of this,” Ms DeMarco said, pointing to a 12-foot length of counters and cabinets with locking drawers, dispensing cubbies, a sink. and built-in med refrigerator. “Since they don’t need to maintain their own clinic anymore, they said the town was welcome to all the equipment.”

While the new coat of paint, clean bright bathrooms, and highly responsive heating and air conditioning systems are sure to please town employees, Ms DeMarco expects that most will be ecstatic when they visit their new company cafeteria.

“I expect they’ll be jumping through the roof!” she said. “There’s nothing better for boosting morale and enhancing productivity than putting workers into an office that is clean, comfortable, and efficiently designed. This location will be so much more pleasant for the town employees and the public.”

Word on a projected date for relocation will be forthcoming from the first selectman’s office in the next few days. Mr Rosenthal said that he wanted to see the move completed over the first available weekend, once all communication and information technology infrastructure has been put in place.