First Selectman Has Long-Range Ideas For Edmond Town Hall, Police HQ

By John Voket

About a month ago, during deliberations on prioritizing for the town’s five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), First Selectman Pat Llodra suggested that her support for a new police headquarters would be contingent on a logical plan for reuse of the building.

Mrs Llodra said that if such a vacancy occurs at Town Hall South, which occupies a corner of Main and Sugar Streets, it would make sense to consider converting the building into a freestanding senior center.

Subsequently, the first selectman revealed that she also has some long-range ideas for the reuse of the even higher profile Edmond Town Hall, the former seat of Newtown’s government. Coincidentally, those ideas involve the relocation of other taxpayer-supported agencies, including Newtown Youth & Family Services, and another current Town Hall South occupant — Newtown Social Services.

“It’s good long-range planning and a good fit,” Mrs Llodra said. “It seems like it would be the best way to deliver services to similar [groups of clients] more effectively and under one roof.”

During the administration of former First Selectman Joe Borst, as plans were being finalized to relocate all town offices from Edmond Town Hall to the new Municipal Center at Fairfield Hills, the ideas was presented to relocate both Social Services and the Parks & Recreation Department to Edmond Town Hall, opening up more space for the police department at Town Hall South.

While it was determined that Edmond Town Hall’s utility and IT infrastructure would not support the requirements of Parks & Rec, the issue with relocating Social Services and its food pantry revolved around security of its two-person staff.

Mrs Llodra explained that given the diverse population it serves, visitors to Social Services who might tend to become unruly would hopefully keep any temper flare-ups in check if they knew they were in such proximity to the local police department. And moving the offices to Edmond Town Hall would remove that extra layer of security the social services two-person staff had become accustomed to having.

That issue would be resolved to a great degree if social services and the youth services agencies shared space at Edmond Town Hall, Mrs Llodra said.

Currently, both Parks & Recreation and the police department have requests on the proposed CIP for new facilities. And in both cases, those proposed facilities would be designed to accommodate all the respective department’s administrative functions and personnel.

While the current economic climate may cause both new building projects to bump out beyond this year’s CIP and its five-year window, it appears that each department will develop and occupy a new independent facility — likely at or adjacent to Fairfield Hills — within ten years.

In regard to the Senior Center, Mrs Llodra told The Bee she has already met and discussed the prospect of relocating to Edmond Town Hall with Senior Services Director Marilyn Place. The first selectman said the next step is to present her ideas to the core group of potential users and the town’s Commission on Aging at its next meeting.

Commission Chair Thomas Dwyer said he would welcome an opportunity to put a presentation by Mrs Llodra on the next agenda.

Mr Dwyer, who has called Newtown home since 1996, also said while he could not speak to the viability of Town Hall South for such a purpose, in general the idea of repurposing public buildings for other public uses is “a good idea.”

As recently as this week, Mrs Llodra was as adamant about the town needing to realize full occupancy of Town Hall South as when she first brought the matter up to her board in January, saying, “We can’t end up with another empty building on Main Street.”