The Newtown Public Building and Site Commission (PBSC) this week formally accepted the recently occupied new police headquarters facility for full occupancy, effectively closing the file on this most recently completed public building project. The commission also discussed matters related to the Hawley School HVAC renovations, and the Sandy Hook permanent memorial, which are also under the commission’s purview.

While the new police facility at 191 South Main Street has been functional for several months, it is the responsibility of the PBSC to authorize the closing out of all official documentation and all project-related billing before it becomes a certified and wholly owned entity of the municipality, PBSC Chair Robert Mitchell told The Newtown Bee following the May 25 virtual meeting.

“This action represents the full acceptance by the Town of Newtown of the new police station,” Mitchell said.

Turning his focus to the Hawley project, Mitchell said he is anticipating the first phase of on-site work to commence this summer. But he said school officials and the building team still need to determine whether it is more cost effective and logistically advantageous to complete the project in 2022, or to stretch the work over three summers.

“We determined at the meeting this week that the Hawley project is on target to deliver full documentation with the anticipated start of this summer,” Mitchell said.

He said officials and the construction team need to weigh the costs of displacing Hawley students from the building, either to portable classrooms or another district-approved location, so construction can fast track through the summer and into 2022, or whether it is more practical and less costly to phase the work to occur primarily over the next three summer breaks.

“There could be a substantial cost difference between the two,” the PBSC chairman said, “or maybe it will be less expensive to consider sending students to another school. They just need to come up with the best way to do it. Either way, we need to know soon in order to lock in the maximum guaranteed project price.”

Regarding the permanent memorial development, Mitchell said his panel is expecting all of the construction documents to be completed and delivered by sometime in June so Downes Construction — the project’s management firm — can initiate bidding for contractors. He said representatives from the San Francisco-based SWA Group design firm are expected in town this week to complete an updated presentation to the Permanent Memorial Commission. That meeting was scheduled for Thursday, May 27, at 7 pm, at the Newtown Community Center, after the print edition of this newspaper went to press.

One of the issues that has been under scrutiny lately has been the escalating cost of a working mock-up of the circulation system that will underpin a water feature at the completed memorial. Mitchell said material prices have gone up so much over the past few months, that it was determined such a working but substantially scaled down model will likely not be needed.

He said the vendor agreed the installation could be completed successfully without the model, so funds formerly earmarked for that will be used to replicate a couple of sections of the concrete walkways and walls that will surround the water pool. Those sections will incorporate engravings of the names of the victims who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, as well as a quote from President Barack Obama, who came and spoke at a memorial service soon after that horrific event.

Mitchell said his commission also endorsed a plan to fast-track weeding and treating the property surrounding the memorial this summer, rather than putting it off until 2022.

“We decided it will be better to do the weeding now, and putting down weed inhibitor to help minimize ongoing landscape maintenance ahead of all the planting we are planning for next summer,” Mitchell said. A group including Mitchell, Downes representatives, and other design and Memorial Commission members are planning to walk the site to determine the scope of that part of the project.

“It won’t cost us any more to fast-track that weeding and inhibitor application now, and it will end up getting us better results in the long run,” he added.

While materials costs are escalating industry-wide, Mitchell said the project is nowhere near tapping any contingency funds set aside in the budget.

“That’s because we’re constantly evaluating and value-engineering around those materials,” he said. “The labor costs have remained relatively consistent, but materials are going crazy.”

In closing, Mitchell also noted that all necessary local pre-application reviews by the fire marshal’s office, the local wetlands agency, and planning departments are done.

“That means they do not see any immediate issues related to the plans we have so far,” he said, “so we are all clear to move forward.”

Associate Editor John Voket can be reached at john@thebee.com.