Date: Fri 11-Jul-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

selectmen-space-needs

Full Text:

Selectmen Look For A Menu Of Choices For Needed Office Space

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The Board of Selectmen may end up hiring several firms to study the town's

need for more space in its municipal buildings.

About 10 architectural firms have submitted proposals to study the town's

space needs, which made the news this past winter when a deteriorated Town

Hall South was evacuated. Town employees who worked there remain temporarily

stationed at Canaan House on the Fairfield Hills campus.

Originally, Mr Cascella's plan was to narrow the number of possible firms to

three or four, interview them, then choose one to conduct a study and

eventually come back to the town with a recommendation. Selectman Gary Fetzer,

however, suggested Monday that the town should hire four or five firms to

conduct preliminary studies on the town's space needs. That way, he said, it

would ensure that the town receives a balance of ideas.

"One firm may come in with a plan for the Taj Mahal and another could come in

with something small, like a small renovation to Watertown Hall. We need a

balance there, rather than just being locked into one," he said.

Mr Fetzer said each firm could be paid a certain fee for an abridged study,

with the firm with the best ideas for the town then being hired to conduct a

more detailed study.

"I just don't want to have one idea presented to us on a take it or leave it

basis," he said. "We could just choose one architect who might come in with a

$10 million plan. If we reject that, we have no other options to fall back on.

At least with this we'll have some comparison."

Mr Cascella agreed.

Mr Fetzer said the town needs to be presented a variety of concepts because it

has so many options. He said the town could choose the top architect's idea

based on cost, logic, reasoning and "what we feel is best for the town."

"We have unlimited possibilities. We could decide to build on another site,"

he said.

Last winter, a space needs advisory board recommended to the selectmen that

some offices eventually be moved to Fairfield Hills' Watertown Hall, which the

town recently accepted from the state. Some residents have urged town

officials to keep all town offices on Main Street. Though Mr Cascella believes

moving some offices to Watertown Hall is the logical solution, he wants a

study done before any decisions are made.

Other possibilities still being looked at are adding on to Edmond Town Hall

and/or renovating Town Hall South.