Newtown’s Public Building & Site Commission (PBSC) voted unanimously August 27 to authorize the new police headquarters’ construction manager to begin soliciting subcontractor bids.

The commission’s action will usher in a new chapter as the project to convert a former Taunton Press administrative building on South Main Street into the community’s new police station moves forward.

Robert Mitchell, who chairs the PBSC, told The Newtown Bee that his commissioners were happy to learn that the pre-construction analysis and subsequent plans bode well for the project to be completed and the building occupied by around November 1, 2020.

“On this particular project, we were really happy that so much onsite construction analysis was done,” Mr Mitchell said. “It means we probably won’t see a lot of dollars added on once the project is moving toward completion.

“And it’s looking like it will come in under budget,” Mr Mitchell said, with a caveat.

He said unknowns about certain construction material costs affected by federal tariffs means the final price tag for the project will remain somewhat elusive for the time being. Nonetheless, once the bid process is completed, crews will begin the conversion.

“The great thing about this project is we already have a building,” Mr Mitchell said. “So through the winter, we can warm up the interior and get most of the inside work done.”

He said pending all legal loose ends being tied up, bid solicitation could begin as early as August 30.

According to the Public Building official, “We have a high level of confidence that we’ve thoroughly reviewed everything in that building,” that could pose issues or hindrances to planned construction.

“We did a lot of reviews of the existing mechanical systems to be sure we wouldn’t have any problems later on,” he said. “So documents have been submitted, and we’re onto the bid phase. We’ve done so much pre-construction work, I anticipate there will be no major surprises short of the things we can’t see. We spent a lot of time and effort ironing all this out before moving to the construction phase.”

To make doubly certain project costs stayed where they should, Mr Mitchell said Kaestle Boos Architects ran some cost comparisons between the Newtown project and a similar police station project the firm is completing in lower Fairfield County.

“As a result, we believe our construction estimates are highly accurate,” he said.