While the town continues to pursue dispute resolution on various cost escalations that may be related to the new community/senior center’s architect and construction manager, the Board of Selectmen have approved transfers to pay for several infrastructure improvements and related hardware that were initiated by the town outside the original scope of the project’s budget.

During the selectmen’s March 18 meeting, First Selectman Dan Rosenthal explained that various town officials with specific areas of oversight and responsibility required the improvements and add-ons that totaled $248,457.

“There are items I would have preferred to see fit within the $18 million [project budget]; there were items required that were not identified until the project got underway,” he said. “If we weren’t dealing with budget issues, we probably would have just left these items in and dealt with it.”

The transfers to cover those added expenses were identified by Town Finance Director Robert Tait, Mr Rosenthal said, and were cobbled together primarily from payroll budgets across numerous departments using funds remaining in those budget lines because of open or unfilled positions.

The project items include grease traps.

“The grease traps were originally part of the building and were in-line,” Mr Rosenthal said. But it was determined that the anticipated output from the community center’s commercial grade kitchen would be better handled with external grease traps, which would better protect the local sewer infrastructure.”

Those external traps will now serve both the community center’s commercial kitchen and the attached senior center’s warming kitchen, Mr Rosenthal said. That upgrade cost was $42,345.

A booster pump and water filter costing $53,418 were required to remove discoloration and boost water pressure to what it needs to be inside the building. An added strainer was also required to ensure the facility’s fire pump would be warranted by its manufacturer and was added to the project for $30,124.

The added cost to connect the facility to the water main to Simpson Street was $41,406, and a bill for bringing in temporary heaters due to schedule delays amounted to $81,164.

Mr Rosenthal told his fellow selectmen he felt the last expense “was not of the town’s making.” As a result, this expense might become part of the ongoing dispute resolution process.

“We had to run heat longer than we had to because the building wasn’t able to be closed in because of missing steel and other issues,” he said.

The largest chunk of the transfer is coming from the Department of Public Works budget winter salt line, as the department is still well-stocked, with no anticipated future storms this season. Added amounts between $20,000 and $35,000 are coming from salaries and wages budgets in the Tax Collector’s Office, Police Department, Land Use Office, Highway Department, and Parks & Recreation.

Smaller transfers of between $3,000 and $10,000 will be drawn from Purchasing, the Tax Assessor, the Transfer Station, Economic Development, and from debt service principal.

In related news, the selectmen also unanimously accepted an $11,000 grant from the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation to underwrite a one-year staffer trained through the Life Is Good Playmaker initiative.

Through the organization’s signature Playmaker Program, the Life is Good Kids Foundation supports training men and women who dedicate their careers to helping children heal from the devastating impact of early childhood trauma.