Arkwright seeks new building ‘game plan’
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ARKWRIGHT -- Plans for a new Town Hall and Highway Building have been met with many obstacles. Supervisor Brian McAvoy addressed the issues at a recent meeting of the Town Board, which led to a lengthy discussion on the matter.
Initially, the town hoped to build one new structure, with the Highway Department garage included with the plans for a new Town Hall. Once initial bids for that structure came in more than $1 million over what the town expected, the town pivoted to instead build an addition to the current Highway building, then an addition to the current Town Hall. However, plans for the Highway building addition received no bids.
McAvoy then went to companies he expected interest from and asked why the recent plans did not receive any bids. McAvoy was told the reason was that the town wanted the building done within a year.
"We didn't get bids because our timeline was too tight," McAvoy said.
Arkwright Highway Superintendent Lisa Waldron then contacted Eastern States Metal Roofing for an estimate on the cost of a pole barn extension for the building, rather than a concrete structure. McAvoy said the response was that the shell of the original building plans would cost less than $100,000. All of the work done already to plan the project would still apply.
"One option is to say, 'No, we want to stick with our original plan.' ... We were told it would be, give or take, $800,000 all in, and at best, we'd get it done next year. We could do that. That's not off the table," McAvoy said. "Or the other choice is ... we do a pole barn at a fraction of the cost ... and we can get something done. Then we can turn our attention to (the Town Hall) building."
Members of the Town Board agreed to look further into moving forward with a pole barn structure.
"We've got to get this damn thing done," Town Board member Chris Jackson said. "It has to get done."
Town Board member Lynn Bedford later added, "I think we should move forward with this building. It needs to get done."
Another part of the discussion was whether the town needed to hire an architect for the Highway building project, or if they could complete the project without one. After acknowledging frustrations with CPL and the process so far, with further discussion including various reasons to have an architect which included liability and the use of public funds, McAvoy stressed the importance of following through with an architect for the project.
"I'm super frustrated, but you don't row your boat three quarters of the way across the lake and then turn around when you're tired of rowing. You've got to finish it," said McAvoy. "... We didn't commit to anything dumb."
McAvoy stated that with the additions to the Town Hall, CPL will be asked for a plan to implement improvements in steps, rather than all at once. The site of the Town Hall will remain the same, with an addition build upon the back of the current building, in multiple steps. Once finished, the entire building in its current state will be the main portion of the new Town Hall, with additional space for offices, bathrooms, storage and other amenities added to the back of the building.
The Town Board took no official action on either building, as members will continue to evaluate the process moving forward in the coming days. McAvoy stated a special meeting could be called to approve plans as soon as a decision can be made, rather than waiting until the next scheduled meeting in mid-August.
"We'll talk, we'll come up with a strategy -- a game plan -- and I might be reaching out to you to have a quick meeting if we have to vote on anything," McAvoy said.