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Shaftsbury Select Board Discusses Buildings, New, Old and Temporary

Posted: October 8, 2024

SHAFTSBURY - Select Board members at their meeting on Monday discussed a future community center, remediation of the water problem on the ground floor of Cole Hall, and a trailer for some town staff to work in, at least until the water problem is solved or a community center is built.

Board Chair Naomi Miller gave an update on the work of the Community Center Development Committee (CCDC) which, for seven weeks, has been about the scope of the community center project. She is a non-voting member of the committee.

"We've been brainstorming about the potential need to add some offices to that (community center) building, because of the difficulties emerging with the offices in the basement of Cole Hall," she said. "And that is a little bit of a moving target, but we are moving forward, I think its fair to say, as if we're going to have to move some offices, but not all."

"It seems unlikely from the various experts we've talked to that we're going to be able to move people on a regular, daily working basis back into the basement," she said. "But I think that's going to be something that we're going to talk about here too."

The committee has been looking at various types of buildings, and interviewing people from various firms in the area that provide them.

"We are hoping to design a building that's energy efficient, that has very flexible usage potential, that has visual coherence with the surrounding area, and possibly that has a walkway connection to Cole Hall, so that we can have a flexible movement of offices and space usage," she said.

One big question is what will happen with the community septic project planned for the same general area behind and to the northeast of Cole Hall. The town's Sewer Feasibility Committee is looking at this.

"The first thing that we really need to know that we don't yet know anything about is the community septic issue, where it would be going, what that committee is going to be recommending that we engage in and get grants for and etc.," Miller said. "That's a big open question."

"Until we have the answer to that, we can't come up with a site, a siting proposal, but we hope we're going to get that answer really soon," she added.

The CCDC will be meeting this week with the chair of the Economic Development Committee, "and we're going to be talking about grant writing and fundraising from that from their end, and what they think they can commit to," Miller said.

"And we expect to have provisional drawings and a proposed budget by the end of the year, and that's about where we are. We're hoping to be able to provide those things in time for the public to really think about the project that we are then asking people to vote for reserve funds to construct."

The CCDC is looking at development of a town green and community center on adjacent land the town has acquired. Affordable housing may also be part of the project. The committee has been directed to have concrete recommendations for the Select Board by January.

About $558,000 of local funding for these projects depends on a resident vote at Town Meeting in March 2025. The Select Board will ask-voters to approve use of this fund balance to create a new reserve fund for the community projects. If the vote is positive, the funds will then be included in the fiscal 2026 spending plan.

These funds originated from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Because of a change in federal rules, the town faced a deadline to spend these funds on shovel-ready projects by the end of this year. However, to get around this, and have more time to plan and apply for matching grants, the Select Board instead applied $558,149 retroactively to payroll, creating a fund balance of that amount in the general fund.

Improvement to historic Cole Hall, site of the town offices, have been part of the focus of the CCDC, but in recent months a problem with water inundating the ground floor, some employees have been moved to the second floor, and a temporary trailer will be placed outside for two of them. These are likely the treasurer and the zoning administrator, Town Manager Paula Iken said at Monday's meeting. The board voted 5-0 to authorize rental of a 10-by-40-foot trailer at $590 per month in which the employees can work.

Regarding the water problem, a hydrologist was set to visit onsite on Wednesday to evaluate the water problem. Board members wanted to hear from him before voting to approve a $13,804 bid by Adirondack Basement Systems to do work including vinyl sheeting of the walls and an interior trench along the inside of the walls to collect water entering the basement, accompanied by a sump pump that would discharge the moisture to a site outside. A consulting engineer indicated that such an action might be an appropriate first step.

"Whatever they do inside and you know, the processes that they do, it's in the it's in the service of preserving the building, like it'll make it less vulnerable to crumbling. It'll be less vulnerable if we have a flood," Iken said. "It's preserving the foundation of Cole Hall, even if we can't have offices down there, which remains to be seen."

Compliments of: The Bennington Banner
Posted/Author: Mark Rondeau

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