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Shaftsbury Seeks Proposals to Remodel Former Medical Building Into Municipal Offices

Posted: April 2, 2025

SHAFTSBURY - The Select Board on Monday voted unanimously to publish a request for proposals (RFP) for work on its new municipal offices.

According to the RFP, published on the town website and elsewhere, the town is seeking to hire a construction manager or general contractor to remodel the former Shaftsbury Medical Associates building, off Route 7A, into municipal offices. The work includes the framing setup for the installation of a large fireproof vault to house public records. The actual vault will be installed by a vault company. A mandatory informational walk-through for contractors will be held at the site, at 677 VT Rte 7A, on Thursday, April 17, at 7:30 a.m. and bids are due Thursday May 1. The Select Board will open the bids at its Monday, May 5, meeting.

"And I think we want to say, for the benefit of the public who would potentially be watching this, that this is primarily a demolition task," said Board Chair Naomi Miller at Monday's special meeting. "It will involve taking down some walls, moving some electric, moving a wall, reinstalling a couple of walls, and creating space for and a frame for a vault, closing off some windows, (and) replacing some windows."

The project will also involve putting down flooring and carpets and doing some painting. The painting may in fact be done by volunteers, she said.

Miller noted that it is a 4,400-square foot-space. "So it's really not an enormous job, and it's a one story with fairly simple architecture," she said. "And we are definitely looking for people to bid on this ASAP."

The purchase and placement of a new fireproof vault for the town clerk's records has been a major issue. It was the main topic of discussion at last Thursday's meeting of the Community Center Development Committee on the municipal offices project. Officials have sought to learn from the state what records have to be retained in physical form versus in a digital format.

"We have not yet purchased the vault, but we are in talks with the company, as we are in the process of formalizing plans. As such, we have no true cost yet, but it will all be decided within the next few weeks," Town Administrator wrote in an email to the Banner on Wednesday, in response to questions. "The town will commission a vault that will meet the current and anticipated future document storage needs of the town, according to the information the state provided us." By a solid voice vote, Shaftsbury voters approved purchasing a former medical building for a new town hall at a special town meeting in February.

The voters approved expending $375,000 on the purchase of the former Shaftsbury Medical and an additional $178,486.08 on the renovation and repair needed to make the building appropriate for Municipal Offices.

The purchase grew out of an effort in recent years to develop a town green and community center around the current town offices at Cole Hall. Two properties adjacent to it have been purchased as part of this effort. The prohibitive cost of building a new community center from scratch and ongoing and increasing issues with Cole Hall led to a focus on the former medical building.

Cole Hall, built as a Universalist Church in 1834, has a chronic issue with water damage, electrical problems, and persistent mold, which has led to first-floor employees being moved upstairs. The building also has accessibility issues. The new plan is to consider the future of the historic building after a successful move of town employees into the newly renovated space down the road in south Shaftsbury.

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

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