Like a horse on a carousel, the cost to taxpayers for the proposed Hildreth House renovations went up, then back down, at the March 24 Board of Selectmen meeting. Earlier in the week, the project manager, Steve Kirby of Vertex, had looked at the existing cost estimates for the project, thought they were not conservative enough, and raised them by almost $100,000. After a brief discussion Tuesday night, the board voted 3–1 to offset that increase by applying $119,000 in grant money to the amount the town would need to borrow. Selectwoman Lucy Wallace opposed the motion; Selectman Leo Blair was absent.
The result is that while Article 22 of the town warrant will ask voters to authorize spending of up to $1.36 million for the project, only $1.241 million of that would need to be borrowed.
The article printed in the Town Meeting warrant asks for $1.26 million for the project, so this change will be made when the article is presented.
Project manager bumps up cost estimate
This was the first time that Kirby had looked at the Hildreth House schematic designs and cost estimates. Kirby is also the project manager for the Town Hall renovations, and when he came on board last December, catching up on that project in time for bid documents to be prepared required all of his attention. Earlier this month, with Town Meeting fast approaching, Selectman Ken Swanton asked Kirby to review the Hildreth House project budget. When he did, he decided that some of the contingencies were too low, given the project’s scope. He also thought the estimates for some construction line items, such as painting and site grading, were too low. In addition, he added almost $10,000 for HAZMAT (hazardous materials) to the estimate, an item that wasn’t included in the old estimate. A HAZMAT survey will be conducted before renovations begin. “If we do the survey and there’s nothing there, that money won’t be used,” said Kirby. His additions to the estimate came to approximately $99,000, bringing the total to $1.36 million.
When the selectmen debated whether to ask the town to borrow the full $1.36 million or to apply the block grant money immediately and cut the borrowing to $1.241 million, Selectwoman Lucy Wallace asked LLB architect Drayton Fair for his opinion. Fair said he recommended being as prudent as possible. “We’re in a very early phase of the project, and we’re coming out of a recession,” said Fair. “Prices are going up.”
Wallace said that she was nervous about the grant being available when the time came to use it, although Swanton assured her that the state had given the board permission to use the returned community development block grant funds for the design phase of the Hildreth House project. Wallace also worried about the cost of the project growing in the coming months and said that the grant funds should be set aside as a cushion until detailed design is underway. “We don’t have to borrow all of the money we get permission to borrow,” she said.
Swanton and Selectman Ron Ricci countered that contingencies in the estimate had already been increased a good deal. In fact, contingencies and escalation now account for more than 20 percent of the total project estimate. The board voted 3–1 (Wallace voted nay) to apply the grant funds to the project cost immediately, bringing down the amount taxpayers will be asked to borrow at Saturday’s Town Meeting to $1.241 million. The vote must pass by a two-thirds majority at Town Meeting and by a simple majority at the ballot box on April 7.
