Article 38 in the Town Meeting warrant asks voters to extend the funding authorization for the Hildreth House window replacement project to June 30, 2017. Although the window project is well underway, it will not be entirely finished before June 30 when the original funding article expires.
Voters approved the original article in 2014, authorizing $66,600 of Community Preservation Committee (CPC) funds to replace all the windows at Hildreth House. But the project hit a wall that year when no contractor bid on the job (see related story), so the project is now a volunteer effort led by Wade Holtzman of Bolton Road, which has been further hindered by state procurement laws.
Almost all of the replacement windows have been delivered and presumably will be installed by the end of June. But the CPC funding also includes several new windows that will be part of a small Hildreth House addition, construction of which is not expected to start until this June.
The cost of the 45 new replacement windows is roughly $36,000 so far, and there have been no labor costs. Aside from Holtzman and his right-hand man, Tom Garfield, eight other volunteers have participated, most of them on a regular basis. Due to their efforts, the Hildreth House Improvement Committee expects to return a substantial amount to the Community Preservation Fund at the end of the project.
