HATFIELD — A portion of planned renovations to Memorial Town Hall will not move forward immediately after residents rejected one of the two Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion votes this week.
While voters agreed to spend $390,000 to fund the second phase of a code-compliance project that began several years ago by a 131-72 tally, they turned down adding $253,000 to pay for other improvements to the building, with 109 against and 94 in favor.
Residents who cast ballots represented a turnout of 7.9 percent of Hatfield’s 2,593 voters.
Town Administrator Marlene Michonski said the Select Board will have a discussion on how to proceed with the work at its meeting next week.
The affirmative vote, Michonski said, means that the town can install an exterior ramp, an elevator and a fire suppression system at the Town Hall. Those are components of a project estimated to cost around $2.24 million, based on median bids for the work obtained by Architecture EL of East Longmeadow. The town already has $1.66 million available.
Hatfield is required to get the work done to meet a Sept. 1, 2020, deadline set by the state’s Architectural Access Board.
The money turned down would have paid for additional components not mandated, but which would improve the building, especially the basement space used by the Council on Aging. These included a second exterior ramp to the basement, expanding the kitchen used to heat and serve meals to senior citizens and relocating the building inspector’s office.
But at the special Town Meeting in January that preceded Tuesday’s ballot votes, some residents expressed concern that the town was asking for money that was not needed and that there was unspent money available from previous appropriations.
Michonski said even though the Council on Aging’s kitchen is being reduced in size due to the elevator installation, that project is not expected to impact how meals are provided.
The senior center has operated from the basement for close to 40 years. In 2015, an effort to move the Council on Aging to the former Holy Trinity Catholic Church on Main Street failed at annual Town Meeting. That former church will soon be converted into offices for Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, a project recently approved by the Planning Board.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
