GRANBY — Residents at a special Town Meeting on Monday or Tuesday, depending on weather, will decide whether to transfer about $1 million from a reserve fund to cover the cost of renovating the West Street Building into a home for town offices.
The West Street Building Committee told the Select Board and the Finance Committee earlier this month that the total project cost is $6.7 million, based on bids that came in over the initial estimates of $5.6 million. That’s higher than the amount of money allocated at annual Town Meeting last June.
The West Street Building Project calls for the abatement and renovation of 12,900 square feet of the first floor into offices for the town clerk, town administrator and the assessor’s, building and collection departments. There will also be municipal committee meeting rooms and shared space for the Board of Health, Planning Board and Conservation Commission.
To see the project through, the town could either allocate an additional $1 million to cover the Town Administration offices, contingency fund and supplemental budget, or $788,000 for the contingency alone.
“The contingency is there just in case, not a guarantee we will use it all,” West Street Building Committee Chair Lynn Mercer said. “It will go back to the town.”
At the special Town Meeting, residents will decide whether to move money from the Municipal Building Stabilization Fund to the project’s budget.
During December, the project reached an impasse when one of the project bidders protested the bid amounts offered by two other applicants. The Attorney General’s Office denied the bid protest, but the lowest bid of $4.7 million pushed the renovation project over its estimated budget.
Finance Committee member Robert Glesmann III said the committee promised to find a solution within the $5.6 million budget previously approved at Town Meeting. He said residents would require an explanation about the new expenses.
“These numbers seem like they are all responsible, and they probably are,” Finance Committee Chair John Libera Jr. said. “But I don’t think somebody in the audience is going to think it’s reasonable just because you say its reasonable.”
According to Mercier, the West Street Building Committee already put the project through value engineering, or a methodology that looks at lowest cost options for materials and systems. Owner-Project Manager Dale Joyce explained that the increased costs come from the rising expenses of construction materials.
“When the bids came back, they came back higher than we expected, which I don’t think is unreasonable considering were dealing with a budget that was three years old, plus we’re asking the contractor to take a risk on the future pricing,” Joyce said.
Supplemental grants or state funding may come in to offset the contingency budget, Mercier said, but the project is ineligible for these grants until construction begins.
If both motions at Town Meeting fail, the Select Board will decide an alternative for the Town Administration offices.
Special Town Meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the East Meadow School gym, 393 East State St. Should an expected winter storm postpone the meeting, it will take place Tuesday evening.