GRANBY — Municipal and state leaders raised their shovels to the West Street Building Project on Tuesday morning to commemorate the construction of Granby’s new town office building.
The old elementary school at 14 West St. will house all municipal offices under one roof for the first time since 2010 once the project is completed. Currently, town departments are split between the Senior Center, Carnegie Library and Town Hall Annex.
“These walls that once supported learning will now support the work of serving every resident who walks through the doors,” West Street Building Committee Chair Lynn Mercier said. “This building will remain a center of service, of connection and of community life.”
It was an bittersweet day for some residents who had wandered West Street Elementary School’s halls as students before the building closed in 2018. Three generations of Select Board Chair Mark Bail’s family attended the elementary school, and his mother and sister also taught young students in the classrooms. Library Director Jennifer Crosby also roamed the halls as a student, but she is grateful the building will have a new purpose.
“I’m grateful that something is happening here because it [West Street] has been closed for so long and they were talking about leveling it,” Crosby said.
Seeing potential in the structure, the West Street Building Project Committee proposed the project in August 2023, and it has been an uphill battle convincing Town Meeting to approve the funding. Initially, residents approved $5.6 million for both a town hall and senior center. However, further inspection found that bringing the building up to code would cost over $14 million, which voters did not approve.
The committee decided to move ahead with the $5.6 million budget, determined to create a central location for town offices. Town Meeting approved an additional $1 million to match the lowest bid by Marios Construction, which began renovating the building earlier this winter.
“Today really is a down payment on the future,” Bail said.
The project was designed by edmSTUDIO Architecture of Farmington, Connecticut and managed by Construction Material Services Inc. of Marlborough. The building is expected to open later this year.
