GRANBY — Residents will decide whether to spend an additional $1.1 million on the West Street building project at a special Town Meeting on Friday, Nov. 13.
The additional money would be used to complete a full abatement of the lower level of the old West Street Elementary School, replace all exterior windows, update the gymnasium and create a shell space for the future Council on Aging.
During the 2025 annual Town Meeting, voters approved $5.6 million to repurpose the building into town offices. Between town offices split across three locations and the lease on the Annex expiring, Granby’s administration team needed a single space for all municipal business. That project is expected to be completed in December.
Because renovations have remained on budget, the West Street Building Committee recommended a continuation of the project to the Select Board and Finance Committee at an Oct. 26 joint meeting. The extension will save both time and money by bypassing the initial searches for an architect, general contractor and owner’s project manager for future renovations, officials said.
“So we have two advantages. One is that we have a team in place that knows what they’re doing,” Select Board member Mark Bail said. “The other is that by the time we went out to bid to rehire all these people, we’re talking maybe six months of increasing prices.”
Both the Select Board and the Finance Committee unanimously supported extending the project.
“We’re not asking for this money because of something we did wrong with the initial [money],” Select Board member Jeffrey Lawson said. “The project is actually going so well that we want to continue … We need to take advantage of this right now. It’s not because we need more money to finish the project.”
Some Finance Committee members noted that residents will likely question the finances of the proposal. The additional renovations would not require a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion vote. Instead, the project would be financed through a combination of borrowing, free cash and donations.
Finance Committee Chair John Libera Jr. said that, given those other potential funding sources, the town’s actual cost will likely come in below the full amount.
At the Oct. 26 joint meeting, West Street Building Committee Chair Lynn Mercier presented three options for extended renovations.
One involves the full abatement and replacement of exterior windows and doors at an estimated $680,000.
Another project involves updating the windows, as well as the gymnasium for community use and elections at an estimated $815,000.
The third option, which the Select Board and Finance Committee endorsed, includes abatement of the 22,000-square-foot lower level, window replacement, gym upgrades and sprinkler installation, at an estimated $1.1 million. The work would add about four months to the project and prepare the space for a new Council on Aging.
Select Board Chair David Labonte said Police Chief Kevin O’Grady prefers an option that moves voting to the West Street building from the junior-senior high school for safety reasons. “This will give us an option for a door in and a door out with no schools involved,” Labonte said.
Any further renovations would be completed in the future, based on the recommendations of Director of the Council on Aging Lauren Hannigan and Council on Aging Advisory Board Chair Barbara Hauschild.
“Their eyes lit up when we showed them the shell space,” Town Administrator Ron Aponte said. “Their input would be strongly considered in how that gets configured.”
Construction costs rise an estimated 4% to 8% a year depending on the market, and procurement and bidding take an estimated five to six months before a project can begin, Mercier said.
Granby Treasurer Steven Nally said town would use a combination of free cash and borrowing to pay for the additional work. Nally said a five-year loan at a 4.25% interest rate would add around $222,000 to the debt service. A 10-year loan at a 4.75% interest rate equates to an annual payment of $126,000. These estimates are before any free cash allocations or benefactor contributions.
“It’s a significant impact on the budget for debt service. Nothing we cannot handle,” Nally said. “We have a couple of serial notes that are maturing soon so we will have additional funding available for additional debt service.”
Funds to turn the shell space into a functional senior center would come from the sale of the 10 West State St. The building could sell for upward of $800,000, according to rough estimates Aponte received. It could also become a commercial building to drive economic development.
“It’s a multifaceted benefit,” Aponte said.
The special Town Meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at East Meadow School.
