Town Hall Options Narrowed to Two

by Amy Kolb Noyes

MORRISTOWN - A committee charged with bringing forth options for a new
municipal office building in Morristown has narrowed the choices to two.
The Town Hall Building Committee met with the selectboard and consultant
John Hemmelgarn, of Black River Design. Monday evening, November 29. The
group focused on a scaled-down version of the town office project
previously brought to a vote in conjunction with the library expansion
project and using the front office portion of the Vermont Records
Storage building, previously owned by Union Carbide.
Hemmelgarn, an architect, was hired to look at the existing town
hall/library plan and identify areas that might be scaled back or
removed from the joint building project. Hemmelgarn reported the
existing town hall/library plan appeared to be a "best case scenario"
with large offices and some duplicate spaces. However, Hemmelgarn warned
he was not privy to any of the discussions that lead to the plan. He
stated simply the most effective way to reduce costs is typically to
reduce square footage.
To reduce overall square footage, Hemmelgarn suggested three strategies
might be implemented: eliminating some spaces altogether, combining or
sharing multiple functions in a single (possibly enlarged) space, and
reducing the size of essential spaces that cannot be eliminated or
combined with others.
Hemmelgarn went on to suggest some specific areas in the town
hall/library project that might be reduced, combined or eliminated.
Among his preliminary suggestions were reducing the size of most office
and storage areas by 20% - 30%, combining some planned staff and
conference facilities and eliminating some of the town offices planned
for future uses. Hemmelgarn also suggested eliminating some spaces
duplicated in the library and town hall, such as toilet facilities and
large meeting rooms.
In total, Hemmelgarn suggested the combined project could be trimmed by
roughly 4,000 square feet to provide the town area 6,800 square feet
[from about 10,500] in an "absolutely worst case scenario." While the
selectboard was supportive of implementing some or all of Hemmelgarn's
recommendations and pursuing a scaled back version of the library/town
hall project previously brought before the voters, some members of the
building committee favored pursuing a different option.
Committee members Richard "Buckwheat" Lowe, Tina Tomlinson, Sonny
Sanborn and others vocally supported the town purchasing the old Union
Carbide property. They said the front office portion of that building
could be renovated into town office space and the facility would provide
plenty of vault and storage space for the town. Tomlinson said the back
portion of the 25,000 square foot building might be utilized in the
future to house the town's fire and rescue departments, and space could
be leased to the Vermont State Police to allow the Morristown Police
Department to expand into the space now used by VSP at Morristown's
Public Safety Building.
Ed Debor, who owns the former Union Carbide building, seemed to be
skeptical that his building could best meet the town's needs. As a
records storage facility, Debor said the building was designed for
"extremely limited public use." A town hall, he noted, would be "wide
open public use."
In response to the idea of filling the 25,000 square feet with municipal
uses Debor commented, "I mean, do you want to fill it with bureaucrats?
We could take on Montpelier then."
Selectboard member Cathy Voyer expressed concern over taking such a
large facility off the tax rolls, should it be bought by the town. She
also questioned the expense of extending the village sidewalk out to
that building.
Selectboard Chair Brian Greenia commented, "It seems like buying a
project that's three times as large as you really need just doesn't make
sense." In reference to bringing emergency services together in the town
office building he added, "Unless you have a master plan to merge all
these services, it's probably an overbuy."
Tomlinson accused the selectboard of being shortsighted, and added the
land behind the Union Carbide building could also be used by the town
for events such as flea markets. Sanborn suggested the land could be
used for ball fields saying, "There's four-and-a-half acres over there.
To me that's a plus."
Realtor Stephen Bousquet, who formerly worked as a space planner,
emphasized there is a cost savings in combining the library and town
hall facilities. He added, "As a taxpayer I wouldn't like to see a major
parcel like Union Carbide coming off the tax rolls. As a professional, I
think some serious time should be taken to look at the original project."
Greenia interjected the town needs to move forward and he's in favor of
pursuing the library/town hall combined project. "Now we have new
information. The [planned] building is overbuilt, now let's spec it
out," he said.
When committee members insisted the Union Carbide option should also be
"spec'd out" Greenia commented it is the selectboard members who were
elected to make decisions for the town.
"I don't think the Indians need to run the reservation," Greenia concluded.