Town, village look to share Village Hall
The town and village now favor renovating the Village Hall on Plattekill Avenue for use as a shared municipal office building, but they’ve yet to hear about funding for the project.
Village Mayor Tim Rogers said officials are waiting to find out whether Ulster County is awarded a state Municipal Consolidation and Efficiency Competition, or MCEC, grant to help pay for the work.
“We’re waiting ... for the MCEC award to be announced,” he said. “There were six entities ... all waiting for that $20 million award. New Paltz was the largest project in Ulster County’s MCEC application.”
Town Supervisor Neil Bettez said the option of using Village Hall became more attractive when a plan for the town and village to buy the former Gateway Community Industries building on state Route 32 and share space there fell through.
“We’re back to what was originally our Plan A, which is to move in and share the Village Hall,” he said.
The town has been operating out of modular units on Clearwater Road, next to the town highway garage, since mold forced the closure of the Town Hall on Route 32 in late 2014.
The plan for shared use of the Village Hall includes renovating the part of the building currently occupied by the village fire department, which would relocate to the site of the department substation at Henry W. DuBois and South Putt Corners Roads, Rogers said.
“We are currently ... working with the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery to relocate our primary fire department,” the mayor said.
Bettez said renovating the Village Hall could help save more than $1 million in construction costs.
“If we were looking at ... a new building, it would cost $400 a square foot versus [renovating] a building at maybe $100 a square foot,” he said.
“We sat down and identified a few hundred thousand dollars in savings just by sharing a building,” Bettez said. “We could share a photocopier instead of each leasing it at $5,000 a year; we could share the same internet connection, share the same IT consultant, or even have a single [computer] server.”