Public invited to municipal complex proposal meeting

$18.98M cost worries some council members

EAST HAMPTON » Town officials will hold an information meeting Tuesday on the proposed town hall/police department municipal complex.

The meeting is scheduled to be held in the T-Bell Room at the high school beginning at 6:30 p.m.

In announcing the meeting, Town Council Chairwoman Patience R. Anderson said, “I’m really hoping [this] forum will be well-attended.”

A nine-member Town Facilities Building Committee has been working to develop a suitable proposal to combine the town and Board of Education offices in a building that

also would house a new 10,000-square-foot police department. If approved by residents in an expected November vote, the building would be built on a 5.4acre parcel in the Edgewater Hills mixed-use development.

The land is being donated to the town by Stephen and Lisa Motto, the developers of the Edgewater Hills project. The Mottos are acting as the owner’s project manager for construction of the complex.

“The committee has been working tirelessly to move this proposal forward and there will be a great deal of information available to our residents to avail themselves of,” Anderson said. Anderson said she has asked the town to create a video of the presentation which can be viewed by residents who cannot attend the session.

Working since March, the committee has developed a plan for a 33,400-square foot, twostory building designed by the Hartford architectural firm Amenta Emma. The fact the committee has created a design for the new facility — and in such a short time frame — represents the most significant effort in over three decades to find a replacement for town hall.

Town — and police officials in particular — say the building, which dates from 1946, is woefully undersized and inadequate for use in the 21st century. Police are confined to a cramped 2,400-squarefoot space in the basement of the town hall. It does not includes such basic amenities as a restroom for female employees, inhibiting the department’s efforts to diversify its force.

Last year, the department was flooded when a drain pipe backed up, spewing contaminated water throughout the interior of police station. Officers had to move into a mobile command vehicle (an oversized recreation-type vehicle) while the station was dried out and a new floor installed.

Police Chief Sean D. Cox is scheduled to be one of the speakers during Tuesday night’s information session. Expected to join Cox are Town Manager Michael Maniscalco, Superintendent of Schools Paul K. Smith, Director of Finance Jeffrey M. Jylkka, Glenn Gollenberg, chairman of the building committee, and Tony Amenta, the architect who designed the building.

In an appearance before the Board of Finance earlier this month, Amenta put the anticipated cost of the building at $18.98 million. The estimated cost provoked concern from two finance board members, who said they would wait until the town develops a comprehensive list of its anticipated future needs.

Supporters of the proposal countered there is an undeniable need for new town complex and that delaying action will increase the cost.

Finance board member Dean Markham noted that a year ago the town was exploring converting the Center School into the municipal complex. However, that idea was abandoned when the estimated cost of the conversion project topped $44 million.

This new proposal is less than half that estimated cost, Markham said. However, the issue of cost has gotten renewed attention after Gov. Dannel P. Malloy outlined a proposal last week to reduce Education Cost Sharing funds for the town by some $5.6 million.

Two residents raised the issue of ECS funding during the school board meeting Monday. The women expressed concern about the impact a loss of that magnitude would have on the children — and the taxpayers of East Hampton.

Board Chairman Christopher Goff said he understood their concern. However, Goff suggested Malloy’s proposal, which would affect 85 cities and towns in the state, was “a threat, a kind of a push” for legislators to act on the stalled budget impasse.

Jylkka told the finance board he does not expect the cost of the municipal complex to begin showing up in residents’ tax bills until 2022.