North Smithfield gets new proposal for improving its municipal offices
NORTH SMITHFIELD – The Town Council received a new proposal for improving municipal offices Monday night but that doesn’t mean controversy over the town bond-funded plan has abated.
Mark Saccoccio, of Saccoccio & Associates Architects of Cranston, presented the council with plans for completing approximately $1 million in improvements to the former Bushee School now housing the municipal annex offices and the police department, and $3.5 million for a major overhaul of the town’s former Kendall-Dean School building on School Street.
The Kendall-Dean portion of the project would convert the former school into a modern town office complex, with space also set aside for the school department’s administrative offices, as was initially proposed under the 2014 municipal improvement bond approved by voters.
That funding award authorized $5.2 million in bonding for the municipal building projects, $2.5 million for road
The work at the Kendall-Dean School – a large brick building with three- and- a- half levels between its two upper classroom flOORS, THE CAFETERIA- AUditorium formerly used by the Town Council and a basement area – would be a complete reconstruction of the interior of the building.
improvements, and another $4.3 million for improvements to schools. The road projects have been completed and the bonding for the municipal building projects issued with a portion already being spent on planning and design. Issuance of the school bonds was delay while work continues on obtaining state Department of Education approval for a build out proposal.
Saccoccio said Monday night the municipal buildings project laid out by his company could be completed under a design-build construction award that would see the improvements completed within approximately 18 months.
The proposal is the third obtained by the town while the project has been under consideration by the first the Public Building Improvement Commission (PBIC) and more recently by the Municipal Building Review Task Force appointed by the current town council.
The PBIC had received an initial plan for the spending of $5.2 million for improvements at the two town properties and then a revised plan for a $4.2 million project that was never considered by the council before the new task force was put into place, according to PBIC members.
On Monday, supporters of the past proposal, including members of the past building committee, argued for the council to hold a public hearing on the updated plan so all the variables between each could be weighed.
Former Town Councilman John Flaherty, a member of the PBIC, noted a number of people worked on the past proposal over a period of years and suggested that local residents should have an opportunity to air both proposals during a public hearing. Members of the task force, in turn, argued against that option, suggesting it was time to move on with out any further debate of the plan.
Town Council President John Beauregard noted that the council had appointed people well qualified to review building issues to the task force and as a result could rely on their recommendations.
“That’s why we have a committee that we put people on, to do things we can’t do,” he said.
The new plan puts only enough work into the Bushee School, hazardous ma- terials remediation and updates such as new windows, to allow its continued used by the police department, according to Saccoccio. The plan for Bushee also calls for cell block updates and the creation of a security fenced, prisoner transfer for area for police vehicles. The town would still need to pursue construction of a new police station some day at a cost of between $6 million to $7 million, according to Saccoccio.
The work at the Kendall-Dean School – a large brick building with three-and-ahalf levels between its two upper classroom floors, the cafeteria-auditorium formerly used by the town council and a basement area – would be a complete reconstruction of the interior of the building.
“So it is effectively constructing a new town hall within the confines of the Kendall-Dean building,” Saccoccio said.
After hearing Paul Vadenais, the task force chair recommend that the town council approve the Saccoccio plan as the next step in moving the project forward, the council appeared ready to approve that move.
Councilman Paul Zwolenski noted, however, that the proposal would not be posted on the town website until today and suggested the panel take some time to review it before acting.
Beauregard agreed with that view and called for the proposal to be considered at a Feb. 5 session of the council.
Michael Clifford, a local resident and former Budget Committee member who has closely watched the progress of the municipal building update, on Monday also supported a new public hearing on the plans.
Clifford pointed to what he suggested are inconsistencies between initial drafts of the new proposals in the allotment of space for municipal and school offices in Kendall-Dean. The municipal side of the plan has gone up from 6,000 square-feet to 11,700 square feet, he said.
On the school side, Clifford said the approximate 4,300 square feet of space for school administrative offices has been reduced to 2,200 square feet and the budgets for $178,000 in furnishings and technology at Kendall-Dean and $151,000 at Bushee listed by the PBIC reduced to just $50,000 each for the proposed renovated buildings.